This Provincial Life

"Adventure is out there!" - Up

I like Beauty and the Beast, but honestly it's not my favorite Disney movie.

But lately I've been feeling a lot like Belle, in that I too want adventure in the great wide somewhere. (So much so that I bought this shirt!)

That's something I've been craving a lot lately (perhaps partially out of discontentment); but also just craving something new and out of the ordinary. I'd love to travel more. I'd love to meet new people and hear new stories. I'd love to learn more.

So I think something I'll be challenging myself to do this semester is to create my own adventure.

It can be something as small as visiting a coffee shop I've never been to or doing my quiet time downtown at the levy.

I'm pretty boring, so even watching a movie I've never seen before is an adventure for me.

If I'm feeling really adventurous, New Orleans is but an hour away.

Last weekend, Allie, Kire', Kendall, and I took a day trip to NOLA; and it was such a fun day full of things I'd never done before in a city I barely know.

The first stop was District Donuts, because District is always a necessity when in NOLA. Their selection wasn't as good as I had hoped, just because I check their Instagram every day and have compiled a bucket list of donuts to try. This time I ended up getting their White Chocolate Mocha donut and a regular chocolate glazed.

Next we went to the New Orleans Museum of Art, and it was the first time I had ever gone to an art museum! We decided to go here because we are cultured and also it's free for people 19 and under. That's great for people unlike myself who are the grand old age of 20. But it's fine... with a student discount, it was only $8. Definitely worth it for all the exhibits we got to see. They even had several pieces by Monet, which I was surprised to see. We ended up playing a game in which we took turns picking out our favorites in each of the galleries and why we liked them. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the experience.

One of my favorites in the museum, but not for any insightful reason. I don't even know who painted it honestly.

This was a really neat exhibit... it was a golden house made out of a variety of objects (cotton, iPhones, candy, lightbulbs, gas caps, etc.) 

It was an absolutely beautiful day, so we sat outside at the park for a while, then drove around the city with the windows down. We drove by Tulane, and then over to St. Roch Market to eat dinner. St. Roch is an elegant little southern food hall with a variety of vendors. I ended up getting the crawfish poutine (fried crawfish + boiled potatoes + pepper jack cheese + crawfish étouffée), and it was SO GOOD. I'm not an avid fan of cajun food, but I loved this. Adventure is trying new foods, for me at least.

Adventure doesn't have to be traveling halfway across the world (although I wouldn't object to that).

For me, adventure will just be "new-ness." It will be seeking adventure both in the great wide somewhere, but also in this provincial life.

Next week, my adventure will include life on the dark side... the dark side meaning the side void of the light from my social media apps. I'll be keeping a day by day log of what my life looks like without those pesky time wasters and the lessons I'll be learning through that process. Until then, my friends.