bete comme un chou?

no one knows what is going on with our trip to louisiana. we could be going, not going, going but not staying in a hotel, not going but possibly going to illinois and missouri, going and taking helpful things down with us, or not going anywhere at all, ever. nooooobody knows. and just for clarification, we're not going to new orleans, and the place we're going is a good five hour drive from nouvelle orleans. lafayette sustained no damage and is closer to the texas border than eastern louisiana. so here is the actual truth of the matter, from someone who is actually in the class.
1. the administration isn't sure as that they really want us to go, mainly for the danger factor. the dean of the college cares more about us making a good decision one way or the other.

2. reasons for still going: the people in lafayette apparently really enjoy the trips that cornell takes down every year, which could be good because it would be a constant. it could be good because it would show them that despite everything, people still want to visit them and learn about their culture. it would be funding their local business, which is good. we are also really considering if we go taking things that the places down there really need, like shelter supplies and things like that. it would really help us in the context of the class to be able to go because the class is based on francophone cultures in north america, and those are basically Acadian and Cajun. We can't really go to New Brunswick for a five day trip, and there's already an entire class that spends the whole time in Montreal. So this would really help because we could learn now about Cajun culture.

3. reasons for not going: the tentative plan would be staying in a hotel in mississippi for a night on the way there, which would displace some of the people from new orleans that are using that hotel as their home. we most definitely DO NOT want to do that. so, we could technically drive the whole way through to louisiana, that's fine. however, once we get to lafayette, we would no longer be able to stay in the hostel we planned on because there are evacuees staying there as well and it would obviously be wrong to push them out. however (again), my professor's other home is down there, and we could all stay there, which we're fine with. there are two professors staying there who worked at a university in new orleans but knew that this trip would be happening and have the possibility of being able to spend the weekend we're there with another friend in the area. our safety is not an issue, things are fine down there. other disadvantages: we aren't sure a bunch of distraught people would really want people like us coming down, even if we do want to help while we're there. also, gas is a huge problem the further south you go. not only does it get more expensive, but the closer you get to louisiana itself, the harder it is to find and the longer you have to wait for it. our trip budget would take a hike, and the last place we would really be able to fill up would be memphis, which would put us in lafayette with around a quarter of a tank of gas. that's all well and good, but we have to be able to get back out of new orleans, and if we only have a quarter of a tank of gas, that won't get us back to memphis.

4. other options: we could go on a french architecture etc. tour through some places in missouri and illinois, however none of us in the class are particularly psyched about that option...we've been planning on louisiana for probably a year now. we could take another trip at a later time and take more people with us, possibly do something over spring break, just reschedule in general.

5. summary: we don't want to displace people, and what i've been getting from our discussions is that we as a class would really like to just do whatever's best for the people down there. while it would be a bummer to not get to go, if that's what happens, that is what happens. if the school wont let us go, we can't do anything about that, but if we can go, we'll definitely make the best of it.

hope this clears things up. btw, i actually got all of my homework for the night done before midnight, which is amazing. i didnt put anything off until tomorrow morning, or just not do it. i actually.did.my.homework. and while that shouldn't be a big deal, for me, it is. schwing.