Nashville at Last!

Today was the day the Vanderbilt cohort took off to Nashville to start our three and a half week trip back East. We gathered at El Cerrito High School at 6:45 AM. The other two cohorts had to get up before 3 AM to meet, so I was really happy to wake up after the sun came up. When I arrived, Don first weighed my luggage to make sure I hadn't packed too much for the airplane. I was comfortably under the limit (50 pounds) with my single bag, even with the last-minute loaner items Don gave me.  I'm glad I was comfortably under, because I would not have liked to have to unpack right there at El Cerrito High. Once everyone had arrived (Joceline was a few minutes late, but it was all right in the end) Don gave us a hard copy of our itinerary and some last minute instructions. A lot of it was repeating what he had said before, but that didn't make it any less important, I thought. During his talk the shuttle arrived, 35 minutes early. When Don had finished talking, he and all the parents took out their cameras and got a group photo of our cohort before we left. Don even took a photo with his phone too, pausing to go and grab it off the table. I felt it was a little excessive, but Don has told us how much he likes pretty pictures, so you can't really blame him. After all the photos had been taken, we grabbed our luggage and got into the shuttle for the airport.

Our bags with the Vanderbilt hanger

The shuttle ride over was mostly uneventful, but we did talk about social media, movies (especially dog movies) and some about the trip we were just starting. I could feel my excitement growing as we got closer to the airport, even though our shuttle driver did miss his turn to drop us off. It was a little worrying for a second there but he easily found another place to drop us off. We got out and started heading for the baggage check.

In the airport, we checked our bags and Ms. Hansen handed out our boarding passes. I was a little sad about not getting TSA Pre-check, as Maddie, Joceline, and Cameron all got it and were able to get through security a lot easier. Ms. Hansen and I, however, got to wait with the rest of the regular people trying to get through security. Overall, it wasn't too bad of an experience getting through. It only took Ms. Hansen and I a couple more minutes than everyone else to get through security without TSA Pre-check. By that time it was barely 9 AM, so we had some time to wait before our flight started boarding at 9:50. We all split up to get food for the plane ride so we wouldn't go hungry. I got a Subway sandwhich a little ways down from the gate and came back to find that Cammie and Joceline had gotten matching yogurt cups, which was a good idea, as they travel well. Plus, of course, they're delicious too. We had a slight mix-up where Ms. Hansen was waiting for us and we were also waiting for Ms. Hansen, which again was a little worrying for the first day of our trip, but we found each other and boarded no problem.

Landing in Nashville!

On the plane, it was a mostly boring four hours and 15 minutes. We started to fill out a crossword puzzle Cammie found first, and I was amused at all of the obscure knowledge Cammie, Joceline, and I had while we were working on it. Did you know that the shark in Jaws was nicknamed Bruce? I had no idea it even had a name before today!

Other interesting facts we learned on the plane were about a missionary group coming back to Nashville from the Bay Area. It turns out that they go on missionary trips a bunch, and had even gone to Honduras to build houses for families! In the Bay Area it was slightly less exciting, as they weren't building houses but instead were mostly just helping out with a church there, trying to encourage more participation in the community.

Another thing we did on the plane were watch the movie The Godfather because both Cammie and Joceline hadn't seen it. I love that movie, and I was happy to show it to them. Unfortunately it can be a little confusing at times, but it was a good bonding experience.

The last thing of note that happened on the plane was the thunderstorm we passed through. It felt like a roller coaster at times, with all of the turbulence that happened. After that though, we were through to Nashville and touched down safely!

Out in front of the hotel

In the airport, my first impression was all about the stores and restaurants there. Many of them were bigger places, and one even had a live musician with her guitar there. It was a bit of a culture shock, as I don't think Oakland Airport or SFO have a Harley-Davidson Motorcycles shop in the terminal. They were definitely marketing to a different crowd there. Then, once we had exited the airport, what struck me most was the humidity. It was like being in the tropics! It was both hot and humid, and it was almost 5 PM their time. 

When we got to the hotel (after driving through Nashville), I found that Nashville is really, really, green. Like, overwhelmingly green with plants and grass everywhere. It rains all year, so that makes sense, but I'm used to California, where brown is the new green. It was a little bit wierd to me to have no brown and all green, but I adjusted pretty quickly, and I enjoyed the scenery.

The hotel itself is pretty nice, and has an original brick chimney from another building (a school, but I don't know if it was a high school, middle school, or what). It also has a popcorn machine, also located in the lobby, which I thought was a nice touch, as it added an aroma of popcorn to the place. Outside of the lobby, there is an outdoor pool and a rec center, both of which I think I'm going to try. We didn't spend too much time in the hotel though, and started walking over to the restaurant where we were going to have dinner at about 6:30.

  

The restaurant we went to didn't look like the most respectable joint on the outside, but let me tell you, they make really good food. The restaurant is called Hog Heaven, but I decided to go for their chicken. I ordered that with a side of coleslaw, which was great, but it was the peach cobbler Ms. Hansen ordered to share that was the best part. It was one of the most delicious peach cobblers I have ever had. We were already planning to go back and we hadn't even left the restaurant yet! By that time it had closed, however, so we decided to walk around Centennial Park next.

Centennial Park was just across the street from Hog Heaven, so we walked around in the park for a little while until it started to get darker and the clouds became more ominous. Centennial Park is a beautiful park, and it was especially cool to see the full scale replica of the Parthenon that it houses. Now that is a big building. It was super fun to walk around the park, but we decided we should head back before it got too late. Before we did, however, we went a little further down the block from our hotel to explore a little bit.

Just awesome.

We went down the block to get a look at some of the shops we had passed on the way from the airport, and we stopped to get Jamba Juice as well. It was funny to me that we passed a sign reading "Clownvis Presley" like there was someone who was both a clown and an Elvis impersonator. It's just a weird image. We got to the end of the block by the time it was really getting dark, and we started to see lightning flickering in the clouds. I think that's what really made us think, "Yeah, it's probably time to go back to the hotel." The rest of the walk to the hotel and elevator ride up to our rooms was uneventful, so now I sit in my room blogging.

My room is of moderate size, with two beds for one of me. It's pretty nice, especially the bathroom, which looks way better than what my parents usually get when we stay at hotels. The view out my window is a great view of a parking lot and parking structure, which is just great (not really, but I won't complain). That's all we did today, but we have a full day planned tomorrow!