Battle: LA

I just spent a week in Monroe, Louisiana.

I don't have the time nor the motivation to blog about every facet of the trip in one sitting, I'll get to that later. Expect many future blogs about the Pelican state. Here are my general observations:

-I'd heard of Southern hospitality, but I'd never seen it in practice. Apparently, it involves a lot of really good food. Not only will these kind and generous people invite you to dinner, they'll always pick up the tab at resturants. My family is going to have to get better at one-upping people and paying before they can reach the bill, because we seriously owe some people now. :)
-Almost nobody is politically correct in Louisiana. If you say 'gay' or 'retarded' anywhere in the Boulder area, you'll get jumped in twenty directions. In Louisiana, even the teachers drop an occasional 'that's so gay'. I freaked out the first time I heard it, wondering how badly the kid would be beaten for his comment, but nobody batted an eye. Also, this was a high school, so slack must be cut.
-THE BUGS. Not only are there a freakin' lot more bugs in Louisiana, they're also substantially bigger. I spent an hour and a half outside, all the while worshipping at the church of Off spray, and I got about twenty mosquito bites. Definitely not looking forward to that part of Girl's Camp.
-Everything is really green there. On the first day, I could swear that all the grass I saw was Photoshopped, because no grass is really that green. They have a lot of flowering bushes and trees currently flowering, which all in all makes it a gorgeous place to wander around whilst househunting.

More on LA, especially the schools, later.