Thursday, April 21, 2016

New Words

When you visit a place, you learn new words. It's not really what you expect when you visit a section of your own country, where the speak the same language as you. But it's true none the less.


Here are a few words I have learned, or learned a new meaning for, this week.


hurrication -- evacuating for a hurricane, usually just for a few days. (hurricane + vacation)

neutral grounds -- these are what we call "islands" or "medians" in my area; raised places in the center of a road

krewe -- a group, or more formally a Social Aid and Pleasure Society, which organizes carnival parades and events in New Orleans. Many are also 501(c)(3) organizations that perform charitable acts. One such is taking parades to nursing homes and children's hospitals.

culinary medicine -- a new concept in medicine developed by a professor at Tulane University Medical School in New Orleans who is a medical doctor and chef. The idea is to teach healthy nutrition as preventative medicine. At Tulane, medical students are required to do a rotation on this which includes cooking and hands-on learning in nutrition.  Tulane is packaging this curriculum for other medical schools, who are sometimes sending students there for the course. We learned about "culinary medicine" when we visited Liberty's Kitchen a teaching program for homeless youth which gives them self-esteem, life skills, culinary arts training, jobs in the food industry and opportunities to study for work they want to do.

We are actually learning a lot on this trip -- my husband and son have been gaining tons of construction skills. We've tried new things (like poboys and real jambalaya) and stepped outside our comfort zones. (See my rat story.)


We also feel like we have been productive in a a wide variety of ways. While my men have repaired a house, I've served at a food pantry, done an intake at a transitional housing facility, sorted beads for reuse, and done office work at a school. Nothing large or exciting, but hopefully helpful.


What new stuff have you learned recently? 

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