New Orleans Trip!

Hello~

I went to New Orleans again a couple weeks back, and it was really fun!! :D We left on a Thursday afternoon, and arrived at around midnight. We stayed until Saturday night, and came back overnight to arrive back at home on Sunday morning. :D It was pretty busy but so fun and so memorable. I keep on smiling even as I'm writing this post right now. :'D

Day 1 - Friday

 Our view from the hotel room. It had been a while since I've traveled, so it felt new and energizing (?) to see a busy city with lots of old buildings. 

Teehee. Is that a CVS and Walgreens I see? (I ended up never getting to check them out T.T)

We actually went for a flute convention (I know, I'm a nerd o_o) but the hotel was so beautiful and big!! This was one of the smaller performances. 

After performing and watching a few other groups, we went out to eat. :D The weather was sooo nice and sunny~ Palm trees made the environment so much more vacation-y. I bet the ppl in the cars were like "ohh tourists.." lol

We went out for lunch kinda late~ My friend got some sort of pork chop combo with gumbo!

I got a popcorn shrimp po-boy! It was huuuuuuuge! 

AHHH I met Jasmine Choi at the exhibition!! :D She is one of the people that I look up to and admire~ I wish I could join her fan club haha. The thing is, we came when her signing event ended, but she was still soo nice and offered to give us signed posters and take pictures!! Now I really regret not buying her new CD there.. I looked up online and it's not coming out until October!! D: I later found out she was going through some tough times.. but she still had a smile on her face and greeted her fans politely and professionally ^^ I remember my hands were shaking and I was worried she would smell my fishy breath from eating the shrimp from before.. ahh I hope I can meet her again someday, and even attend her concert~ I had only seen her on TV and Youtube before, so meeting her in real life was amazing. ^o^

(For those of you who aren't too familiar with Jasmine Choi, she is an aspiring flute player. I think she got a full ride to Curtis Institute of Music, then studied at Julliard. She studied under the late Julius Baker and Jeffrey Khaner for a while, and then played with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and then became the principal flute player for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.)

After the dreamy event, we went to Cafe du Monde for some beignets!! They were amazing~ So fresh and warm and tastyyyy :D

Afterwards, to digest a little, we went to the river to look around and take pictures. It was so quiet and pretty~

loll the pool at our hotel. :D my friend really wanted to go swimming, but nobody else really wanted to.. it was too late and we had already taken showers.. the lights in the pool were pretty though!

 Day 2 - Saturday

We woke up kinda late, so we went out again to the French Quarter, and stopped by this mini mall for lunch. I got chili cheese fries because I loveee chili cheese-y stuff.. comfort food.. mm...

My friend got this alfredo shrimp pasta thingy. It looked pretty good!

Here is the same river, except at daytime. The sky was really blue and bright and the wind was blowing, so all of us felt great and energized!

As we were walking, we saw these street performers. They were really good and really loud too haha. It's nice to see these kinds of things because where I come from, these are so rare..

At the top floor of our hotel.. 41st floor or something? After a long and hectic day, we found this area and just sat down for a few minutes. It was so quiet and serene.. and bright. :D

For dinner, we stopped by this other cafe for a quick bite before we left. I shared a tuna melt with my friend. It was delicious~~ ^^

My other friends shared some pastaa~ 

After dinner, we stopped by the (apparently) biggest concert of the convention. There was a full orchestra and many flute soloists played~ They played so beautifully and kyaa I can't help but fangirl.. I always dream that one day, I'll be able to wear a beautiful dress and play flute for an audience. ^^ In my dreams...

After the concert, we headed back to our homes.. I really enjoyed New Orleans this time. I met so many people and had so much fun exploring and laughing and taking pictures. I think since I didn't really go anywhere this summer, this trip the weekend before school started really left an impact on me. I felt so inspired after meeting Jasmine Choi and listening to other people play. OH by the way I got to try out so many nice flutes! Some were all gold and some were silver and some were plastic! haha I just got immersed into a whole new world of flutes~ ^_^;; I'm so nerdy haha

School is starting to get stressful, especially because college apps are starting, and I still don't know what I wanna do or what I wanna major in... >.< I think I relieve some of my stress through eating, painting my nails, or playing flute. Hopefully everything will work out! ^^ I'm gonna go study and do some hw and practice now.. -.-

'Til next time~