The Weekend, of End of the Week

So it's here, the week's end. Where to begin and how do I reflect at this point, especially because it's 6:15 am on the final Saturday and I just don't know where to start. The week has been long to say the least, working everyday starting Monday up through yesterday afternoon. We did manage to have some time to enjoy the beauty of the town, within the French Quarter, St. Charles Ave, the hopes within the Vietnamese Community. If I was to write about my entire week, I would simply just photo copy my journal and post that, but seeing has how I can't, I'll probably write just on highlights of the week.

My week began with a kick, with our first night out, we ate with Ms. JoAnn, a contact of Hamline and Sharon. After ordering our food, we were able to relax a little bit. We had everyone from the two groups there, so we filled out half the restaurant. But the real kicker was once the food came out, the waitress said something with pasta and both Jess and I ordered something from the pasta section. Jess thought it was hers right away, so she began working on it. About ten minutes later or so, our waitress came out with the Creole Pasta, which was actually Jess' order and what she had been eating was mine, which was a Shrimp Alfredo Pasta. On that note, that happened again last night, on our group's final dinner. We were eating at the Cheesecake Bistro and I had ordered, again, a Shrimp Pasta. And unlike last time, it wasn't Jess, it was Christina's. The funniest part was when the food came out because, like last time, both Jess and Christina thought it was theirs, but Christina began by saying that she didn't order shrimp and told everyone at the table that the shrimp was up for grabs, so everyone ate MY shrimp because everyone even realized that it was my plate and Christina's hadn't arrived yet.

The work within the week was long, with many of the work days starting by 8:30am at the latest. The one day that really began it all was probably Wednesday when Karine, Christina and I worked with Mrs. Janet Bell. She ran a small garden two blocks away from First Street UMC. We got there and were able to be outside and enjoy the weather/humidity, but she told us that she had a nightmare and that if we could make it go away, she would really be happy. Her nightmare was that of a fallen trestle that had been that way since Hurricane Gustav. She had spoken about the number of people that had been in prior to our group and said they didn't have any idea as to how to get it up.We told her that probably after lunch, we could get more of our group there and get it up by days end, and we did exactly that. After that day, I felt a lot better in being able to do as much as we can and also being to surprise the people in our abilities. She asked us not to leave without seeing her, she had made flower arrangements for us, five to be exact, and one of herbs--which was great because on Wednesday, I made dinner and I used some for stir-fry.

I wish I could continue to write more, but seeing as how I have only a half hour to get ready to run to the airport, I need to get my stuff in order. But stories like the couple above, are within everyone on any of the CSI trips, so I look forward to the many questions about and the group together and laughing at the fun times here, but until then--

--Teng Lor