I write you, in spite of years of silence

So, here it is. Finally. One would think that having a week off due to Gustav I would have gotten this done sooner, but no. That would be too easy. Instead, I spent the week dwelling on how wonderful life is here. Needless to say, I am very happy to be back in school so my mind can be occupied with stuff other than doubt and worry.

On a brighter note:

We all survived Gustav. (I will be sending t-shirts later.) All of us military-types had to shelter for the duration of the (non-existent) storm. We arrived at the shelter at 1600 on Sunday and left at 0900 on Tuesday. There was power the whole time and we got to watch ESPN. I was glad. I was a bit mad that I didn't get to see the wind and rain. I mean, it was my first hurricane for crying out loud! We were about 15 people to a room. As you can tell by the picture, my friend, Jen, and I made little cubbies for ourselves under desks. We were pretty proud of our hobbit-holes too! At night, when everyone else was watching movies, we could pull the plastic sheets down and lay in total darkness.

The city did not fair as well as we did. There were a lot of downed limbs and debris. This picture shows how the beach looked when I first got here.

Although I still wouldn't swim in the Gulf, it is beautiful and I enjoyed strolling along the beach. Now, there is branches, mattresses, trash and other random bits of junk strewn all up and down the beach. The storm surge extended to past the lane of traffic that you see.


If you want to see a cool website about how Biloxi and Mississippi's Gulf Coast looked pre-Katrina click here. People are still devastated and I can see why. I wish I could have seen this place before. I think it would have been great.