NEW ORLEANS = Not just parades and beads

The swamp tour - only aligators seen at any close distance were not real (see above...)

A proper Mississippi steamboat - definitly coming back just to go on this....

Oak Alley Plantation - famous for the, er, oak trees....

New Orleans continued...

It wasn't all partying and parading...we also visited Oak Alley plantation, where I got to indulge my historical nerd side and pretended to be Scarlett O'Hara. Plus we went on a swamp boat tour (think one of those air boats you see in Florida) which went on the hunt for aligators - I saw 4, but we went too fast for photos (probably a good thing, they can jump higher than the boat...)

SPRING BREAK = NEW ORLEANS = MARDI GRAS

Bourbon Street...

Feather boas - I have one of these in Mardi Gras colours (green, purple and gold)

Wow, long time no post. Sorry everyone! Penn took over, lots of work as per, and I figured you'd all seen enough snow shots....But finally Spring Break came and I headed into the Deep South down to New Olreans for Mardi Gras. So cue parades, more beads than can ever be taken back home, and the infamous Bourbon Street....Let the good times roll.... :)

and again...

Yet again, Ben gets a dusting (different statue though)

These 2 are from the outside of my halls, by where I go into my section (to the right of the second photo - I live on the other side)

I have a feeling this might be a running theme on the blog for a while: SNOW!!! It's snowing as I type, adding to the 4ft already on the ground, and it's forcast for the weekend. Not that I'm complaining, it's fine when I'm indoors in the warm (Penn doesn't cancel class, so each morning is a bit of an adventure...)

Here are shots on my walk to lectures yesterday - this is the snow that fell on Wednesday night...you can sort of get the depth, especially in the one with the seats....

More Snow!

Sorry for the lack of posts - blame it on start of term events, a return to piles of reading and the fact that I've not been anywhere of note to warrent an update. Until yesterday, when Philly was hit by a snow storm, and I was nearly hit by a block of snow coming from a skyscapper (no injuries were sustained). So much fell yesterday - something like 4ft in around 3 hours, I thought I'd track the scene from my room: the top photos come from yesterday morning (it was snowing when I got up), the last 3 come from when I went to bed - most of it came down in a couple of hours, and as you can see, not even the tree escaped a heavy dusting...

Snow!

Shots of the centre of campus yesterday - not even Ben could escape a dusting!

Happy New Year!

Hello all - I'm now back in Penn and the big news is snow related. Loads fell last night, adding the what was already a fair bit on the ground, so in between lectures today (start of term) I will take pictures of campus because I'm sure it looks amazing (the bits I saw last night did). Before then - here's a couple of shots from a walk past Independence Hall yesterday and the snow on the grass that leads away from it, along with the view from my bedroom this morning - the snow where it isn't clear is probably above 3 inches in some places....

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM BEN FRANKLIN :)

If I actually manage to get back into the UK today, there will be no more posts until my return to Penn in January.....fingers crossed people......