Well I have officially had my fill of New Orleans at this point. This weekend Erin, Eric, John, and I headed back down to the Big Easy for yet another cultural experience. In the meantime, the population of the town of Newbern doubled as AIAS (American Institute of Architecture Students) held the South Quad conference at Rural Studio. Students from Mississippi State, Louisiana, Arkansas, and several other schools joined us for a few days. The participants pitched tents behind Chantilly for the weekend and took part in several planned activities. Second year was represented by Nick Wickersham and Golpar. Friday night consisted of a catfish dinner for all of the visitors followed by a lecture by Chicago based architect, Dan Wheeler who gave a presentation on several of his projects. Dick Hudgens, our architecture history teacher, served as the official tour guide of Magnolia Grove on Saturday. The visitors were given tours of Rural Studio projects including Perry Lakes, Lion’s Park, Dog Pound, Mason’s Bend and many more. Everyone celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in style Saturday night. All in all it was an exciting weekend for everyone wherever the wind blew them. It is hard to believe the end of the semester is creeping up on us and in about a month and a half we will be headed back to civilization. I am not sure how I feel about that.