Finding familiar places in a new city

Last Saturday at 8:30am, I sat in Starbucks sipping on a vanilla latte while talking to the intern who held my position at the Young Leadership Council last spring and summer.

As we waited for our coffee to be brewed and poured into boxes for the group to drink at the 9 a.m. YLC volunteer event, we got on the subject of how living in New Orleans compared to other cities we’d called home.

Erin, the YLC’s prior intern and a 2008 Loyola University graduate, had moved to New Orleans from Arizona and said the two places were strikingly different.

I told her that New Orleans had a far more laid back atmosphere than anywhere in North Carolina as well. We agreed that living in New Orleans felt like living abroad in an English-speaking country.

The evening of Friday, Sept. 11, the YLC’s first ever “Saints at the Square” event was planned, and a great turnout was forecasted. This concert, accompanied by food, beer and liquor for sale by local vendors, was to be co-hosted by the YLC and the New Orleans Saints to celebrate the kickoff of the Saints’ season against the Detroit Lions.

All proceeds would go to YLC community projects.

Unfortunately, the concert was canceled a few hours prior to its start due to the amount of rain that had pummeled New Orleans nonstop for the past few days.

I helped clean up parts of the square that had already been set up for anticipated vendors, spending the majority of this time working alongside a guy who, after learning I was a Tri Delt at UNC, exclaimed, “Oh, dude! Some of my favorite people in the world are Tri Delts! I tried to pledge Tri Delt in college, but those girls didn’t think it was funny. So I joined Kappa Sig.”

Oh, and this guy was wearing a kilt. And he definitely wasn’t Scottish.

A few YLC staff members and I decided to deal with this rain-hailed disappointment by heading to Vic’s, an Australian pub a few blocks from the square, for a happy hour or two.

There were beach balls hanging from the ceiling and posters of kangaroos posing in interesting positions scattered throughout the bar. Coming here after the frustration of the event cancellation and cleanup was a good call — spirits picked up very quickly.

I even utilized my moral compass by not pocketing the $5 bill that a guy kept shoving in my hand to play whatever music I wanted on the pub’s ancient jukebox (having apparently failed to convince him that there were still six song credits left on the machine and that I hadn’t paid for any of them).

I’ve been introduced to some great restaurants, bars and shops in the city. I’m honestly confused at how the workers at Slice, an amazing pizzeria 10 minutes from our house and two minutes from my work building, don’t now know me by name.

And of course the music here’s great and there’s lots of it in the city’s many venues. And Magazine Street has a plethora of great locally-owned shops.

Knowing places to go such as these makes you feel much more at home somewhere new, so I’m glad that I’ve started a mental list of these essential options and only expect the list to grow as weeks pass.


Lea Luquire is a Senior Spanish major from Yancyville spending the semester in New Orleans
Contact Lea at llea@email.unc.edu