A Search for the Unfamiliar Population

It began with a camp in America, or as some would familiarize with - 'Camp America.' This, being the organization which enables you to work like a bull for nine weeks and then offer you to follow your hopes, dreams and travel bug for up to four weeks.. Or as long as your Summer wage stretches for.

As a girl in her second year of the programme, I knew what to expect, which enthused the idea of exploring America again and thus quickly outwitted the idea of teaching pottery to children for nine weeks. Nevertheless, nine weeks came and went and American travel was waiting for my new camp best friends and myself. We all came from intensely different backgrounds, countries and shapes - (due to the wonderous nine weeks of American cuisine), but we held the common need to discover new people, opinions, facts, places and experiences.

After months of everyone individually planning travel aspects, the general consensus was to scrap them all and approach our four weeks with spontaneity. We set out on our American adventure taking in suggestively tourist routes which included the unavoidable, flamboyantly advertised and predictable city of New York, and continued along with an orgasmically, caffinated Boston. We had forgotten our spontaneity oath and so, in an instant (during 'coffee time' at Starbucks) we secured flights to New Orleans for the following day - the heart, soul and wonder of Louisianna.

As a collective bunch of writers and artists who omitted eccentricity into any available breathing space, renting an apartment above a burlesque club was ideal. We made acquaintances with the owner of the club which gained us free entry to their spectacular shows accompanied with wine for rehydration for the excitement of it all. Our apartment became a hive of life where we took in the atmospheric New Orleans over a cigarette at the balcony. We lounged in jazz clubs, made friends with locals, learnt their instruments, acquired authentic parlour tattoos, and took home a hoard of unimaginable memories. New Orleans created such an immense impact on me because I was willing to experience everything it had to offer. This place oozed originality and life and had type of energy which created kind, warm and fabulous people.