Disney Wine and Dine Half-Marathon 2013 Recap

   

     I finished my first half-marathon exactly 10 days ago and could not be happier with the experience. My friend Hannah and I ran 13.1 miles around the happiest place on Earth– Disney World! I decided to RunDisney because who doesn't want to ride Splash Mountain, drink wine from all over the world, and run around Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot all in weekend?

     The race itself went well! Around mile 8 I started wondering why I was still running, and the last mile was pretty brutal because we couldn't see the finish line. There were also some "hills" due to the path we took from park to park on the highway. Overall, I would highly recommend this race to anyone and everyone.

     Advice to anyone considering a RunDisney event:

     * Plan early. We bought race tickets in April or March, and the race was sold out by August. If you have cheerleaders accompanying you, buy their post-race tickets early too. On the same note, don't forget to pick up post-race party tickets for non-runners at the race expo.

     * Find a training plan and stick with it. I used this plan.

     * For Wine and Dine, if you can get to Disney on Thursday and spend all day Friday in one of the parks it's totally worth it. I've never been to Disney with so few crowds.

     * Getting to and from the expo takes a long time. We thought we might have enough time for Hollywood Studios on Saturday. Wrong. After waiting about 30 minutes for the bus, driving to the ESPN Wide World of Sports, doing a little shopping, and getting back to the hotel, we were gone for about three hours. Also, there are no buses from ESPN to any of the other parks, so you would have to go back to your hotel first then make your way over to another park. All of the waiting and walking can sap your energy, which is less than ideal before running 13.1 miles. Just spend the day at the expo and enjoy a late lunch/nap before the race on Saturday.

     * You can take pictures with characters at the pre-race party, and there's also lots of dancing. We didn't notice the characters until about an hour into the party, so we were cutting it close to get into our gates in time. Don't worry about bathrooms, there are plenty.

          - These were two of my favorite things at the pre-race party.

     * Designate a meeting spot in Epcot before Saturday night when there are thousands of racers/cheerleaders running around trying to meet up. We picked the cranberry bog in front of the big fountain. Yep, a cranberry bog.

     * Since this was my first half, I wanted to finish the whole thing without stopping. If I were to do another Disney race, I would totally stop and pose with characters along the way. I almost lost my resolve for Darth Vader and Princess Mini Leia.

Leauxcal Lundi: New Iberia City Park

     New Iberia's City Park is making moves– well, not the park itself, but members of our lovely community committed to making it a better place for families to play, run, and relax.

     The picture above shows the running routes, the longest being 1 mile. If you run all of these routes and wander into a few of the streets neighboring the park, you can train for a 5k, 10k, and even a half marathon. It is one of the few places in town with enough sidewalk to have a nice long run uninterrupted by cars.

     A local young professional's group, On Tap, raised money to build a new jungle gym. I saw it for the first time the other day, and I just hope that big kids are allowed to enjoy the fun too. I'll test it out and let you know.

     The park also offers recreational sports, wellness programs including Yoga and Zumba, a boat launch, tennis courts, swimming lessons in the summer, and a Veteran's center. Raisin' Canes is co-sponsoring a dog park on the bayou set to open on October 19 at 10am. Should be fun!

     I have spent a lot of time in the park over the years playing softball and tennis, teaching swim lessons, and more recently training for a half marathon. I am so happy to see that it is getting better all the time and that so many people from all over New Iberia are using it to their advantage. Just watch out for the geese.

   



   

America's Prettiest Towns: Leauxcal Lundi

I'm going to refer to Forbes Magazine for this post. Basically, New Iberia is the best. Read on...

Shadows on the Teche: Leauxcal Lundi

A little Instagram.

     Last week I took you to Belle Ecorce Farms in St. Martinville. This week is an utterly shameless plug for a leauxcal place I hold near and dear to my heart. The Shadows on the Teche was built from 1831 to 1834 by David and Mary Weeks. After four generations of Weeks family ownership, William Weeks Hall bequeathed the plantation and all of the furnishings, documents, and clothing therein to the National Trust for Historic Preservation–– one day before his death in 1958. I have worked as a tour guide at this lovely Antebellum home and absolutely love to revel in the property's moss-laden oaks, winding paths, and rich history. 

