After completing four years of active duty in the military away from home, i was ready to get back to New Orleans and enjoy being home for good. In July of 2005, I was looking forward to spending time with my family and starting college. For the last four years I had experienced many different deployments, and living arrangements, but none of them were like the experience of my Katrina evacuation.\r\n\r\nAfter making the thirteen hour drive to New Orleans from my final duty station in North Carolina, i thought that would be the last long road trip for a while. Just one month later I was on the road again. This time to hotel in Atlanta which was the first destination of my family\'s evacuation. Our living arrangement consisted of two separate rooms with four people in each. One of the occupants was my new born niece who cried all day and night long. The room was small and with only one restroom we had to wait in line to utilize it or go to the other room. Fast food restaurant meals got old fast. We were all used to eating good home-cooked meals, but these hotel rooms didn\'t even have microwaves. It was always a headache to try to go somewhere. Getting lost in an unfamiliar city was not fun, but hours later we\'d find what we were looking for.\r\n\r\nMuch of my Katrina evacuation experience can relate to \"The House on Mango Street.\" It was an experience of unexpected relocating, suddenly sharing almost everything with others, and living in conditions that changed frequently. Within four months we were back home to \"a real house.\"\r\n