Saturday July 25, Brad Davis

So, we had yet another very long and adventurous day today. We started off the morning fairly early, like around 8, so we could get ready have breakfast and take the long journey down to the convention center. Today was our day to go to the Learning Center. The Learning Center required us to participate in three things. Casey, Chris and myself went together. The first one we did was called 'Your Story? Priceless!' This required us to look at our faith throughout our life and write out the past, present and future of our life and God's role in it. I was very surprised when I began to write down exactly how much my faith has influenced my life and how I have become the person that I am. When I wrote down my future, without having to think about it, I included the church in my plans. This was a real eye-opener as to how much my faith in God is a part of my life. The second thing we did was called a labyrinth where we walked in a maze and were meditating and praying by ourselves. It was a time for reflection and when you got to the center of the circle you let go of your problems or whatever was on your mind and you left it there. The last event we participated in was called 'Level Playing Field' where we looked at how we all aren't equal and how we are oppressed and privileged based on our race, gender, education, economic status, and our families. We had to hold hands and move forward or backwards based on the questions we were asked. It was shocking to see how the majority kept moving forward and allowing the minority to fall behind. We sometimes had to let go of their hands, just as society sometimes gives up on a certain group and allows them to fall.
After everybody had finished their workshops we decided to do a little shopping and went to the riverside mall. There were a lot of shops and many memories were made. After that we had an early dinner at the Acme Oyster House. The food was amazing, however it tasted better the first time,(some of our friends tasted it a second time) and we all had such a great time.
Like every night, tonight we went to the Superdome. The cool thing about tonight was that we got floor seats! It was a change to dance and go a little crazy... not that we weren't already running around the city and making our presence known. The speakers were great and the music was really good. Tonight we decided to skip community life events and are having fun back at the hotel. We have met so many great people from all over and are shocked at how our time is almost over. We had an amazing day today and despite the fact that we are all very tired we are still going strong and are being very loud, doing our best to annoy everyone possible. We have all gotten very close and the politeness has worn off, however, we are not taking anything personal and we are understanding of each other because we all feel the same way. NOLA has been so much fun, I'm unsure if Maryland can handle us when we get back!