Looking back, I really have no definitive favorite place in the French Quarter.  Everything held some interest to me, save maybe the cheap t-shirt shops.  If pressed, though, I suppose I would go with Jackson Square and the immediate area surrounding it.  It is such a beautiful area, and acts as sort of the gateway to the French Quarter, and its quintessence.  There is beauty and ugliness, art and commerce, and fun.  There were paintings of all stripes, and people of all stripes, some who looked like paintings.  Myriad performers, both large and small scale.  There is voodoo and mysticism in the shadow of a revered Catholic structure.  Tourists and locals.  All of this with the center being a statue of a man who helped save the city, which carries its own debauched backstory, surrounded by a beautiful park.  The river on one side, the St. Louis Cathedral opposite it, and the first apartment buildings on flanking both sides, each built by a local legend.  You have to go there if you go to New Orleans.

I think Jackson Square may have been the the site that put the cap on my favorite part of the trip, which was going through this new, fun, and exciting learning experience with friends, including those I made on the trip.  On our final day, in front of St. Louis Cathedral, I, along with my best friends on the trip (including my instructor, who I know will call my "Soul Sister") all had tarot readings and our palms read, learning more about each other than we had previously known, and sharing this fun and interesting experience with one another.  It was such a great way to end the trip, as it sparked conversation and was just the type of thing you don't readily find where we're from.  From a pure learning perspective, my favorite part was the walking history tour.  Our guide was fantastic, and it was just so interesting and informative.  I would recommend it to anybody who can walk, hear, and see.

It would be easy to say that I learned that the people of New Orleans are resilient, or artistic, or open, or lively, or whatever, but I think that all that is part of a larger whole.  What I learned about the people of New Orleans is that you cannot thrive here without true spirit and soul that makes itself known.  This is not a city for the banal.  You don't have to be a "weirdo", but you have to have...oh, I don't know...how about to keep with the defiantly French culture, I say you have to have a certain je ne sais quoi?  Do I have that je ne sais quoi?  I'd like to think so, but one cannot truly be the judge of that.  What I did learn, is that I, more than ever, know that I am not where I need to be, and I mean that in so many ways.