So Much to See and Learn

So today bright and early we had to meet in front of the St.
Louis Cathedral for our first tour. Looking at the temperature on my phone say
high of 51 degrees makes me so excited. We all get up go to the lobby of our
hotel for breakfast and headed to our first destination the French Quarters. When
we got to the French Quarter (by uber) we met with our class and waited for our
guide. Todays first guide name was Milton. We have been hearing about Milton
since we went to our first work shop with our instructor. This guy had been
talked very highly about so I could not wait to see what he had in store. After
standing and waiting for 15 minutes for our tour to start, our instructor
turned around and pointed out in the distance a person walking towards us with
a yellow jacket. She told us that Milton was arriving and we all stood in anticipation.
When Milton walked up he introduce himself and gave us a little history about how
New Orleans came to be and music came about. Something that was interesting hat Milton first pointed out was the music and when jazz first came around it was considered risky. When Milton played a jazz song it sounded relaxing and you could not help but tap your toes to it.
Baaaaaaaabaaay let me tell you about the funeral service New Orleans style. By the way that baaabaayy I used is a word that is used all the type here in New Orleans it’s apart of their language and woman or male use it the same way. The word had nothing to do with how you feel about the person. How you pronounce it is exactly how I spelled it out, along with that side note they use how’s your mom n’em, they took something that could have been two sentences and put it into a couple of words.

Back to funerals.
So when a person dies here in they don’t mourn for long they turn it into a celebration. Celebrating the life the person once had. After the funeral ceremony the people go out to the street and a band is there to play music all the way to the cemetery. There are two songs that are played one that’s for mourning and one for celebration. First they start of with a sad slow song. Milton said this song only last for a block and after that block or so the tempo changes. The band cranks it up and the celebration of the person like kicks off. Walking down the street carrying casket dancing and thanking God for the life that was given.When they arrive to the cemetery they place the body aside and to continue to celebrate.