Mischief Night?

I was very surprised to learn today that Mischief Night is not a "thing" and even more surprised that no one was as surprised to learn this as me! Mischief Night is the night before Halloween where all the rebel teenagers go out late at night and teepee houses with massive amounts of toilet paper, throw eggs and smash pumpkins. When I jokingly asked my roommates if they wanted to participate in Mischief Night tonight they looked at me like I was dressed in a Halloween costume that had about one hundred heads.

"What are you talking about Alyssa?"

So of course my curious self resorted to the ever so knowledgable world of Facebook and I found this awesome map that not only explains but confirmed the notion that Mischief Night is apparently a New Jersey thing. Michigan apparently has an equivalent to Mischief Night but they call it Devil's Night. My mind is seriously blown and I hope that yours is too!

Lesson from the Journey: I am more of a Jersey girl than I ever thought.

Halloweenie

Happy Halloween everyone! It's funny because growing up I was always more of a Thanksgiving girl (still my favorite holiday!) I can't quite narrow in on exactly why I didn't like Halloween - I always went trick or treating, knew which houses were giving out the King Size candy and my parents supported me in whatever I wanted my costume to be that year. Maybe support me a little too much... I think I hands down decided on the weirdest costumes of all time.

I thought it would be an awesome idea to paint my entire face red for my devil costume...

Lady Liberty with her rubber torch...

But over the last few years I have come to really love Halloween and making my costume has become a fun project for me. Celebrating Halloween in New Orleans is especially exciting because people get into it! Since there is such a strong connection to voodoo in this city, Halloween is not your average holiday. New Orleans has the highest concentration of voodoo practitioners outside of Haiti. It has been estimated that 15 percent of the city's residents participate in voodoo in one form or another. Signs of voodoo include simple candles to full fledged altars and can be found in various places all over the city. Halloween night is one of the most important nights of the year for voodoo because it is a time to honor spirits and ancestors. Ghost sightings and haunting stories tell of some of the creepiest places in New Orleans. Even though Halloween can be a creepy and eerie holiday - some people take it a little lighter, like this house on St. Charles Ave!

This house on St. Charles covers their lawn each year in skeleton puns!

So this year I was debating on what I wanted to be for Halloween and perhaps it was driving past the beautifully decorated house on St. Charles that made me decide to be a skeleton! I spent two weeks carefully crafting my costume - creating and cutting out the stencils, sticking them to the clothes and then painting them to perfection. When all was said and done, I was left with this:

I was so happy with how it turned out! Also when it gets dark...I glow!

My best friends: the Queen of Hearts and Bob the Builder

One of the awesome floats at the Krewe of Boo parade in the French Quarter!

Needless to say, I had a great weekend! The life and energy in this city is contagious and I definitely got swept up in it this weekend for Halloween festivities. I plan on showcasing my skeleton costume again on Halloween day this Thursday, so watch out New Orleans!

Lesson from the Journey: Candy hurts when thrown at you from a float.

Food

WARNING: The following blog post will make you hungry. Other side effects include mouth watering, wishing food could be grabbed through a screen, and the desire to immediately book a plane ticket down to New Orleans. Continue at your own risk.

Anyone that knows me can tell you that I love trying new restaurants and new food. Living in New Orleans has been the perfect place to not only eat food that I've had before but also try new food that I wouldn't otherwise have had. I noticed going through my pictures on my phone today that I have documented most of the delicious cuisine that I have eaten here (probably so I refer back to it and enjoy the meal all over again). I am hoping you can tell from these pictures just how right they do food down here in the Big Easy.

Jambalaya is a classic Louisiana Creole dish that gave me my first true experience with andouille sausage - spicy, flavorful and absolutely delicious. I've had jambalaya a bunch more times since being here and it's honestly become one of my favorite dishes. To top it all off it's also extremely easy to make and filling in the most satisfying of ways. Pictured above is the jambalaya from River's Edge in the French Quarter from my first day in New Orleans.

This picture definitely gets a low rating for quality but the food pictured in it is delicious! It's a Pop Eye's three piece chicken meal with french fries and a biscuit. I don't know how they make the fried chicken down here so good but we are doing it wrong up in the northeast! The chicken is so moist inside with the skin crunchy and delicious on the outside. It's also mind blowing to believe that Pop Eye's isn't even the elite chicken in the city and I still have so much more delicious friend goodness to experience. 

