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Sorry if the videos are so dark below. It's a little, old man playing on all different sized and shaped glasses with different amounts of water in them. Craziness!

New Orleans Entertainment

I wanted to share one of the street entertainers with everyone. This guy was in the French Quarter and I saw him last year also. I'm pretty sure he was wearing the same clothes and hat. Enjoy!

Window display.

Alligator (Soooo good!).

First day of work.

Below: Scott on Day Three of work fixing the door.

Left: Ali on First Day of work.



Below: Me and one of my roommates, Laura. Day Four of work.

Left: Me on Day Four of work. We sorted wood in a lumberyard that was saved from houses that went through Katrina.



Below: The back of our T-shirts.

Britteny testing strength of the wood in the lumberyard.

Hey Everyone!

So this Saturday is the first Softball game of the season, and I CAN'T WAIT!! I'm so so so excited! We've been practicing five days a week for the past few weeks and I can't wait to watch all of our hard work pay off! We're playing Mohawk Valley Community College, and they're supposed to have a really good team, but we have an AWESOME team, so this game should be intense!! We're playing at home in Franklin at Longley field @ 2:00, COME CHEER US ON!

Friday night there is a Pirates & Princesses Masquerade Dance! I'm dressing up as a Pirate, seeing as I'm a princess every other day :-P joking!!! But seriously, it should be so much fun! I love getting dressed up! Me and a few of my friends are having a competition to see who can come up with the best pirate costume and mask for the dance. We all get really competitive too, so this should be interesting!

Have a fabulous week!

Catch ya laterrrr!

Back in action

After a restful break in New York I'm back at Dean. Its always good to see everyone's excitement to see each other again, but I have to admit I'm jealous of how tan some people got over break. New York was just not that warm. Returning back to dance classes after a break is always pretty tough. Especially now that we are studying a whole new technique in my modern class. Last semester we studied the dance technique of Katherine Dunham. This semester we are studying the technique of Lester Horton. Needless to say, my muscles are killing me. There are about 6 weeks of school left, so the work load is getting a little heavy, and can be stressful. All there is to look forward to now is the beautiful weather that we have been getting a glimpse of here on campus. Its refreshing to see people pull out their warm weather clothes after the long winter. That's all for now! Off to another class :-)

Return to Reality

So I'm back at Dean after an emotional week in New Orleans. Obviously, the overall experience was wonderful but many of the realities of what has not been done started to set in. It has been four years since Hurricane Katrina hit the beautiful area and there are still houses on their sides, people left homeless, and no signs of restoration for many.
Our group spent our first workday helping fix up, paint, and install small things for a man who is almost finished restoring his house. It was a two family and, once he is done, he will be able to rent it out and receive more income. Like any southerner, he was so grateful we were there and even treated all sixteen of us to Starbucks at the end of the day.
The two middle days were spent at a private, bilingual elementary school a little outside the city. Some of the group painted murals while the others restored the children's outdoor bathroom facilities. The entire structure had been under water during and after the storm, so many of the toilets had to be replaced and the entire inside needed painting. Remember, this is four years later. The age range of the children was eighteen months to ten years old so half the population of the school was alive during the storm.
Our final work day was spent at a lumberyard sorting through wood that had been saved from houses that had been through Katrina. We had to go through each piece...many were moldy, there were maggots and red ants, as well as large cockroaches in between some of the pieces. Those that we could not keep had to be carried to a "no good" pile on the other side of the lumberyard. This was the most physical day but the most productive because our group was so close at this point, our teamwork was natural.
I will post some pictures this week to help people to understand what my fellow students and I saw. I urge anyone that has the opportunity to do community service to take the chance. It is extremely fulfilling and such a life-changing experience.

Back in Full Force

Spring break has only been over for two days but it seams as though I never left, and the end of my first year here at Dean is almost over. I still have so much to do, but at least some of it is fun and not all work. I am part of the Patriot Place Dean Day, Dean students will be performing dances, comedy acts, and of course singing. My friends and I are just a few of the vocalists at Patriot Place and I can't wait! It should be so much fun, and a great performance opportunity for all of us who work so hard perfecting our art. Come stop by the shopping center at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA on March 21st to see us all in action!
Well that's the fun part, but of course I have papers and finals to start getting ready for, but it all comes with the territory. I'm just glad that I learned to figure out how to manage my time with my crazy schedule, but events like Patriot Place are the things that make all my hard work pay off.

:) Joelle Carscadden