This is an e-mail that I sent to my family and friends after I had been living in a house without electricity for about two weeks, upon returning to New Orleans in January: \r\n\r\nFor those of you who might be wondering how Alison is doing in New Orleans, here\'s a brief recounting of the events leading up to last night...the night that my roommates and I fell into hysterics (the funny kind) about our situation. Okay, so our landlord had to cancel our appointment with an electrician on the 17th because his insurance claim wasn\'t reviewed yet and he wouldn\'t have been reimbursed. Understandable, but completely horrible because it takes like 4-6 weeks to get an electrician! Other options were reviewed- a contractor\'s pole so that we could just run extension cords into the house, running an extension across the street from our neighbor\'s house who doesn\'t pay utilities so that\'d be fine with him (apparently that\'s illegal, but we were desperate), living without electricity (bad bad bad plan). A brief note about our landlord: his father was our original landlord who passed away over the summer, leaving the house to his son, a very busy doctor who has no time for us. The new landlord is going to gut and renovate the house as soon as we leave so he can charge ridiculous amounts of money for rent. Basically, neither of them want us in the house but neither wants to kick us out because we have yet to find a new place. Tara was made to sign a waiver saying that she wouldn\'t sue in case she got sick or injured... a really good sign right?! I, on the other hand, can still sue... Anyway, we\'ve been looking online all the time for a new place but price-gouging has been out of control. We found a great place that was posted online Thursday afternoon, had an appointment on Friday morning to see it, but when we got there it had already been leased. And that began the tragic day that was Friday. We have no internet obviously, so I\'ve been spending an inordinate amount of time at the library and at the gym because it\'s warm- I\'m getting really in shape! We\'re trying to spend as little time in the house as possible, but that just means that the house is getting really dirty because we\'re only there at night and it\'s impossible to clean in the dark. Seriously. I do have a lantern and a really good flashlight though. Yesterday it started to rain which shouldn\'t be the end of the world, but roofers came to our house yesterday to \"fix\" the roof and then left after they had torn the entire thing up. Tara and I were soaking wet and deciding whether or not it would be more depressing to eat on campus on a Friday night or to go home and eat in the dark. We get home and were feeling better eating pasta in the living room with candles all around when drip drip drip... ahhhhh!! It\'s leaking everywhere! Filthy water all over the already moldy house. The floors are warped enough! We keep hearing thumping noises which we assume to be chunks of the ceiling on the 2nd floor falling down. We open the bathroom door in my room and after 2 roaches scuttle away, we see that it\'s basically become a shower. And that\'s when it\'s just too funny to handle. Seeing as none of us or our families are poor...why are we living in a third-world shit-hole?!?! And that\'s why we\'re moving, hopefully starting today into temporary living arrangements while we look for a new place that hasn\'t been price-gouged. Tara and I are hopefully going to be taken in by our across the street neighbors and my other two roommates have similar plans. So, here\'s to living a place where you can flick a light switch and something actually happens! And regardless of how bad the place we\'re living in is, I\'m still so glad I\'m not living on the cruise ship because apparently that\'s just about the worst thing ever. Also, if I had asked for Tulane to provide me housing, I would\'ve been in the same situation because the \"modular housing option\" is not going to materialize until mid-February and will be expensive and small. Whole Foods on Magazine Street is opening February 1st and the city is still really beautiful! I\'m really glad to be back and am looking for a great volunteer job. And so that\'s the jist of how I\'m doing! Hope you\'re appreciating your electricity wherever you\r\nare. \r\nSincerely, \r\nAlison\r\n