Hey Y’all

Hello Family and Friends,

Well, I am back once again, bound to travel to a new part of the world or rather the United States.  Since I was very young, I have traveled the United States with my family.   I have driven up and down the Atlantic coast, touched the Pacific Ocean, stood at the Grand Canyon and even walked some of the corn fields in Iowa.  While I thought I had experienced the American culture, I knew  that there were parts I was still missing; the part of getting to really know my fellow Americans.  Although I have driven with my family down to Florida three times, driving through the Southeastern States, we never really spent much time in the Southern States.

As I began my final academic semester at Bay Path College,  I knew that I wanted to travel one more time with my friends and take some unique classes.  We were offered the chance to take a Special Topics in History class about the Old South.  This would combine my love of history and my passion to travel, as we would be spending a week traveling between Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina.  For the past fourteen weeks of our fall semester, we spent every week learning the history of the “old south,” from its colonization to the Civil War onto the post-Civil War era and  Reconstruction.  We read parts of Gone with the Wind, learned about Martin Luther King Jr.’s early life, as he grew up in Atlanta, and President Jimmy Carter.  We even read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which was been made into a motion picture in 1997 directed by Clint Eastwood.  At one point in the semester, our class was divided into three teams to represent each of the three cities we would be traveling to.  We were given the task of learning about each city, from the history and cuisine to interesting facts and places we’d want to go.  We came out as experts on each of our cities while getting a well rounded understanding of the cities we would be visiting over our Winter break, especially when combined with our readings and film viewing of M.L.K. Jr, President Carter and Sherman’s March.

I am very excited to say that we will be leaving in just a few short days, where we are heading to Atlanta, Georgia first , home of the Carter Center, Cocoa-Cola Headquarters, Olympic Park and Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth place among other places.  From there we will be driving onto Savannah and then to Charleston.  Not only will be visiting historical landmarks, staying at some unusual locations, and meeting local people, but we will also be helping out our fellow Americans in each city along with way.  I can not wait to experience all that we have been learning about in class first hand, getting the chance to try some new foods, have new experiences and help others along with way.  See you in Atlanta!