New Orleans: First Impressions
May. 23rd, 2005 09:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarien[Updating via conference center wireless, with an entry I prepared earlier]
From the air, an expanse of swampy-looking land and green-brown water. On the ground, red oleanders; a tangle of elevated freeways, oddly reminiscent of Birmingham, England; a bird -- surely not a black swan, maybe a duck -- coming in to land on a canal. A clump of skyscrapers, much like any other big American city. So many poster tubes on the plane that the cabin staff made a special announcement reminding people to collect the ones in the closet.
Warm, moist, slightly fetid air on one side of the glass doors, frigid air-conditioning on the other. Moon, almost full, rising over the hotel down the street, and a glimpse of the river. Narrow streets like canyons of grey-brown stone. Flash of neon, glitter of beads and tacky voodoo-themed souvenirs and digital cameras. Red-and-gold trolley car on Canal Street. Swirling jazz music. Peppery shrimp creole and rich bread pudding that reminds me of my grandmother's cooking. Palm trees with their fronds tied up as if they've only recently been planted, with sand around their bases, and sidewalk trees trimmed down to six-foot stumps: relics of last winter's hurricane? Sign on an overflowing trash can: 'New Orleans: Imagine it Clean.
In the morning; the river flat and pale under a haze-gray morning sky.
From the air, an expanse of swampy-looking land and green-brown water. On the ground, red oleanders; a tangle of elevated freeways, oddly reminiscent of Birmingham, England; a bird -- surely not a black swan, maybe a duck -- coming in to land on a canal. A clump of skyscrapers, much like any other big American city. So many poster tubes on the plane that the cabin staff made a special announcement reminding people to collect the ones in the closet.
Warm, moist, slightly fetid air on one side of the glass doors, frigid air-conditioning on the other. Moon, almost full, rising over the hotel down the street, and a glimpse of the river. Narrow streets like canyons of grey-brown stone. Flash of neon, glitter of beads and tacky voodoo-themed souvenirs and digital cameras. Red-and-gold trolley car on Canal Street. Swirling jazz music. Peppery shrimp creole and rich bread pudding that reminds me of my grandmother's cooking. Palm trees with their fronds tied up as if they've only recently been planted, with sand around their bases, and sidewalk trees trimmed down to six-foot stumps: relics of last winter's hurricane? Sign on an overflowing trash can: 'New Orleans: Imagine it Clean.
In the morning; the river flat and pale under a haze-gray morning sky.
