So, it's been a while again and I'm real sorry. But there's a lot of stuff to tell this time round.
About a month ago in my Crimes Against Humanity class we had a visit from four marines. All had served time in Iraq and although they didn't really say much about their experiences over there, it was interesting to meet them and see the reactions of other students because soldiers in Iraq, whether currently deployed or returned, are highly admired in America. Most of these boys were my age or a little older so it was a really fascinating experience to be able to hear of what they've seen and what occurred.
So this was before my big roadtrip to Nashville which I mentioned before...
Firstly, the roadtrip was AWESOME! Me, Irene, Taz and Melanie headed on a drive firstly to Ashville, NC. The trip took 5 hours so by the time we arrived, we only had a quick tour around town then the girls fell asleep at 6pm. Everyone was exhausted but we were all looking forward to the next day to Nashille, Tennessee!
The drive to Nashville was amazing. To get from Ashville to Nashville you have to drive through the Appalachians and the scenery was beautiful. It took another five hours to get there but when we did it was NOT what we expected. We were thinking there'd be cowboys walking around, buskers and just a small town. That's a bit stereotypical but whatever. Our first view of the city was mindblowing. Skyscrapers and buildings everywhere. We had managed to find ourselves in the Financial District and the man at the Marriot was not helpful in pointing us towards Honky Tonk Town. (This place is for real, I didn't make up Honky Tonk Town)
Anyway, we managed to find a nice accommodation that we could afford then we all headed down to the Country Music Hall of Fame!!!
I loved it there. There was an exhibition on Hank Williams and there were framed records everywhere. Unfortunately I was the only one on the trip who likes country music so the others were a little lost as to who all the people were.
After the Hall of Fame, me and Irene dropped Taz and Melanie off at the hotel because they wanted to sleep so we set out in search of Honky Tonk Town ourselves. When we found it, it was EXACTLY what we expected. Neon lights, guitar pictures, cowboy hats and saloons! We had fun in all the gift shops and tried on hats, then we found a sports bar to have lunch at. So by the time we got back to the hotel it was getting close to dark and was time to pick up other girls and head back down there.
First stop was the Wildhorse Saloon where we ate true American food, learnt to line dance and laughed at the horses on the ceiling (they really were on the ceiling). After that we managed to find Coyote Ugly! We were so excited about it. The bartenders danced on the bar, bootscootin' and all. It was such a fun night. We went to two other bars that night before heading home. We all had such a blast and it was great to have a break from living on campus.
The next day we were pretty tired and were meant to head to Charlotte, NC for the night but we were so exhausted and the weather was bad so we decided to do the full 10hr journey back to Wilmington. Even though the trip was cut short, I couldn't imagine it being any better.
So, that's basically the short and sweet version of our trip and once we got back to uni it was back to studying...
The week after our roadtrip, one of the groups on campus had organised an American Home Tour through three homes. It was really great because we were invited into the homes of three lovely families, were fed traditional Southern food and received that well talked about Southern hospitality. It was a great experience to properly see how Americans live outside the university culture.
Later in the week, we had a huge day filled wih ice hockey and a pep rally. Me, Matt, Karen, Mat, Adam and Rebecca all went to the UNCW ice hockey game. I LOVE ICE HOCKEYYYYYYYY. I had SO much fun at the game, yelling at the ref, bashing on the glass and watching my friend Kevin out on the ice. It definitely was a great experience to go and see some American sport. After the ice hockey game, the school hosted its pep rally called "Midnite Madness" which basically is a huge carnival to introduce the basketball teams. There was the pep band playing, cheerleaders, and singers performing before the teams came out... It was just like in the movies. After this, there was a carnival outside with jumping castles and games and a live band. Me and my friend Matt (recently graduated from CSU) had a race through an inflatable obstacle course... winner got a free t-shirt. It was ON! And yes, I won and am wearing that t-shirt proudly!
It was a really fun night all up.
Finally, the one other thing that's happened is today i went on a tour of Pender Correctional Facility in Burgaw, NC with the Sociology and Criminology Club. I was really excited and it was definitely an experience. To let you know a bit about the prison, it is a medium-security prison that houses persons committed of murder, sexual assault, drug offences and other serious crimes. It was really daunting at first since none of us in the group knew that we were actually being taken into the yards when the prisoners were there. We were shown their sleeping dormitories, the security areas, the segregation ("the hole") and the education facilities. I found it really fascinating and after the initial anxiety of entering the grounds, its surprising how safe you actually do feel. The prisoners stared a lot but there was no comments or abuse yelled which we had been warned about so it was really good to go in and see how the prison system is run. At the end of the tour we actually spoke with two prisoners about their lives living behind bars and it was interesting to see how prison time had reformed them. The most interesting thing I took away from our talk was Darrell (serving a 26 year sentence) said "Most of these men aren't bad people, they're just people who made bad choices." I think he had a really valid point there, it's just sad to see that many of the men in prison don't believe that themselves which leads them back down the same criminal paths as before.
Anyway, hope I didn't bore you but it's been a pretty action-packed month for me.
Thanks to everyone who's been following my blog!
Cheers.
