Day One: Winston to Birmingham
It is difficult to get very in depth for the first day as we spent most of the time traveling. I was surprised about how much stuff we got done on the bus and the most I feel that the most interesting discussion we had was when everyone shared their own perceptions of the south. Coming from various parts of the country we still could come up with a relatively standard definition and characteristics of the south which indicates how strong the stereotypes are. The south is the easiest part of the country to talk about because most of the history we learn in elementary school and the history with the most impact comes from the south. Living on the east coast, I generally only think about the division between north and south and when Arizona and Minnesota were brought up I realized how little I know about other areas of the country.
The most ironic part of the day happened during our reflection time after dinner when we were talking about our expectations and anxieties for the trip. As we were going around sharing, a man got out of his car and approached us to ask for gas money. None of us really knew what to do and Marcus handled it really quickly and impressively but it just proved that most of our anxieties about being looked at as a group in a certain way were indeed true and had already happened on day one. The size and demographics of our group are going to be noticeable everywhere we go and we clearly stand out which can potentially pose as a problem or an ice-breaker as we started talking to the guy at Irondale because he asked us where we were from.