Holy Day

Outer Journey

Church at the convent

Today, it appears to be a Holy Day. We traveled to the Ursuline Convent first which is the oldest building in the middle of the United States. The Ursuline Convent was built in 1752/1753. At this time, New Orleans was owned by the French so the building took on a colonial type architecture. The beams that are inside the convent are from Cypress trees and are original to the building. They say that the Cypress trees were at least 250 years old at the time when they were placed in the convent back in the 1750’s. The church in the convent was stunning, there was a lot of marble that was in there and gold. It was beautiful to see all the artifacts that they had in the front of the church. 

At the convent

After visiting the convent, we made our way over to the Saint Louis Cathedral. Our tour guide Ann, talked to us about the history of the church and how there are only three artifacts that left from when the church was first built by in the 1700’s. Those artifacts were a baptismal font, silver vase pieces, and Jesus hanging on the statue. There were some other interesting things that we learned which was that the shell was to help project the priests voice before microphones were invented. Additionally, when they laid the floor, there were fossils that were in some of the tile pieces. Lastly, one thing that I found very interesting and scary was there was a bomb that went off in the church. Luckily, it was at night after the church was locked up and nobody got hurt. Although, since it was locked, the bomb caused all the windows to shatter which ruined the stain glass windows. 

Shell to project voice

Lastly, we got to go on a cuisine tour! They took us to 5 different restaurants in the city which had historical significance. At Tujagues, we tried a Beef Brisket Po Boy with Creole Horseradish sauce. It tasted pretty good, although it was spicy. Next, we went to Creole Delicacies, where we had red beans and rice. The beans had a different taste but it was good. After that, we went to Antoine’s where we tried seafood gumbo. Although, I took a pass on this try because I am not a fan of shrimp. We made a stop at Leah’s Pralines to have a praline which is like peanut brittle. I was not a big fan of it, it had a sweet but salty taste. Lastly, we went to Arnaud’s, where we had shrimp remoulade and turtle soup. I did not try the shrimp but the coated on the shrimp had a spicy kick to it which I was not a fan of. I did not care for the turtle soup either, it had a strange taste even though a classmate compares it to chicken, I strongly disagree. I thought that it was a great experience trying these foods because I would’ve never done it on my own! 

St Louis Cathedral 

Overall, today was great. We learned so much about the catholic religion within the French Quarter of New Orleans and what their food is like! Now, it’s time to celebrate my birthday! See you tomorrow.

Inner Journey

St Louis Cathedral

January 5^th, the day I call Holy day because we went to Ursuline Convent and Saint Louis Cathedral. I grew up catholic, although I have not been to church in a very long time. While being on these tours, I realized there is so much about the catholic religion that I have not learned and know absolutely nothing about. In fact, while we were on these tours, I thought about calling my sister and her boyfriend to listen to the history that we were because they know so much more about the catholic religion than I do and I know that they both would’ve really appreciated it. What I loved most about seeing the convent and the cathedral was the artwork. It was absolutely stunning. 

The cuisine tour was really nice because we got to try different foods. I thought that I was not going to try much of this because I am such a picky eater but I went out of my comfort zone and tried it. I did not care for the Po Boy because the horseradish was not very good in my opinion. I did not like the turtle soup because it just had a very strange taste. 

Overall, I wasn’t impressed with everything but I thought it was a great experience and I liked that I stepped out of my comfort zone for the day! I can’t wait to see what else I step out of my comfort zone for. Additionally, I loved the tours at the convent and cathedral because of how much history there is within the two buildings.