Urban Expectations

A City Street

City life is exhilarating- a bustling crowd, on a faster pace and seemingly following an entirely different clock. In the city, everything is now. Availability of most necessities and desires are found around any and every corner. As the clock ticks faster, the people rush by, hardly noting the discrepancies within the crowd. The people are different, as diversity is common and minds are widened to the point that they hardly notice; the high-fashioned businesswoman too distracted by her cellphone call and five minutes behind schedule-does not look up to see the homeless man she passes on the corner of Sixth and Western. The buildings are taller and usually older, with an occasional massive new edition, and the streets wider, with three lanes and an intersection with six streets, instead of the usual two. Transportation is expected to come quickly, whether by personal car, bus, taxi, or bike. The sounds of the traffic never die down, like you expect in your small hometown by ten at night. People loudly buzzing at a similar pace, at all hours of the night. Advertisements and storefronts at each glance.

City life quickly contrasts and integrates the rich and the poor

I imagine New Orleans is similar to this rapid lifestyle of any city, but that the sounds are even more diverse. Music fills the streets and people dance outside of bars. I think the people of NOLA may be more friendly and welcoming than that of an average city, brought together by their common interests of music and night life, or of the fine and spicy dining of Cajun cuisine. The art of New Orleans and historic buildings are likely of a unique brand, as city streets were created and lived in by a diverse group of people from the very beginning. The city was formed by a group of outliers that thrived on art and deviance, and the city itself speaks volumes to this. The passion of people may seem to outflow from all street corners of graffiti mixed with historical structure and each store front of diverse items for sale.

Color and soul of New Orleans streets, from graffiti to street performers.

My city experiences are mostly developed from my extensive amount of time spent in Chicago. I have done the tourist kind of Chicago things- eat foot long hot dogs, visit the bean in Millennium Park, and ride on the Ferris wheel of Navy Pier, but I have also seen the night life. The jazz music beaming from the Heart of Blues and the beggar with a cardboard sign on an adjacent street corner. I enjoy photography, as I can remember through pictures and show others my point of view. A prime example being the pigeon featured below. I was fascinated by the fat pigeons found everywhere in Chicago and I recall feeling amused by their portly meandering through the streets.

A photo I took of "the Bean" in Chicago, showing off the city skyline.

Why did the pigeon cross the road? The world may never know.

Thoughts of how a city can bustle and jive in the moment are true experiences, but also expectations and hopes of a city that I have not yet visited. I have heard stories and seen pictures and videos of New Orleans from my sister Melissa and my parents, who have both traveled here. The bodies dancing in the street to musicians posted on a city corner are reflections of a video my sister had sent me of herself dancing with people considered strangers mere minutes before. I imagine the city to be a friendlier version due to my sister's ability to travel there alone and create new friends at every stop.

I realize my assumptions can only be as accurate as the lens of a camera, from picture or video- that is through another's point of view. I am nervously awaiting to either confirm or deny my assumptions of city people that are surprisingly friendly and artistic passion that explodes my senses. I have read about New Orleans enough to understand the foundation of the city, but not necessarily its current state of being. I also correlate New Orleans to the scenes and pictures of a Mardi Gras, with bright colors and crowds of intoxicated people in masks and costumes, dancing to the beat of street orchestras. All I can say is I hope the passion I envision this city to withhold does not disappoint. My excitement of traveling to a new place is paired with the moderate anxieties of leaving the comforts of home. I think my assumptions of this city will be a vast understatement of the true experience, and I look forward to the places I will see and people I will meet along the way.

New Orleans Mardi Gras Street Festival, cheesy costumes and all.