A surf and turf shrimp and pulled pork Po-Boy from Parkway Bakery that I had during my first week in New Orleans. It was absolutely delicious, although I must admit that I haven't had another Po-Boy since I have been here. Apparently they are a little different wherever you go and a catfish Po-Boy is definitely on my list of foods to get soon. Po-Boy's are another classic New Orleans food item and although there are many theories as to how they got their name no one can argue their deliciousness.

I don't even know where to begin on how to describe the glorious combination of ingredients that make up this gourmet hot dog. Bacon, relish, onions, tomatoes and chili on a delicious bun. I don't think I said a single word until my food was completely gone. For the record, I have always been more of burger gal but this hot dog is an exception. Dat Dog, where this hot dog is from, also hosts trivia every week and we got 5th place when me and some of my housemates went - what, what! Just a fun place and great food - what could go wrong?

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you Disco Fries! French fries smothered in cheese and debris gravy (basically shredded beef in delicious gravy). They can be found at the Bayou Beer Garden in Mid-City where I've spent four hot afternoons cheering on the Saints. As you can see from the number of forks, these fries are awesome from sharing and go great with a cold beer. Needless to say, they are absolutely divine and I am glad I discovered them.  

I am a huge Thai food fan so I couldn't resist trying the Basil Leaf just a few blocks from where I live. This is the red curry Massaman dish and was very good. I've been spoiled with awesome Thai food back in New Jersey and this definitely competed. It's also a lot of food so I had leftovers which rocked. 

The infamous Cafe du Monde beignets. There isn't much else to say about them except that they are possibly one of the most satisfying and delicious things ever. The best way I hear them described are like a funnel cake - fried dough covered in powdered sugar. But you have to be careful because if beignets are the major leagues, funnel cakes haven't even made the team. They are just that good. 

I cheated with this picture and pulled it off the internet because I totally forgot to take a picture of it last night when I enjoyed it. It is a spinach salad from Lebanon's Cafe, a Mediterranean restaurant, located just a few blocks from my house. It's spinach, feta cheese, olives, raisins, tomatoes, cucumbers, walnuts and a balsamic dressing. It was light, fresh and mouth watering. I actually ate most of the salad by scooping it onto freshly baked pita bread and then folding the bread in half. Yum.

My most recent New Orleans cuisine experience. Eggs Benedict from Madeline's Cafe located on the corner of Carrollton and St. Charles. Hands down the best eggs Benedict I have ever had (and I have eaten LOTS of eggs Benedict). Instead of English muffins, both ham AND bacon are piled onto a fresh croissant and then topped with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce. I ate the entire thing no problem. Let's just say that will not be the last eggs Benedict I will have there. 

Don't let Anna Leigh's large mouth distract you from the delicious snoball she is eating. At the pumpkin patch this past weekend, I tried my first snoball - mango and passionfruit. I was a little skeptical if I was going to like a snoball but I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. Not too sweet, refreshing and the ice is really finely crushed so it's just delicious. 

Pictured above is the brisket platter from The Joint, a restaurant in the Bywater, and is the best food I have eaten here and possibly ever. I knew going into The Joint that I was going to be eating some delicious BBQ - it is consistently praised for being the best BBQ in New Orleans. But even going in with that mentality I was not prepared for how amazing the food was. The brisket was flavorful, smokey, tender and juicy, the mac and cheese was TO DIE FOR and I barely made it to the beans because I was so full. Absolutely divine!

Lesson from the Journey: Eating new foods truly connects you to a place in the most delicious and satisfying of ways.

Into the Garden

It's funny how time can play tricks on you. The days feel long and full but you when you look at the calendar and realize that over two months have already passed, you are left feeling confused. Where did the time go? I can safely say that these past two months have been filled with more self reflection, hard realizations, new obstacles and meaningful conversations that I have ever had - let alone in such a short period of time. Many of the assumptions I had about myself and where I want my life to go have been completely shattered. I feel as though I have shed who I thought I was to reveal who I truly am.

