Bayside residents back in the bayou

For Bayside residents Udora Choi and Kaye Park, the last five months have been anything but ordinary. The two college students planned to return to Tulane University in New Orleans for their sophomore year last August, but Hurricane Katrina forced the school to close last semester and the two students to enroll at Queens College.
Now, six months later, Choi and Park, both Cardozo graduates, are back at Tulane, but the reminders of the devastation still linger.
“We were saying how the hurricane was five months ago [and if the conditions were like this now] there must have been an incredible amount of damage,” Park said. “There were still a lot of trees down and an overall messiness to the area.”
Park and Choi along with nearly 90 percent of the Tulane students returned to campus days before the first day of class, which represents a slight decrease from a normal year, but not far from normal.
“Almost everyone is interested in helping the New Orleans community,” Choi said. “A lot of people have already volunteered their time already doing service projects.”
“We have always taught history at Tulane; now we are going to make it,” Tulane President Scott Cowen said. “As the largest private employer in Orleans Parish as well as the largest importer of brainpower, our students, faculty and staff will take the lead in rebuilding our great city.”
The two Bayside residents have settled back into their dorm rooms, started their spring semester courses and spent time catching up with friends who they did not see for the past seven months.
Although, they both say things are returning a little bit more to normal with each passing day, Choi and Park along with all of the returning Tulane students, have a common bond they will never forget.
“I think we are going to have a lot of solidarity on campus,” Park said.