The Flatlands

My biggest takeaway thus far is that Louisiana is flat. It is the flattest place that I have ever been to in my life. And I know lots of people keep saying go to great plains here or cornfields in Iowa or Texas, but I feel like it's not much different that here. Just fields instead of marshes. They are all still ridiculously flat. The only time to road changed in elevation was when we went on bridges over rivers and bayous. Bayous!

There is also water everywhere. Even in between the lanes of traffic there are sometimes canals. The fountain in front of the main building I'm in has Alligator Territory warning signs (they won't let me take a picture). And not that it gets cold here, but pretty much all of their bridges have warning signs that they may ice over in cold weather. We don't even have many of those signs in New England!

Anyway, because there's a tropical storm brewing in the Gulf, we're not going out on boats this week, so I'm in the airport right now, waiting for a flight home. They had a few odd jobs here and there, which means I still got to log lots of hours this week, but the full 2 weeks would have been nice. Oh well. One day I got to log like 16 hours because my hotel is an hour away and we had to pick up samples from a boat super late and I didn't get back till around 12:30, exhausted. At least I didn't have to drive. Another field tech and I went and he drove this GIGANTIC Ryder refrigerated truck. I figured you'd have to have a license to drive something that big, but apparently not... We had delicious Po'boy sandwiches though, mine with sausage and his with shrimp and a house special sauce.

One night I also went out with a few people because it was another coworker's birthday and I had gumbo for the first time! Chicken and sausage, cause I'm not a big seafood person. They also ordered fried pickles, which I'd never heard of before, nevermind eaten. They were actually pretty good though! And another po'boy that night too. I had way too much food.

And because the boats didn't go out they put us in a hotel back by New Orleans (over an hour from where we were supposed to be working). The first night we were up there a bunch of us went out to Bourbon street - crazy! I mean, they all said it was crazy, and I was sort of just like, ok, sure, I've seen strips where every building is a bar or whatever. But this was PACKED with people! On a Wednesday night at like 11pm! And the music was great and there were live bands in every other bar! I also found a local beer I really like and I am very, very sad it's local only. it was such a funny group of people too: me, a girl who just graduated from college, an early 30s woman, a late 30s man and probably a late 40s early 50s man. Great people though. Off course the next morning we had to get up and drive back to where we're based and unload the crazy refrigerated truck, but we still had a lot of fun.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures because I was working so much I wasn't carrying my camera with me ever... which I regret a lot now. Next time I will remember to bring my camera to more places. However, I probably won't post much (if anything) until I get sent back down. So until then!