This morning I helped out my roommate Jess in the garden she has been working hard to get up and running while involving the surrounding community. It's a decent size garden, with 56 plots growing anything from cosmic purple carrots to watermelon to figs. I helped out by painting numbers on the cement blocks that surround the plots, so they are more easily identifiable. As I was painting, I hear Jess shout from across the garden "Mama!" An older black woman in a bright red sweater comes over and greets Jess enthusiastically. Jess gives her a quick tour of the garden and Mama is off to weeding one of the plots she plans to call her own. People in the neighborhood pass by and it seems that Mama knows every single one of them. Witnessing that sense of community is exactly what I think New Orleans is all about.

In addition to being contemplative in the garden this morning, I also felt a little artsy. I took some photos that show what the garden looks like and what I worked on. I also discovered possibly the coolest bug this morning known as the Assassin Bug. It's a beautiful red bug that is great for gardens because it eats other bugs and doesn't destroy the plants. Upon research, I learned that this awesome bug wears the bodies of it's victims "like armor" after it is done eating them. How terrifying! Overall, a great start to the day.

Artsy shot of a pretty flower

One of the numbers I painted on the garden beds

A view of the garden...Jess in the blue shirt and Mama in the red sweater

Assassin bugs! How cool do they look?

Nothing like fresh figs

Lesson from the Journey: Fig trees do not flower, the 'fruit' that we eat is actually the blossom that is pollinated by a special type of wasp. Thank you wasps for making figs so delicious.

Better Late than Never!

This past Thursday, Shell brought a team of workers to help out on Professor Longhair's house. For those of you who might not be familiar with Professor Longhair, he was a blues singer and pianist who was active in the 60's and 70's. He is very well known in the New Orleans area and most commonly called "Fess" as a nickname for Professor. If you want to read more about Professor Longhair, click here.

Professor Longhair singing and rocking out on the piano!

Professor Longhair's house has been the biggest project that Project Homecoming has taken on. It is a large house that needed to be completely stripped down and reframed while simultaneously preserving as much as possible since it is considered a historical site. When it is completed, Professor Longhair's daughter and her son will live in part of the house, rent out a room to tenants and run a museum in the front of the house that will be a tribute to Fess.

Anna Leigh, Valentina and I posing on the second floor of Professor Longhair's house!

It's a beautiful house and I cannot wait to see it when it's done. The Shell volunteers were so excited to be working on such a unique site and made such a difference in just one day! Having volunteers on site truly does bring an energy that is contagious and inspiring. They were doing everything from installing ceiling tiles, painting the outside of the house, working on the roof, and clearing the back fence area. The best part of the day though? I even got to contribute!

Valentina and I priming ceiling boards in style!

Being on site was a nice change from being at the Village. I had been to Professor Longhair's house at the beginning of September and to come back just a month later and see all the progress was amazing. I know that my job is important - recruiting volunteers and contributing to their experience to make them want to come back - but often times I don't see the tangible difference. Coming onto site truly makes me see the difference that I am to make in this city and that rocked.

The Shell group and the Project Homecoming team!

Professor Longhair's daughter sharing her story and thanking the volunteers

Lesson from the Journey:  Don't wear black pants to a work site if you're not prepared to get primer on them!

Grilled Pizza and Fruit Trees

Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative Saratoga Street Fruit Tree Orchard (say that 10 times fast!)

Yesterday afternoon, I drove to the Saratoga Street Fruit Tree Orchard to help out Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative as they opened the orchard for neighborhood kids to paint their own flower pots, decorate a banner and design their own grilled pizza creations. As you can see the orchard has a variety of trees that will eventually grow grapefruits, lemons, figs, kumquats and other fruits as a source of food while also establishing community in the neighborhood.

Alex helps the kids makes delicious grilled pizza...also notice the decorated flower pots that have seeds planted in them!

I really enjoyed helping make pizzas and hanging out in the garden. I truly love spending time with and getting to know the people of this great city. I was surprised to see how many kids put jalapenos on their pizza - I was not that adventurous at their age! We even got a few kids to try mushrooms (they were dubbed disgusting but at least they tried them!) We also had peppers, onions, garlic, basil, tomatoes and of course cheese! One of the girls, Lamyra, mentioned she had "never in her whole life made her own pizza", to be a part of that excitement was awesome.

The Saratoga Fruit Tree Orchard's new banner! 

