Please Keep Your Hands & Feet Inside The Vehicle At All Times!

My three roommates and I have been counting down the days since May 5^th 2016 and now after a long 248 days, we have finally left for our journey to New Orleans!  Leaving for Champaign at 6:30PM left me with plenty of time for my procrastination to expose itself as I was throwing last minute items into my suitcase until about 6:04PM. It was at that time that my roommate was giving me the, “its time to go Annie,” look and I knew that I had to get my shit together.  After shoving all of our bags into the car and doing one last run through of our list of important items, we were on our way. Arriving at the train station was something I had never really experienced before in that context. When traveling by train in the past it is typically for either day or weekend trips to Chicago leaving from either Galesburg or Kewanee with only one bag over my shoulder. However, this time I was hauling a suitcase stuffed to the rim, two carry on bags, and two personal items to be carried into the station and onto the train with me. Needless to say I looked like a freshly birth calf trying to carry all of my items in at one time. When I was sitting in the train station surrounded by all my fellow students and our mountain of luggage, it hit me that we were finally leaving for New Orleans!

            While making myself comfortable with my seatmate, we decided to watch a couple episodes of Sex in the City before trying to sleep. I did not really realize that other people could view the images on my screen so the women behind us probably thought that we were watching pornography (not my best traveling decision). We both quickly realized that the sleeping arrangements were not going to be as easily obtained as we had hoped. We both woke up multiple times during the night and awoke feeling crabby (nothing that a few chapters of Harry Potter can’t fix). Mackenzie, Jessica, and I all woke up and moved to the observation car to work on our blog posts. It is here in this location that we were able to talk about the experiences that we’ve shared already on hour ten of our seventeen-hour journey. First item of discussion, odor. Of all the people who are passing by our seats, only one of them (our instruction Colleen) has not left us with a foul stench in our noses. These foul-smelling people also do not appear to have a cleanly outer appearance but seem to match the surrounding landscape around the train. The more we progress towards New Orleans, the more severe deterioration of the houses and buildings throughout the environment. As I look out the window, all I can see are abandoned cars, broken homes, and flooded fields. As sad as the landscape may appear, it is filling me with excitement to learn more about cultures that differ so much from my own. With each train station stop, the excitement grows more and more intense to finally be in New Orleans learning about diverse culture and having a blast with my fellow classmates!

This image was taken outside on the Amtrak Station in Jackson, Mississippi!

I've decided to interview my roommates briefly and randomly during this journey! This was the first interview done in the train station January 3rd! 

The closer we approach New Orleans the more I am intrigued with the culture of the southern states. I have lived in Illinois my whole entire life and have not been exposed to cultures outside my own. As I am typing this post, I look out the window to discover that we have arrived in Flora, Mississippi where there are confederate flags flying on flag poles throughout the town. Once I had picked my jaw up from dropping to the ground, I was in shock of what I had just witnessed. I always hear about racism on television but have never experienced it firsthand. I have always considered myself open, welcoming, and nonjudgmental to all different racial cultures. I guess that because I do not participate in racist acts; I tend to forget that racism is still alive within this country. This saddens me to think about all the work that has been done to abolish racism will never fully succeed. I realize that this is a “Debbie Downer Attitude,” but this is an issue that this country has been dealing with for hundreds of years and it still have not been resolved.

            Mackenzie, Jessica, and I all just stepped off the train in Jackson, Mississippi to stretch our legs and get some fresh air; what I saw around us was much different than what I expected. The fences around the station were covered in barbed wire with graffiti on all the walls around the station. I did not expect to react internally to my surrounds in a negative way; I expected to get off the train and see green grass, tall buildings, and business people walking the streets. I developed this sterotype of how I wanted the city to look based on false accusations and hopes about a large southern city. But where did these thoughts come from? I guess I expect the best out of people and I always have but I have realized recently that I need to change this quality about myself. I expect the best in people because I always assume that people have good intentions, which is not always true. I forgot that racism exists because I assume that this is not longer an issue in this country until I travel to southern states or research the history of Hurricane Katrina.

            My goal for this trip to learn as much as possible about the culture of New Orleans and all the different types of people who inhabit New Orleans. I want to gain a better understanding of the history of the cultures and how they have changed over time. I want to know how different types of people were treated so that I am able to gain a better understanding of their history and how they were forced to raise their children, form family structure, and develop a lifestyle based on how they were treated by their peers. During this travel, watching the different environments outside the train has really sparked an interest in culture that I did not expect to feel or develop this early in the trip.

This is a video of an attempt to interview Mackenzie, but Val fell victim to the rapid movements of the train!