Day 6, March 20

Today was fantastic. This morning, I got up a bit earlier, and went for a nice run through city park with Jessie and Matt. Matt did like 8.5 miles, Jessie did like 7 and I did around 3.5. It was kind of intense. After that, we went to the French quarter, which was awesome. We first went through the French Market, which is basically a flea market. I got some Mardi Gras beads, and a Mardi Gras mask. After shopping, we went to grab some lunch at a little café. I had a Muffalatta, which was some different hams and cheeses. Everyone else ordered a combined appetizer of alligator. They were like chicken nuggets. They also tasted like chicken. After lunch, we went to Café du Monde, where we had beignets. Beignets are the most amazing thing on the planet. They are almost like donuts, but its like a little thing of fried dough, with a mound of powdered sugar on top of it. You take a bite, and it just melts in your mouth. Those of you who have been to New Orleans, you should know how amazing these are. Those of you who haven't been, I believe it is almost worth the trip just for a beignet. After the delicious beignets, we went back to the base for the afternoon community service. The group split up, and most people went to East Elementary school and did some digging through concrete so future groups can plant some flowers and make a garden to brighten up the school I stayed back at the base with 3 other people and we cleaned out one of the neighbor's basements, and did a lot of heavy lifting. We got ice cream from an ice cream truck, which was delicious. This evening, I did a meditation with these people through the Louisiana Himalaya Association. It was really cool. Very peaceful and calming. For dinner, we had baked potatoes filled with all sorts of stuff. It was my first ever baked potato, and I loved it. Well, my first one that I didn't hate. Then, to cap the night off, we went out to something called rock n bowl. It is a cajun dance party at a bowling alley. We did some real zydeco dancing, and it was a real party. We met some kids from outside DC who invited me to bowl with them. It was all girls and one guy. They were really cool. We bowled for a while, and then went back to dancing. I also got like ambushed by a really drunk lady. It was really funny. She was like 35 or 40 and all over me. That's all for tonight. See ya. Ben

P.S. I found out that you can not drink and drive here, just can walk around in the streets drunk, haha.