You'd be surprised (or maybe you wont be) at the number of times I get asked "Is dental school hard?".
Or "dental school look so fun.. do you even study?" 🙄
I always find these questions a bit comical. Professional school, of any type, Is extremely difficult and requires an immense amount of studying and self discipline.
In fact! It gets so difficult that sometimes we forget to take some time to ourselves. Mental health is very important. So I encourage all students to make sure they take some time off (when they can) and enjoy doing something they love to do. For me, I love traveling and photography. So far, my semester has been a little light(er) so me and a few buddies decided to take a weekend trip to New Orleans, Louisiana during MLK weekend.
So. I present to you. 9 reasons why I love NOLA.
They are in arbitrary order, so the sequence bares no significance.
1. BBQ SHRIMP n' GRITS
If you are not from the south, you will not understand our infatuation with grits, or the weird combination of shrimp and grits together. I love grits, and I love shrimps, so the bliss I encounter when I eat them together is ineffable.
This food. was. bomb.
We caught our first brunch at Russell's MARINA GRILL, and we learned quickly that everything on their menu was nothing short of fantastic.
2. DAT DOG
Yo!! This place! the vibe here was chill and the hotdogs were fantastic. The cool thing about this place was that there were SO many types of meat and sausages along with a variety of topings.. I had the alligator meat (which was phenomenal), but they also had crawfish and even duck. If their goal was to put a smile on my face, they met it because I left there beaming.
3. THE ZOO!
The last time I went to the zoo, I was probably around 5 or 6. Cool thing about the zoo is that you're never too old to go. Cool attraction, cool animals, and good exercise walking around seeing things. And no, i'm not lion.
4. French Quarter
I loved this area man!!! There was so much going on.. we honestly had no idea where to start. From Acrobats, to painters, to musicians.. I Can't really describe the amount of art that thrives here. We actually walked in on a wedding, cajun style.
5. Frenchman Street
Kind of falls along the same lines as french quarter. Large amount of culture here, and a plethora of places to eat, enjoy jazz, and just chill. Oddly enough, I enjoy people watching. Stalkerish yes, but you get awesome pics haha. Large amount of people here so you won't find a problem doing that if you're one in the same.
6. OYSTERS!
Never had chargrilled oysters before in my life, but I will tell you that I had them in NOLA and my tastebuds were changed 🙌🏾.. Crazy thing is, we ended up in this restaurant (felix's) on accident. We were on our way to Acme Oyster House (which I hear also has stellar sea food), and saw the line was too long. We walked across the street and did not regret our decision one bit. If you're a seafood junkie like me, you'll love it.
7. Infrastructure
I really appreciated how the city of New Orleans was laid out. The buildings gave this old-timey european feel and gave a lot of my travel pics character. I found myself ignoring people sometimes and just trying to get good pics of landscape and infrastructure.
8. District Donut
Stopped by here for breakfast on our last day on our way back to Birmingham. If you're a sweets person, this is your place. I'm not really big on sweets. I did order an egg and cheese biscuit which was great. I like to stay more on the savory side so it was just down my alley. This place has great breakfast items for both taste preferences.
9. The People!
Man. The people of New Orleans are unique. You see all types of people and often see people that are mixed with just about everything. Speaking a large range of languages is the norm (one of our waitress spoke 5 different languages) hence I fell in love with the city pretty quickly.
If you can pay a visit to New Orleans, I can almost promise you that you wont be disappointed. The culture is rich and things to do are plentiful. Hope you enjoyed the recap.
TGI