How awesome does this banner look? The kids really worked hard and enjoyed painting trees, flowers, suns and of course their names. Jericho Road is going to hang up the banner on one of the walls to be enjoyed by the entire community. What a great day at the orchard.

I spend my days in the Project Homecoming Village, helping to recruit and coordinate volunteers to make a difference in a New Orleans neighborhood. Sometimes I feel disconnected from that work because I am behind the scenes. I don't have a hammer in my hand or paint in my hair. It was nice to switch things up and help a community appreciate their garden while playing with kids for a few hours - physically being there and seeing the joy on their faces at the flower pot they painted or the pizza they created. Although it was somewhat hectic keeping an eye on 35+ kids, it was a great day at the orchard and I can't wait to have another opportunity like this.

Lesson from the Journey: Grilled pizza. Enough said.

The Journey

At the Feliciana Retreat Center - all 8 of us together!

Sometimes it is so easy to get focused on destinations. The infamous "are we there yet?" question, a broken record in the back of our brains. We download new music, buy a new book or bring an extra comfy pillow along for the ride so we can make it there as comfortably as possible. We associate traveling with long days, tired eyes and a "just get there" mentality. It is easy to overlook the precious moments that happen in transit as we are squished into the back seat of a van, taking a wrong turn or two along the way.

This weekend I traveled to the Feliciana Retreat Center located about an hour north of Baton Rouge for the Presbytery of South Louisiana's meeting. The center is beautiful and tranquil - you don't get cell service so you are even more focused on the beautiful scenery all around you. It would be natural for me to describe what I did when I got there - I attended worship, ate meals, sat in on the Presbytery meeting, went canoeing, did archery and even climbed a rock wall. And even though all of that is so important, I want to focus on the part of this weekend that I often take for granted. The journey. The laughter, the jokes and the music that got us all there safe and sound. 

A few shots from the car ride...Anna Leigh looks great with a pillow on her head, doesn't she?

We all piled into the YAV van early Friday morning and hit the road. We listened to Jack Johnson and challenged Alex as she proclaimed that she knew every word. The conversation was sporadic and silly because all I can recall is laughing, a lot. As the car ride went on, Jess started to get signs of a migraine. She took medication but it didn't kick the symptoms and the rest of us YAVs tried our best to be accommodating to her needs. For me this was hard because I have never had a migraine before, so I felt helpless and tried best to gauge what Jess needed to be comfortable. We all had to bring our bedding to the retreat center, so we stacked pillows, comforters and anything else soft in between the middle row's two seats so Jess could lay down. She started crying out of thankfulness of the support she was receiving and it was truly a beautiful bonding moment. 

Once we arrived, we had a lovely night and day at the center, doing various activities and left Feliciana around 4:30. Graceland was the tune that we thought would carry us home until the van started beeping at us. Passenger door ajar. Rear door ajar. Trunk ajar. We must have open and closed the doors ten times - arguing over whose door was the culprit. Turns out we are just driving a moody van because all doors were securely closed. I almost died of laughter watching my housemates open and close the doors, pull over to check the trunk and then finally deciding that the van was lying. We snapped pictures of each other (well mostly I was the one snapping pictures...hehe) and laughed most of the way home. Everyone did their own thing - Alex and Sydney read their books, Anna Leigh and I took turns playing Candy Crush on my phone, Hannah sung along to the music, Kalyn navigated and Jess drove. We were doing our separate things but the sense of togetherness and community never left the van. I would argue that we grew closer together in that journey than we did in the time spent at the center. That is a powerful thing.

Me, Hannah and Jess....I'm pretty sure I captured their genuine smiles perfectly! 

I think it's hard sometimes to live in the now. There is this constant pressure around us to get where you're going, always looking forward, that we forget to fully appreciate the moment we are in. I learned that canoeing is relaxing, the Presbytery of South Louisiana is full of amazing people, that I am terrible at archery and that not having cell phone service for two days is actually very refreshing - but most importantly I learned that the most important moments don't happen when you think they do. They sometimes fall between the cracks and get blended in with the fun we have at our destination. We forget to take a second to be thankful for the unglorified moments spent in a van with your housemates. The journey is sometimes the most important part of your trip and I am beginning to realize that.