     As you cross the hustle and bustle of Main Street New Iberia, your mind is in modern mode.  Everyone vies for the best spot to snap an Insta pic of this majestic plantation. The second you enter onto the property through a side-gate in the long white fence, the world slows to a more forgotten pace. Dragonflies float lazily from one azalea to the next. The bayou crawls toward the Gulf, not making a sound. You can almost picture yourself lounging on the wide front porch with hand fan and a glass of sweet tea watching the horse-drawn carriages clop past. Maybe without the smells and hoop-skirts of the early nineteenth century. 

     The Shadows on the Teche is so named because of the lovely web-like shadows cast to the ground by the live oak trees and myriad other flora and fauna in the garden. Teche is the name of the bayou that runs through New Iberia. The word teche is Chitimacha, our local Native American tribe, for "snake." Although the Shadows was a working plantation, sugar was not produced here but on another of the family's plantations on Weeks Island. The architecture is grand, neo-classical, and very sturdy. The home's interior is filled with items original to the Shadows' Antebellum era. Tours emphasize the Weeks family's personal lives, the role of women and children, the work done in and around the house, the production of sugar, and the house's role in the Civil War. You can even take a tour in French!

     It is amazing how many visitors we get to tiny New Iberia from around the world. Many stop by while visiting Avery Island, some are huge James Lee Burke fans, and others are from New Iberia and have lived here all their lives without seeing the plantation's interiors. No matter your relationship to this place, it is instantly magical and a wonderful way to see, smell, and sense what life in the Antebellum South may have been like. 

I spy at the Shadows: 

• Look for Mickey Mouse. He visited the house.
• The garden is home to statues, a rose garden, coy pond, and the family cemetery. One family    member's name is listed among the tombstones, but the body is not included. 
• A receipt from the 1850s is in the pantry. Scan the list for an item associated with America's westward expansion and the building of the continental railroad. It's something we don't eat too often today. 
• Two corner stones in the garden mark the location of one of the home's many outbuildings.  

A great back porch view of the house's second story beneath the arms of a towering and gnarly live oak.

      After visiting the house, you can stroll down Main Street and sample some of the local fare from: A Cake to Remember, Clementine's, Bojangle's (sushi, not biscuits), Victor's Cafeteria (if you're a James Lee Burke fan this is where Dave Robichaux eats), or Cafe des Amis  (related to Cafe des Amis in Breaux Bridge). They're all within walking distance of the museum, with Cafe des Amis being the farthest- about a mile. 

     Before visiting the Shadows, considering walking to the Bayou Teche Museum. You can park at the Shadows and walk down a block on the right side of Main Street to learn a little about New Iberia and this region's history and industry before going into more detail at the Shadows. 

After the Shadows, you can drive to Conrad Rice Mill–– America's oldest working mill. Mary Clara Conrad Weeks Moore, the Shadow's original owner, was not related to the Conrad rice family. If you're gluten free, the mill store has plenty of rice flour mixes for baking, cooking, and frying.  

Belle Ecorce Farms:Leauxcal Lundi

     We're geauxing leauxcal every Lundi/Monday!

Belle means beautiful and ecorce means bark, or rind. The goats seem to think the farm's bark is beautiful and tasty. Maybe that's what gives their cheese such great flavor?

     In lieu of a mot du jour Monday, I'm going to start some Leauxcal Lundi posting. Why their weird spelling of local? French names like Boudreau were changed to Boudreaux when Cajuns were asked to sign their names. Many were illiterate at the time, so x marked the spot. We use the spelling today in place of an "o" sound to let everyone know it's something Cajun/Louisiana related. So, there will be some French words and flavor thrown in to these posts because they're all about life in Southwest Louisiana: the amazing people, the food that makes you want to slap 'yo mama, and the interesting places you might find amid the cane and down the bayou.

