I do feel blessed, and psyched I am, even if I met most of them already: they’re incredibly good-humored and nice, and we hit it off. There’s only grandmother left, but we both received raving reviews about each other, and I’m ready to like her a lot too.
I’m positive that there will be many funny and awkward “Meet the relatives” moments (as in “laicist socialist European meets fervently religious Americans”), so get ready for the report :)

Tons of beignets were already part of the plan, so lots of them will be in your honor. Speaking of “your honor”, and since I didn’t write much lately on 43T, let me tell you how incredibly brave you were. I really wish you feel better soon, and that you can sort out your life in the best way possible after all the stress and the pain you had to go through. A transatlantic hug for you!

Seemingly they worked. It was really about celebration and reciprocal affection.
And the awkward moments were actually confined to food (looking for the right inspiration to describe the frozen smile on my nazi-snob-foodie face when I was presented with a sweet potato something with marshmellows on it).

Seriously, now, I came back with many different impressions of the city, and I’m waiting for them to sink in before writing them.
The most powerful were about the Katrina aftermath, so I started with them.