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Message: <blockquote data-quote="babomb" data-source="post: 2200539" data-attributes="member: 1316">I've lived near N.O. my whole life, and I'm currently attending Tulane University, which is in New Orleans.There are three kinds of weather in New Orleans: sunny, thunderstorm, and cool/cold (and overcast). In October, you're typically looking at a high in the 70s or upper 60s and an overnight low in the 40s or 50s. There might be some point where it gets up to 80 for several days, but then a cool front comes in bringing a day-long thunderstorm and dropping the temperature back to a typical level. It's also possible that it will be overcast and windy most of the day and then start raining around 4 PM. It is always humid, and there are a lot of mosquitoes.PronunciationPeople in New Orleans don't have a "Southern" accent, and there aren't that many true Cajuns in the city either. (They mostly live near Lafayette [la-FEE-ette or la-FIE-ette].) To the extent that New Orleanians have an accent, it's closer to a Brooklyn accent. "Oil" is pronounced "earl", "ninth" is "nint'".It's spelled beignets and pronounced ben-YAYS. Crawfish is not spelled (or pronounced) with a "y". Pecans is pronounced "puh-CAWNS", not "PEE-cans"; pralines is "PRAW-leens", not "PRAY-leens"; "Esplanade" is pronounced "ess-plan-AID", not "ess-plan-ahd". "Trolley" is pronounced "streetcar".A lot of street names look French, but aren't pronounced like it. For instance, Carondelet is pronounced "kah-ron-de-lette". The musical instrument (on the steamboat Natchez, for example) is pronounced "cal-eye-oh-pee", but Calliope St. is "cal-ee-ohp".Locals don't really pronounce it "Nawlins"; it's more like "Na-wa-lins". It is never New Or-leens except for rhyming, e.g. "Do you know what it means to miss New Or-leens". It is, however, in "Or-leens" parish.PlacesThere are main areas of New Orleans are uptown, downtown/the central business district (CBD), mid-city, French Quarter, and the Lakefront.Uptown includes the Garden District. In the Garden District, there are a lot of parks and really nice houses and so on. However, New Orleans, is often called a "checkerboard" city. In other words, if you're in a really nice neighborhood, walk two blocks and you aren't. Audubon Zoo is in the Garden District, as is the nearby Audubon Park, which includes a golf course and track. Tulane and Loyola Universities are also there. Some of the most important streets are St. Charles Ave., Magazine St., South Carrolton, North/South Claiborne. Magazine has a lot of little shops on it. A green streetcar line runs down St. Charles through the CBD to Canal St., the edge of the French Quarter.The CBD is where you'll find the skyscrapers and such. Canal Street is the border between the CBD and the French Quarter. When streets cross Canal, they change names. A red streetcar line runs down Canal, and some of them turn off Canal onto North Carrolton, ending at City Park. The CBD includes the Superdome, the Aquarium of the Americas, Harrah's casino, and a number of museums. Cafe du Monde is famous, so all the tourists go there. The locals usually go to Rue de la Course or Morning Call. Between the aquarium and Riverwalk (a mall, which by the way was hit by a boat a few years ago), there's a cool waterfront park. There's a big fountain there, with various Spanish crests around it. I like to sit there and stare at the river sometimes. Strictly speaking, "downtown" includes the CBD and then some.Mid-City landmarks include City Park, Mid-City Lanes Rock 'N' Bowl (a hole-in-the-wall bowling alley that features live music nightly), and the New Orleans Fair Grounds (where Jazz Fest is held). The French Quarter you're probably familiar with. It is also called the Vieux Carre (French for Old Square). The reason it's the French Quarter is because that's where most of the French inhabitants lived. The CBD used to be called the American Quarter. Canal was the neutral ground. Because of this, we use the term "neutral ground" instead of "median". Just don't make the mistake of thinking the whole quarter is like Bourbon St. There are a lot of neat stores, the old mint, the French Market, Jackson Square, the St. Louis Cathedral, and the Cabildo (which used to be the rectry for the cathedral before the govt. took it over).The lakefront is the part near Lake Ponchartrain. UNO is here, as are a number of retaurants.OtherBeads are sold year-round, but we secretly mock anyone who buys beads except to throw them in a parade.If I had to pick one street sign to represent New Orleans, it would be "One Way", with "No Left Turn" a close second. "Speed Limit" is probably last.There aren't many airboats near here, no matter what you see on TV.There's a bridge that goes across the widest part of Lake Ponchartrain (north-south). It's called Causeway and it's 24 miles long.There are bars, clubs, and restaurants everywhere. Most of the bars don't ask for ID. Every night of the week, there are tons of places one can go to hear music.There's a part of eastern New Orleans that has a large Vietnamese population.There are a LOT of con-men near the French Quarter. Besides the infamous "where you got your shoes", there's this one game called Razzle that's pretty popular. I think it involves a board that you tilt to move a marble or something.</blockquote>

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