     If you like goat cheese, Belle Ecorce Farms is a great stop on the way to see St. Martinville's main square and famous Evangeline Oak. The Tres Belle Chevre is what you want. St. Martinville is a 15 minute drive from New Iberia about a 30 minute commute from Lafayette. The town itself was one of the first established in the Attakapas District, an area laid aside by then French Louisiana for cattle, and the final stopping point for almost 200 Acadian refugees deported from Nova Scotia.

     St. Martinville's downtown has some French quarter-type architecture all surrounding the main square, it's jewel being the local Catholic church. The St. Martin de Tours church has a beautiful Lourdes-esque grotto and some of the prettiest Christmas lights. Behind the church, you can visit the oak tree where Longfellow's Evangeline purportedly landed and waited for word from her love. On the same street the Acadian Memorial and African American Museum, awaiting any visitors interested in learning more about the area's Cajun and Creole heritage.

     Back to the goat cheese, though. If you're driving to the farm, keep your eyes wide-open all the time because the road is easy to miss. I've taken poor Mike on many an adventure that led to wrong turns, dead ends, and sites that were closed for a multitude of reasons. I thought our visit to Belle Ecorce might be the same after a few wrong turns, but I spotted one goat and then almost 200. We found the pot of cheese gold at the end of the rainbow.

     This place doesn't just have goats. There are miniature horses, birds galore, and even a few hairless cats. Mike is standing in front of the farm's main house in the picture below, but the delicious goodness is in a little room next to the aviary. Watch out for the roosters!

     We went for the Tuscan Party Disc and some kind of chevre with strawberry/raspberry. You can almost eat the second one like yogurt, it's so creamy. The chevre would be great on pancakes with fresh raspberries and strawberries sliced over it. The Tuscan Party Disc spread onto a crostini with roasted peppers on top is scrumptious. If you're gluten free, nestle the cheese in an endive leaf, sprinkle with paprika, and enjoy! 

     If nobody's home, don't worry. You can still buy your cheese, just leave your money in the honor box. It's so ESA and so Davidson. I love it! Geaux leauxcal and make a trip out to the farm. If you feel like staying a little closer to home, or trying the cheese at a restaurant, Jolie's Bistro and Pour in Lafayette feature the Tres Belle Chevre on their menus. You could even pair the cheese with some Vouvray and imagine yourself in the Loire Valley, just with a Cajun flair.  

     WesMar Farms, near Alexandria, is another local goat cheesemonger. I haven't visited the farm yet, but you can find them at the Market at the Horse Farm in Lafayette every Saturday. Just in case you can't get enough goat. 

LSAT Livin' and Yoga

This may seem a little extreme, but after a few months of studying I feel like it could be a good strategy.

     

     Have you ever taken the LSAT? Considering it? I'm in the throes of battle with logical reasoning, and I'm only beginning to gain the upper hand. My best piece of advice for the moment is this– it applies to life in general, as well- give yourself plenty of time. I decided to take the test in October after taking a pre-June test prep-class and quickly realizing how much I had to learn and practice. Law schools like to have you thinking like a lawyer before you even step foot on campus. They like you to think logically, that is. Thinking in a logical manner is surprisingly difficult. Being under the pressure of a 35 minute time limit does not help. So, lesson learned, all you need is time. 

