IDV Day #1

Day #1 of the IDV Final Spring In-Person started bright and early. It also started out as a beautiful sunny day and ended with gray skies and rain.

8-9am Breakfast and Welcome by Drs Pauly and St. Marie (there was breakfast, but no welcome).
9-11am IDV 891 Homeland Security w/ Dr. Lansford
11-noon Study Abroad – Germany/Belgium Informational Meeting
12-1pm Lunch
3-4pm IDV 871 Institutions in Development w/ Dr Pauly
4-7pm Dinner- IDV Crawfish Boil!

So this was an interesting first day, as USM is now holding the In-Persons in Lloyd Hall. Lloyd was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and has been under renovation every since and just opened. They did a nice job and it has that new building smell, but it’s too bad that they were forced to keep the original structure, as the building has really small rooms, but the view of the water is amazing.

Two classes down and one still to go on Sunday, as Institutions is a doubleheader this time. Dinner was a Crawfish Boil at the newly remodeled Hardy Hall (another Katrina victim) which also recently opened (there is even a new bookstore inside, but when I stopped by they were already closed. Whoever heard of a campus bookstore closing at 1pm? The South is a weird place!). Originally the Crawfish Boil was planned for the Hardy Hall Courtyard, but the bad weather took care of that. Having never eaten a crawfish or seen one in glorious technicolor, I got the chicken sandwich (which was dull, but at least I could identify it). But I have a policy of trying new things once, so I decided to give the crawfish a try (just like I tired grits three years ago at an In-Person). Crawfish = bad idea. All that work of peeling something with a lot of tentacles and legs that looks at you with its little black beady eyes, for a little bit of meat that was not very good. No thanks. Someone told me you need to be raised on it to appreciate it. I will take their word for it.

FYI…in case you were wondering, they had a tent setup outside where they were doing the “boil” and no, I did not go look at or take photos of the crime scene.