Lesson from the Journey: It's not only about where you're going, but how you got there.

The End of My Comfort Zone

Lately I have been feeling kind of homesick. I have never been this far away from home or felt so removed from the happenings of my family and friends. The bombardment of everything new has been exciting yet exhausting. It is the slow realization that if I'm feeling down or want to be around my family, I can't just jump in my car, pop in my favorite CD and drive back to my comfort zone. This is the first time I have been truly on my own, not only physically but emotionally as well. I am no longer a short car ride from the comforts of home cooked meals or the presence of people who really know who I am. I keep hearing that I should just give it time, let my new relationships progress and wait until I am settled in but sometimes I am too impatient for my own good. I want results now! Often times when I don't see the fruit of my efforts - my efforts to truly branch out and be on my own - it can be discouraging. When is the reason why I am here going to all make sense? When is that life altering moment going to happen? That's why I signed up for this crazy program right?

I feel like I am in the right place at the right time but am absolutely clueless to why I feel that way. Serving for a year in New Orleans feels so right to me, on several different levels. It's achieving many of the goals I have set for myself - getting out on my own, leaving the northeast, serving an area in need and reconnecting with my faith. However, the million dollar question still echoes - why do I feel like a chicken with its head cut off? Aimlessly wandering, trying to act like I know what I'm doing and why I'm here. The answer is not tangible, not something I could point my finger too but just a feeling I have that I am supposed to be doing this. I'm beginning to think the uneasiness that I feel is part of the journey - everything only makes sense when it's all over and I can look back, laughing at just how clueless I really was. Asking myself, what was I so worried about again?

My family is the best and I miss being all together very much!

I am really trying to embrace and enjoy this ride to the fullest. I miss my friends, I miss my family, I miss the northeast but I'm beginning to see that being on my own isn't so bad. Because after all, the start of great things begin at the end of your comfort zone.

Lesson from the Journey: Just go with your gut.

Recruiting (Party) In the UNO

Part of my role at Project Homecoming is to write biweekly blog posts for the website sharing and reflecting on the things I do as Village Manager. For my blog post due tomorrow, I got a little creative and wanted to share what I submitted to be posted on the website.

For those of you who miss the adorable Miley Cyrus as much as I do, here is a version of her famous song "Party in the USA" from which I replaced the words with my own, in an attempt to share the adventures Valentina and I experienced recruiting at the University of New Orleans Tuesday afternoon.(if you are not familiar with the tune and want to get to know it before reading on, click here)

We hopped out of the car at UNO with a dream and a cardigan

Welcome to the land of college kids, what are they interested in?

Set up our table, here we are for the first time

Look to my right and I see the Project Homecoming sign

This is all so crazy, so many tables to go see

Laying out the brochures and hanging up the banner

So much pressure and we're nervous

That's when the UNO coordinator turned on the radio

And the sign up sheet blew away

And the sign up sheet blew away

And the sign up sheet blew away

So I said "Hello!", to students walking by

"Have you heard of Project Homecoming?"

Our brochures are right here

Sign up for our mailing list right here

Volunteer for a few days or a whole year

And you'll learn so many neat things!

Yeah! It's a recruiting party in the UNO!

Yeah! It's a recruiting party in the UNO!

Clubs looking for service projects

Asking me so many questions now

Like "What makes Project Homecoming so great?"

And "I can get involved, how?"

It's exciting to see so much interest around me

Recruiting is so fun, you'd think it was a party

Wearing our blue and yellow

Students are getting the memo

Talking about all the homes that we're working on

From the interior and out to the lawn

That's when the UNO coordinator dropped our favorite tune

And the sign up sheet blew away

And the sign up sheet blew away 

And the sign up sheet blew away

So I said "Hello!", to students walking by

"Have you heard of Project Homecoming?"

Our brochures are right here

Sign up for our mailing list right here

Be an Americorps or Long Term Volunteer 

So many options to choose

Yeah! It's a recruiting party in the UNO!

Yeah! It's a recruiting party in the UNO!

Working it at the UNO Service Fair...notice Valentina really is wearing a cardigan!

Lesson from the Journey: Saying "Hello!" enthusiastically to students passing by might make you feel like an idiot but actually gets students to approach your table and get a conversation started.