Seeing Past New Orleans’ Nightlife

 Living in a city that is known for its amazing food and unique nightlife, it is important to keep an active lifestyle and stay in shape. New Orleans has many different recreational areas and parks that can be used by the public. Staying active and experiencing the different parks and recreational areas is a good way to not only stay in shape, but it also is a good way to experience the unique aspects of the city that tourists do not have a chance to engage in.

-          Audubon Park has both a dirt path and an inner cement path that wraps around the park that can be used for running/walking or biking. On a sunny day, Audubon Park’s historic Oak trees provide the perfect shade to run under.

-          City Park also features paths that residents of Lakeview and Mid-City utilize, and there is a new hiking trail throughout the park.

-          The St. Charles street car line is used by locals and students alike who run down the line towards the French Quarter while taking in some of the nice scenery that New Orleans has to offer.

-          The Butterfly (“Fly) is located in the back of Audubon Park near the Mississippi River, and it has open fields which are used to play soccer and Frisbee, or even to play fetch with dogs.

-          There are many different running stores and groups that sponsor neighborhood runs which group tens to hundreds of people together to run. These groups change their routes weekly in order to keep it fresh and fun.

-          The St. John’s Bayou in Mid-City is a great place to take in some sun and  paddleboard with many of the locals. The bayou runs through Mid-City and runs right by City Park.

There are always things to do in New Orleans, and staying active is no different. New Orleans has plenty of trails to run or bike through, and the scenery is always fresh and entertaining. The weather and scenery in New Orleans is so unique and amazing that it is necessary to spend time outside and stay active.

David Napoli

New Orleans, Louisiana

dnapoli@tulane.edu

Choosing (and loving) Your Freshman Dorm

Guest blogger: Laura Manning

Your freshman dorm is one of the first major choices you make as an incoming student at Tulane, and arguably one of the most important. The options seem nearly endless, with six freshmen housing options and countless different combinations within those six buildings. Here are some general tips that I wish someone had told me before making my freshman commitment!

1. Don’t rely on pictures from the housing website. I spent hours and hours agonizing over the handful of images of each dorm, and looking at their floor plans. Totally not worth it! Many of those pictures are outdated, and fail to take into account your personal style, which will make any dorm room seem more “homey” than stock photos of boring staples.
2. Don’t go random. Luckily I found a wonderful roommate on Facebook and ended up having a great year living with her in Sharp. Many of my friends were not quite as lucky. Tulane offers many services to help you match up with someone based on living preferences. Use them.
3. Know that the decision doesn’t have to be permanent. Sometimes students just aren’t meant to live together, and that’s okay. Housing understands, and will work to help you find a situation that you’re comfortable with. Knowing that back up exists in case things go wrong is so relieving. 
4. Buy a mattress “topper”. Trust me. There is only so much comfort that can be achieved from a twin mattress without box springs. Investing in a mattress topper is a purchase you won’t regret… and can use again in your sophomore year dorm. Many students opt for egg crate foam or down filled additions.

5. Keep an open mind. Your dorm will ultimately be what you make of it. Bring comforting items from home, picture frames, favorite blankets, and whatever else it takes to make you feel relaxed in a new space. No dorm will look perfect when you open that door for the first time, but with a few welcoming touches, it will quickly become a place that you can truly call “home”.

The dorms offer a wide variety of spaces designed for pretty much any personality. Whether you choose the traditional route of Monroe, Sharp, or Butler, or opt for a women-only experience in JL, joining a Residential College in Wall, or a wellness community in Paterson, there will be myriad options for you to deliberate between. Each dorm has its own individual personality, and it is ultimately up to you to embrace the lifestyle you will adopt while living there!

Bringing Cultural Awareness to Tulane’s Campus

Now, I’ll be the first one to admit that there are a lot of student organizations on campus. In fact, you’ll have an opportunity to see and visit with all of them if you make your way to the Activities Expo held at the beginning of the fall semester. There’s bound to be at least one organization that piques your interest, whether it’s T/NASA, Tulane/Newcomb Art Student Association, or TUCP, Tulane University Campus Programming. Today, however, I’m going to tell you about an organization that’s near and dear to my heart: Tulane University Vietnamese Association.

Tulane University Vietnamese Association, or “TUVA” for short, is dedicated to informing the Tulane community about various aspects of the Vietnamese culture. Contrary to its name (and popular belief), TUVA accepts all members regardless of whether you are Vietnamese or not. As long as you have an interest in Vietnam and the Vietnamese culture, you are always welcome!

TUVA holds multiple events each semester. Each event normally displays a different facet of Vietnam. For example, in the fall, we normally have “Phở Bowling.” At this event, we take members out to a local Vietnamese restaurant where they can eat traditional Vietnamese foods, ranging from bánh xèo, savory crepes filled with pork, shrimp, and various herbs, to bún chả giò, vermicelli noodles with egg rolls. Of course, they can also partake in phở, the dish that lends its name to the event. For those of you who don’t know, phở is absolutely delicious! It is a noodle soup, normally served with either beef or chicken. After we’ve filled our stomachs with delicious Vietnamese cuisine, it’s time for bowling!

