It all started on an early morning when I woke up to the deadly sound of my alarm at 3 am. I rolled over on my side wanting to throw my phone against the wall to make the alarm stop. That morning was the most dreadful having to wait in the dark and in the cold outside Seycove for Hughes who was running behind with the bus. Once Hughes arrived we then boarded the bus and began our journey to the Seattle airport then to the south. When we arrived on Atlanta, Georgia I noticed a substantial amount of African Americans. People were wearing lots of designer brands such as true religion and robins jeans (which are brands I like), almost everyone had nice shoes. By the time we left the airport I was starving. We then headed to our hotel in downtown Atlanta we dropped off our bags. It was time for dinner. My dinner consisted of a bison burger with deep fried onions and a side of broccoli and Parmesan cheese sprinkled overtop. The meal was unsurprisingly better than expected.

The first day was jam packed with interesting activities. We started off our day with the national civil rights museum which was very engaging with tons of interactive exhibits. My favourite thing at that museum would easily be the lunch counter sit-in simulators where you would put on a headset where people would yell at you. You would close your eyes and sit on a stool that would feel like your seat was being kicked by white supremacists. It gave me a small sense of what it felt like for those brave protestors whom exercised their rights. Once we had all walked through the museum we then left to the CNN towers where we would have a quick lunch then have a tour of the building. The tour wasn’t quite what I had expected because of how big the building was. It was like a maze I couldn’t begun to could understand how people would get around without getting lost. After our tour we headed to the aquarium which I didn’t enjoy as much because personally, I think they are cruel. We ended our day with a southern tourists tradition to eat at Mary Macs Tea room. The next day we unfortunately had a casualty .One of our teachers/Driver (Mr Hughes) had an accident on a Segway tour and managed to break his tibia and fibula. (Fun fact: I’ve broken both those bones at the same time before). He was brought to the hospital. We had to wait for a new staff member to fly down to Atlanta so we could continue our trip.

If I was to pick a part of the trip that stuck out to me the most, it would by far be the tour in sun studios. The lobby of the museum was a cafe based store in which they sold a variety of shirts,hoodies DVDs small souvenirs. My dad was quite the fan of the place so I purchased him a shirt. Although the exhibits were quite small they were very packed with items from the history of the studio. Our guide was very energetic and did an outstanding job at portraying a descriptive past of sun studios and constantly kept us engaged.

A part of the trip that substantially stuck out to me was when we went to Selma and met Joanne Bland where she brought us into the projects and talked about some her past a little bit. When she was under the age of 15 she went and marched on the Selma bridge going to Birmingham but was intervened by police forces who tear gassed them and brutally beat them with batons. She was a very outgoing person who was well reserved and wise. Getting to experience the south was quite the ride,although there was a few ups and downs the trip really altered my mind for better. I learned to stay humble and appreciate the privilege to live in north Vancouver and to have the opportunities that we have here today.