Music City

22nd May

Nashville, also known as Music City, has been described as the Athens of the South, and is a major centre of the Music Industry. This would make it a fabulous place for any country fan to visit. Which may lead you to ask – what on earth was I doing there?

While it is true that I'm not a fan of country music, I do enjoy things that are deep fried, and the South is the place to be for all things golden and delightful. So over about 9 days some friends and I are pursuing Southern cuisine through Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, and possibly learning a bit more about America while we do it. 

So Nashville was our first stop, and the cultural difference was immediately apparent. Nashville people personify Southern Hospitality, everyone was quick with a smile and a helping hand! We were wandering around and people kept on asking if "Y'all are ok now?" and "Can I take a picture of y'all?". After spending a few days in NYC feeling like my very incompetence existence was a burden to all around me (my metro card just would *not* cooperate), it was so nice to be somewhere where foreigners were appreciated. But I digress from the food. 

So we woke up (relatively) early and decided to go for a wander to find an authentic Southern breakfast, and our wanderings took us to The Arcade, a shopping mall type establishment, chock full of restaurants selling the classic Tennessee breakfast, Meat and 3. Yes, Meat and 3 veg. Thoroughly confused (and running from a string of restaurateurs calling me "Ma'am"), we tried to find something a bit less... dinnerish. 

 The Arcade

Resplendent with breakfast options.
Nb. That are actually the size of your hand. 

Also a breakfast food. Who knew?

So we finally decided on a place for breakfast (which was next door to another diner, boasting that the cast of "Swamp People" were coming next week), where we were served by a sassy older black woman who recited the breakfast special 3 times in a single breath. Being the adventurous type, I ordered the "breakfast bowl" and was greeted with...

Grits.
Looks and tastes like dirt. 

And....

My Breakfast bowl. You can't see it because it is being drowned in "milk gravy", but underneath the greyish brain-like colloidal substance, are biscuits (scones), hashed potatoes, sausage and scrambled eggs.
The breakfast of champions.
With clogged arteries. 

After a nutritious start to the day, we were eager to discover all that Nashville has to offer. The first thing that really hit me was how many hotels there were. I mean, obviously, we were Downtown which is tourist-ville, but still, Nashville seems to be made up solely of live music venues, hotels to hold guests for said music venues and novelty oversized pick-up trucks in a rainbow of unconventional colours. 

Honky Tonk makes the baby Jesus cry. 

Some of Nashville's tall buildings.
Not hotels, surprisingly. 

 It was funny, because while we were in Nashville nothing much was going on and there was almost no-one about, so it was a little eerie walking the streets, but the CMA Music Festival is happening in a few weeks, and I can see that the city is going to go completely nuts when that happens. But also, the city will be *so* prepared for it. Nashville is signposted within an inch of its life. Every thing that anyone could ever possibly want to visit has been marked on a map, including Vanderbilt University, the children's hospital, the normal hospital, various statues as well as numerous bars. You would need to be trying just so incredibly hard to get lost in Nashville. 

Looking down 2nd Ave - a street packed with bars, and the Wildhorse Saloon that offers free line dancing lessons every night at 8pm.
Yes, I did line dance.
Yes, reluctantly.
And yes, reluctantly, I'll admit that it was fun. 

Music is everywhere. 

So you can't really see it, but this is the Tennessee Bar Exam Centre.
With a sign outside saying "no soliciting"
#lawjokes. 

This is my favourite part of Nashville, hands down. There are these music boxes on the street corners that blare out county hits. Perfect for spontaneous line-dance parties. 

Our first touristy stop for the day was the Ryman Auditorium, which is famous because a bunch of famous country artists I've never heard of have recorded there. But their gift shop really brought their A-game.

I can only imagine that this is 101 ways to throw them out

You know the lucky man wearing this gets *all* the girls.
This is probably not even a joke in Nashville. Just a fact. 

So after that, we went for a mosey down the main drag towards the Country Music Hall of Fame, "the best part of town". 

Looking down Broadway

Inside the Country Music Hall of Fame.
We walked in, were awed, realised that we don't actually know any famous country music artists and decided to skip the celebrity-guided audio tour. 

I love the epitaph:
"Some are honored to fill this hall, others to raise the roof"

All of the awards. 