In the spring, we have a Tếtcelebration to bring in the Vietnamese New Year. The celebration includes several performances bridging together traditional Vietnamese culture and more contemporary Vietnamese-American culture. They vary from classic Tết songs to hip-hop dance performances. A normal feature of our celebration and most, if not all, Vietnamese celebrations is múa lân or lion dancing. The legend is that the lion would protect the people from and ward off evil spirits.

This is just a taste of what we do in TUVA. Hopefully, I’ll see you at an event soon! Besides TUVA (of course), what other organizations are you curious about or plan on joining?

My Phuong (Miya) Nguyen

Born and raised in New Orleans but now a Houston-area resident

mnguyen7@tulane.edu

Volunteering at Tulane: planting seeds of hope

Guest blogger: Wil Crary

Tired of the Boot?  Looking for some meaningful group activities that don’t involve Maple Street? Don’t let New Orleans fool you!  The amount of ways to engage yourself in the community that don’t involve debauchery and imbibement might knock your tipsy socks off.  With activities ranging from monthly events to daily commitments, both your casual volunteer and service-extraordinaire will find something to satisfy their interests.  Ophir Haberer, one of my main partners in crime (and by crime I mean community service), remains a close friend and a constant inspiration.  Constantly engaged with the greater New Orleans community, Ophir pushes himself and his peers to achieve their true potential in order to better the lives of others. 

Ophir’s community-driven mindset here at Tulane all started with a day-trip to the Lower Ninth Ward Village, an eccentric community center with a variety of characters and sources of entertainment. In the fall of 2010, Ophir saw the opportunity for a partnership with the director of the community center who was stoked to begin a solid relationship with some enthusiastic Tulane students. After being drawn to the dilapidated raised-garden beds, which the director informed Ophir were necessary due to the contamination of the post-Katrina soil, and informed of the eminent food desert resulting from the lack of available fresh produce in the area, it became clear to Ophir which direction he wanted to kickstart his endeavors.

And so began our saga (excuse the theatrics).  Ophir spearheaded funding through the university alongside his equally inspiring twin brother Dor (yes, there are two of these incredible creatures crawling around our campus), while I rallied a team of excited and fairly unequipped volunteers, a motley crew of our close friends (and not-so-close friends) and classmates.  After tossing around a variety of possible names, Ophir made the executive decision to bestow upon us a name that concisely states our mission and purpose: The Hope Gardens Project.  The Lower Ninth Village community center’s quaint little garden was full of concrete, glass, weeds, and more agricultural nightmares, but all hope remained.

To make a long story short, we were too hopeful. Damn. However, the disorganization of the community center didn’t deter us.  We knew our focus had to stay on the beautification of the educational, healthy-lifestyle conducive gardens.  Tulane, with joint support from CACTUS and Hillel, provided us with the resources. Our 20+ volunteers showed us their commitment, while Ophir, Dor, and I never lost hope.  We said our goodbyes and parted ways with the Village because our goals didn’t quite match up, and so our search for a community partner continued.

Then came the Sankofa Community Development Corporation, an organization with a name reminding all of us to “move forward while looking backwards”.  Sankofa’s unique goal of re-instilling the values of urban agriculture and available fresh produce to the lower ninth ward drew us to them immediately.  The community gardens were beautiful, the farmer’s market was lively, and the neighborhood seemed to rally around the idea of coming together to stamp out the crippling food desert.  

Every Saturday, we would take our volunteers down to KIPP Renaissance, a charter school in the area, to maintain their on-campus garden, renovate the unutilized space, work alongside students, and learn about the importance of fresh produce.  We also were pivotal in starting Sankofa’s blueberry farm, which was nothing more than an empty lot when we arrived (well, not counting the overgrown weeds, piles of trash, and debris). We had a solid year of commitment, but again we felt our resources were being misused and that our wonderful volunteers were being under-appreciated. On to the next one, we declared!

We felt that we were capable of being a more autonomous group, having proved our gardening efficacy on campus through the Wall Garden (which everyone should check out!) which flourished with carrots, kale, herbs, beets, radishes, and more.  Likewise, we work hard to introduce a culture of composting and conscious food disposal. Ophir and I both went abroad last semester, but fortunately Dor and our good friends Melissa Makous and Zoe Swartz courageously took charge. Our new projects are flourishing, but there is always work to be done. We’ve got two big projects on the way and are always looking for more dedicated volunteers who want to learn about urban farming or who just want to spend a beautiful Saturday morning outside instead of writhing around in bed fighting off an inevitable hangover.  Send us an email at tulanegardengang@gmail.com, or get directly in contact with Wil Crary, Ophir Haberer, or Melissa Makous through our Tulane emails.

See you in the gardens (hopefully),

The Hope Gardens Project