As my frozen hands type my first blog in my frigid room on campus, it makes me that much more eager to get on the plane to New Orleans sooner rather than later. For the past 20 years, I have lived in Massachusetts and ended up not going very far for college. With that said, I am very anxious to immerse myself in a new culture away from the North, as well as seeing the area first hand. It is quite difficult to look past all of the media’s viewpoints on New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina, so I am very curious to see the city through my own eyes and judge for myself.

After learning about ‘voluntourism’, I am somewhat worried about being looked down upon by the New Orleans residents. My hope is that they do not think we are there for personal praise, but rather to help the community in every way we can.
Furthermore, I am not particularly close with anybody in the group. So aside from working diligently all day, I am very excited to get close to this small group of Union students because we will not only be working hard together for two weeks on and off the construction sites, but we will hopefully be making a difference in people’s lives. We are all going down with the same determination, which reduces any anxiety I have been feeling. My nervousness has slowly shifted to excitement, because we will all be in this together and I plan on making my first (and hopefully not last) trip to New Orleans a great one.