Baton Rouge

Well, it’s been nine days since we started calling Baton Rouge home and now we’re just about to pack up and leave on Friday.

First it was hard getting used to the area. As a fellow News21-er put it, you’re in a new place trying to adapt your routines of home to a place you hardly know.

Now it’s hard thinking about leaving, especially when you think about all the people we’ve meet and all the stories we’ve heard. And trust me everyone has one, some the same, some very different and heartbreaking.

Today was no different with the exception that for the first time since we arrived, we felt like we belonged.

Wednesday started and ended with great conversation.

In the morning we met up with Chris Normand, who is going to be a senior at Louisiana State University in the fall. Chris was working at KLSU deejaying the morning to afternoon shift. Chris, if you haven’t been keeping up with our blog, is trying to create an iPhone application that interacts with you the minute you walk into a store or business.

He took a class this past semester that gave him the platform to think innovatively and tap the intelligence of his electronically adapt mind.

Tomorrow we’re driving down to New Orleans to meet with his professor Doctor Ralph Maurer to find out more about the class and how he was able to create a learning environment that fostered this kind of thinking.

From there we meet City Councilman Chandler Loupe. It was there where I realized the world works in mysterious ways. The planets align and it brings like-minded people together.

When we arrived, we were greeted not only by Councilman Loupe, but also by a team of people transforming a local school, the Dunham School, into a digital learning environment where every student gets a laptop from Apple.

Next fall, the school will adapt itself to this new learning environment and create a classroom of collaboration with an emphasis on teamwork and learning.

In the evening, Courtnee and I realized just how homesick one gets when working on the road. Being away from home, you forget the feeling of being in a place that’s lived-in and filled with the comforts of home.

Luckily, we were reminded of what it’s like to be home. We were invited into the home of Saiward Pharr, who works with the NPR station. She whipped us up a nice home cooked meal, which tasted better than any item from the menu of a fast food chain or a dinner special from a fancy restaurant filled with strangers.

As we said our good-byes, Saiward made sure we could take a little piece of “home”. She sent us off with a Tupperware filled with homemade brownies (recipe courtesy of Pillsbury).

Those little pieces of “home” didn’t last long. Courtnee is finishing them all as we speak. Oh well, maybe that’s what you need when you’re away from home; a sweet treat from a new friend in a foreign place.

Sometimes it’s the strangers you meet and get to know that make being away from home not so bad at all.

-Racquel