Better than Barbie

The brand new (only opened last week) Nashville Convention Centre

So having knocked off the two major tourist attractions within about 40mins of finishing breakfast, we were free to roam where ever our feet (and the 3 free shuttle buses operated by the city) could take us. So we went out to one of the new developments, The Gulch, to check it out.

A fabulous mish-mash shop, although I might be biased because....

they have an adorable dog (called Tilly) who lives there too!

And then we just moseyed, checking out the uncharted back-streets of Nashville

Until we got to Centennial Park. Built in 1897 to celebrate 100 years of Nashville bein' Nashville.

It is also home to a full-size replica of the Parthenon. Because Nashville is the "Athens of the South".

Let's just let that one marinade for a second.

The Athens of the South.

After this we went for an ill-fated wander to find a pancake place that had been recommended to us by a local Nashvillean woman we'd met while our plane had been delayed. We walked for easily half an hour in search of the best pancakes we'd ever have in our lives, finally arriving at the doors at 2:50pm. Yes, they close at 3. But it actually ended up being one of those travel "disasters" that leads to something better. Instead, we hopped across the road to Province Coffee and Cakes and had a delightful hot (non-alcoholic) apple cider and then found the Mr & Mrs Book shop next door - an amazing used book store which was a wonderful way to lose an afternoon.

With luggage considerably heavier from our acquisitions, we once again returned to Downtown for further wanderings. Which led us to Printer's Alley - a small alley that has existed since the 1940's peddling entertainment. As the name suggests, it did start out with the most innocent of intentions, but it has eventually become a, ahem... more adult entertainment venue.

Painted façade

Looking down Printer's Alley

A fabulous vintagey shop we tried to go to. 

And it's creaming soda. Geddit?

Literally, 99 bottles of beer on the wall. 

And of course, we couldn't go to a country music town without trying our hands (feet?) at line dancing.

We were not as good as this kid.

Bye-bye BC!

I'm pretty sure these are custom-bred Tulips

I know I haven’t really written much since being in Boston – American school is hectic, but as my semester here is wrapping up, I thought I’d take you on a bit of a tour of my life here to make up for lost time.

This is my house – Google maps mislead me into thinking that there was a swing in the front yard (which, I’m not going to lie, was a significant factor that influenced my decision to put in an application), but alas, I got there and there was no swing. I live here with 5 other girls – 2 Spanish international students, and 3 American juniors.

This is my street – just about every house here is overcrowded with students. At BC, you only live on campus for 3 out of 4 years, so most of the juniors move off campus and form a bit of a student village in the surrounding area. It makes for a great atmosphere: when Winter Storm Nemo meant that school was cancelled, the second we got notification you heard the roar of a couple hundred college students celebrating, bass being cranked, and the hiss of cans being opened.

This is Greycliff Road – and the house that one of my closest friends lives in with her 5 amazing housemates. This house has been my kitchen, living room and at times, bathroom (when you have 4 girls sharing one bathroom in the morning, things can get urgent). The housewives of 52 Shades of Grey have always made me feel so so so welcome, and I really cannot thank them enough!

This is Commonwealth Avenue (or ComAve for the locals). This road runs literally, the entire way into the city from school. Every journey invariably ends on this road.

This is the T line. The T is Boston’s public transport system. It. Is. Awful. Like trams, but if you had to power them using only bicycle pedals. They trudge around through the city sporadically. This particular piece of track is the B line. The B stands for “bitch”. Or maybe “bail”. Because for all that it is only 5 miles to the city, on the B line it can take over an hour. The stops are numerous and quite frankly, gratuitously close together. Other fun features of the T are the occasional sparks it rains on people as it changes power lines.

And now, we’re at school. This is the lower dining hall (“Lower” if you’re trendy, which I am). The unofficial senior dining hall, it is home to all the best food. Omelettes in the morning, fried rice, Mexican and wraps for lunch, and just about anything for dinner. Upstairs is another place - it’s a bit expensive but comes with so much hipster cred – all the food is local and organic, and really delicious.

Sidebar: this is an example of a toilet door in the US. Note the huge gap.
I will not miss US bathrooms. 

Students at BC have to buy a $2200 meal plan for each semester they live on campus (if their housing doesn't have  adequate cooking facilities). $2200 is a LOT of food, and most people don't come close to spending it all during semester, so at the end they panic buy *everything* that isn't perishable. I saw a guy walking out of the dining hall with 8 crates of Powerade on the last day of school. 

