The Bayou Badgers

This visual is to aid those of you who, like myself up until a couple of weeks ago, can't fathome the look of real Bayou! I am still verifying with Stephen various depictions of Louisiana from the movie "Water Boy." I still don't know if people really live ON the bayou or not! Fact or fairytale, you decide! (That is not us in the canoe.) Here's a picture of the downtown Shreveport/Bossier area. This bridge crosses over the Red River which divides Shreveport from Bossier City. Since I'm still new here, I won't pretend that I know if its really Shreveport or Bossier in that picture below! We live in what seems to be out of town, but it's not. To give you an idea, when we told people at church where we live, we had to use the landmark of McDonalds on the road that leads out of town. (As opposed to some other roads that loop around the town in a huge circle. Stephen tells me that land marks are big here. I'm figuring that one out quickly, since the street signs are not huge and are not placed next to the stop lights, like they are California. Here most stoplights are dangling on huge cables above the intersections. The street signs, even at main intersections are way off to the side on the corners of the street, like all other residential neighborhoods. The river front is the main place for shopping, dining, and apparantly gambling too!

One last thing about the weather here - it's really wet. I'm not used to warm-weather rain yet. As the apartment manager mentioned when I was signing my contract, "Leesiana has a lotta mowd." I asked her to repeat what she had said. The word I missed was MOLD. Talk about lost in translation! I am quickly learning how to turn on the accent, and love showing off my skills to Stephen. (I don't ever use the accent in public - it would feel weird even though I would fit right in!)