Late Night

Just back from a long day. Started with some breakfast po-boys in the Quarter with a few grad students. Then we drove over to the lower 9th -- the hardest hit area of New Orleans. there are simply no words to describe the hideous devastation. It is something I hope I never see again, and yet I am glad to have seen it with my own eyes as no camera and no amount of Anderson Cooper mincing around can possibly communicate the massive and almost incomprehensible scale of the devastation to be found there. I took some photos which hopefully will wpeak about this more eloquently than I, but it is 2 am here in New Orleans and I need to sleep.

After the trip I visited the campus and then a grad student and I went for coffee and beignets; then it was back to my hosts and off to dinner with some faculty. My class session followed and it went quite well; several of the students really seemed to engage in the ideas presented and my cycle project from last year went over very well. The faculty were appreciative and tomorrow I will spend the day in conference with students discussing their work.

After class a couple of students and I hit Pat O'Brien's in the Quarter for a few Hurrricances, then across the street for late night cheeseburgers which for some mysterious reason did not materialize for nearly an hour. (Hence the lateness of my arrival back here.) So it is too late for a full update but tomorrow will be mellow and I will have plenty of pictures for you then.