09 April 2014

New Orleans day 1

Back in . . . oh, probably December, I got an e-mail that said this year's NCTM (National Council of Teacher's of Mathematics) Annual Meeting and Exhibition was in New Orleans, Louisianna.  I thought, "Oh, that's cool.  I'd like to go to New Orleans.  Maybe one of these days I will go."  Then within a day or so I got another e-mail that said applications are due for the Laura Baker Grant in my district.  It's a grant that awards 2 teachers every year with a paid professional development opportunity of their choice.  I asked James what he thought about me applying for the grant and maybe going to New Orleans and he said something like, "If I get accepted into a master's program, it would probably be a fair trade for you to go."

In January, I found out that I got the grant!  

Now I'm here.

Plane information:
  • Lots of math teachers on the flight.
  • The lady next to me had her barf bag out and ready to go.  This totally creeped me out.
  • The guy behind me talked loud and non- stop for the entire flight.  Everything about Bozeman, MT to oil rigs in Texas, to how much a head of cattle is, to why he doesn't eat chicken, to his accident in 2009 . . . . Ahhhhhhhhhh.  I couldn't sleep.  I couldn't focus on my book.  I finally just resorted to solitaire because it was all my brain could do.  It was painful.
  • Shuttle ride next to two co-workers who were there to set up a booth for the exhibit hall - talking about their use of mary-joo-wanna - one of the guys gets it from his friend with medical benefits and it comes in the from of candy - $40 a week for 50 pieces of 10mg each - you get a 3-4 hour high . . . yadda, yadda, yadda, the usual

I was glad to finally be on the ground.

Here is the view out my hotel window (looking away from the Mississippi River).



I had about an hour before my first meeting started, so I decided to head to the French Quarter.

Trolley car on Canal Street.  


Cathedral at Andrew's Square.

Here there were lots of tarot card readers, a guy asking for money while his dog pretended to be dead in a coffin, artists, a band playing, a guy asking for money for kicking his hacky sack around, etc.  There was supposed to be a Hurricane Katrina exhibit in the building next to the cathedral, but it (and several other things) were closed while they set up a big French Quarter Festival for this weekend.


I decided to brave Bourbon Street.  It was . . .  what you think Bourbon Street would be like.


After this, I went to the convention center and started to get situated for a few days worth of meetings, starting with tonight's keynote address, "The Joy of X."  It was a presentation from a man who wrote articles in the New York Times (and later a book) with the same title.  It was all about infusing fun and interest in math.  It was a decent start.

I was hungry, so I headed to where a saw some food, asked to look at a menu at a cafe called Ernst's .  I met two other single ladies (one from Arizona and one from Texas) and we each had a po' boy.  I had fried chicken on mine.  It was tasty.

1 comment:

emj said...

Hi Haley! It looks like beautiful weather there. Enjoy your time. Sorry the plane ride was not so fun. You never know how it will be when getting on any plane. I love your pics of the city. I am glad you got some time to explore. Your dinner looks good.