     My strategies for conquering the LSAT have shifted recently, and it's about time for a new post. 4 months into studying, I give you my suggestions:

• Become a yoga instructor. Learn to meditate and control your mind. Use the breathing techniques to ease standardized-test anxiety. Ok, maybe just taking a few yoga classes will do. But really, become a yoga instructor. I'll go more into detail on that later...
• Drink more tea. Drink less wine. Maybe it's just me, but does coffee seem to make you more tired and less able to concentrate from time to time? I know it's sad, but wine does the same thing.
• Walk more. Bring your mom along. Talk to her about the most common flaw found on the LSAT. She'll love it.
• Take on studying in small doses. 2 to 3 hours is about all I can handle if I'm not actually sitting down for a Prep Test.
• Buy the PowerScore books. Read them. Use them as pillows and hope that some of their wisdom will seep in through your ear. Read them again when you wake up, just in case osmosis didn't work.
• Take one day off a week to just chill.
• Check out these sites: 
• http://blueprintprep.com/lsatblog/  
• http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/
• http://7sage.com/
• http://thegirlsguidetolawschool.com/
• http://www.lsac.org/
• Rock the LSAT! At least, I hope that's what happens come October 5th. 

Atha Yoga Anushasanam

My little Toulouse apartment was the squished three-story building. I miss it. 

"And now the inquiry of yoga."
"Now, the teachings of yoga."
"Now this is yoga as I have perceived it."

There are plenty of different translations of Patanjali's first Yoga Sutra, 1 of 196. Sutra means thread. Patanjali's 2nd century text became an early authority on Raja Yoga, or the Kingly path, and it is still used today as a foundation for most yoga teachings. Since I don't speak Sanskrit, I picked multiple translations of atha yoga anushasanam. All of them are pretty fitting for where I am now because I'm training to become a yoga teacher in Lafayette, LA through Acadiana Yoga & Wellness.

Rewind. I touched down on U.S. soil on Jaunary 1, 2013. I was hoping that the new year would bring new growth and opportunity to my life, and it has. The beginning of the year also brought some new struggles, namely a bad bout of Campylobacteriosis. It's a pretty nasty bacterial infection that I probably picked up in France. The doctor said the culprit was most likely uncooked poultry, but I think the ridiculous amount of unpasteurized cheese that I consumed is a more likely candidate. Accusing a French chef of undercooking chicken is probably the worst accusation of all time. We'll stick with the cheesy explanation.

 After two days at home, I was sick but I was also employed. My new job was completely different from teaching middle schoolers in some ways, but in many ways it was extremely similar. I had never bar tended before, but the staff at Legend's made my training enjoyable. Their margaritas are awesome and so are the quesadillas. My kind of place. Middle schoolers and customers who've had a little too much to drink are surprisingly similar in comportment. I guess I was more prepared for bar work than I thought. After about a month of driving almost an hour one-way from New Iberia to Lafayette, though, I decided to leave the bar to reclaim a non-zombie existence.

Luckily my yoga program started in early January, and it runs until mid-June, so I had some structure to my life. After I left Legend's I got certified in Mat II Pilates. I also went back to the Shadows-on-the-Teche to work as a tour guide, after an almost three year hiatus. I have other small projects in the works right now, but those are a surprise.

Here are a few things I've learned since I've gotten home:
– I missed home more than I thought. My body agreed and actually held off on completely breaking down until I was home, so my mom could doctor me up.
– I miss Toulouse about as much as I thought I would, which is to say ridiculously. I loved the intimacy of the Rose City's streets, my daily coffee at La Fiancee, walking to and from work, the food (even the cheese culprit, it was worth it), the nasal accents, the warmth of the people, and the stunning sunsets.
– It's ok to come home.
– It's ok to decide that whatever job you're doing is not right for you at the time. If opportunity doesn't come knocking, you have to dress up as opportunity and walk out the door.
– If I'm in an airport, something will go wrong. I recently went to Boston, had a wonderful trip, and got to the airport a month early to fly home. Thanks, mom.
– I miss teaching. So, I'm giving it another go next year. Fingers crossed.
– Yoga has this crazy sneaky ability to force you to introspect, heal, and thrive.

Since I'll be doing 200 hours worth of yoga training, prepare yourselves for some yoga advice, poses, philosophy, and frustrations. For now, I'll start as Patanjali suggests by simply observing my own perceptions of yoga in the world and how those observations relate to my life and my students'.

Namaste y'all.