If we got out the sneaky back way (#localknowledge) you come to the ModLot – where Macklemore recently rocked our collective socks at the spring concert.

And to the left, you see the Mods, short, I presume for Modulars. They were brought in a few years ago as temporary student housing, and have become the hive of BC life. In each tiny demountable, there are 4-6 students (2 people per room – a normal for college kids) on a weeknight, and up to 400 on a weekend. It is pretty much a student slum, but despite their universally recognised squalor, every freshman dreams of getting their very own mod. 

This is Conte Forum – the sports stadium where the hockey Team (the Eagles) plays. Can I just say here how much I love ice hockey? Seriously, this needs to be a thing in Australia.

And these bastards are the Million Dollar Stairs. These connect lower campus to upper campus. Don’t let their beauty fool you. They are brutal, particularly when they are covered in snow and ice. For the first week of school, I didn’t know there was another way to get to upper campus, so I dragged myself up and down these stairs, risking life and limb in the snow and sludge. 

Until I discovered Hillside Café (Hillside – are you noticing a trend?). Purveyor of caramel macchiatos (iced and not), completely incredible cookies and “frips” (fresh chips – but not chips chips… crisps chips, but thicker… Bizarre). Many a day has been spent “studying” in this prime location. It also is the gateway to…

*angels chorus*

The elevators.

If you catch this lift to level 4… voila! Over halfway up the stairs.

Suck it, stairs. 

Here is where you reach the bane of my BC life. The dreaded hold-door convention. Let me explain – everyone is freakishly nice at BC, and part of that niceness is everyone in the library blessing you (as a chorus) when you sneeze, and holding doors open for the folks behind you. But how long do you need to hold a door open for? How far behind can someone be before you are allowed to let go, and force them to push against the forces of a closing door? Does making eye contact commit you to the long term? I don’t know – 6 years of uni has not equipped me to resolve this dilemma.

You then walk through this walkway (and read all of the event posters on the wall because you can easily get one free meal per day just by attending public lectures) all the way up to….

Upper Campus! This building is Gasson Hall – where most of my classes have been this semester. It’s completely beautiful, and every time I walk up here I am reminded of how lucky I am to be here.

If we hang a quick right, we reach the entrance to O’Neill Library. I have literally spent more time here than in my house. Level 3 is the social level – where you study, but may also be drawn into a conversation. Level 4 is a bit more intense – hushed pleasantries only and individual desks for decreased social interaction. Level 5… shit gets real on level 5. If someone is studying that far in the air, you know they’re serious. The silence is absolute and God help any poor soul who forgot to put their computer on mute before starting it. But the advantage of level 4/5 is that there is a wonderful view out to the city. The library is empty now because finals are over, but during finals week it was a vicious battleground for space. And they give out free coffee and snacks. I love the library. But actually not. 

The view from Level 4

Back outside, I’d just like to point out that for my first month, I kept walking to the stairs rather than the library door.

In my defence - both doors look very similar. 

Out of the library, and across the quad, this is Gasson from the prime viewing angle –with Baldwin the Eagle looking down on you.

Out this way is Bapst Library. You know how I said shit gets real on level 5? Level 5 is for wusses compared with Bapst. Despite looking like Hogwarts, this is actually the Department of Secrets. No noise allowed. Ever.

Bapst

Unless you’re doing a Harlem Shake.

Or Bin Laden just died. 

Shaking the studiousness off me, we’ll walk through Gasson and admire the general beauty of the building. 

This chapel is particularly interesting – there is always someone praying in there. I’m starting to think there’s a roster.

And here we reach the next lot of buildings – Lyons, Fulton and some random art one. This is the lawn where people advertise their events, throw flyers at you, and during Art week, they gave out free cake.

But it’s pretty boring today, so we’re going to wander down to Stokes Lawn. 

Stokes

The Stokes building is the newest on campus – although architecturally you wouldn’t know it. Apparently it took over 10 years for the College to get the approval from the local community to build it – but once approval happened, it went up in only a few months. It is now home to Ethics and Politics, my least favourite class, and the Chocolate Bar, my favourite place where you can get a cookie the size of your face. 

I repeat. THE SIZE OF MY FACE.

Chocolate Bar

Stokes is in high demand during exam week – all of the classrooms are fair game and competition is fierce. Many a heart has been shattered by a page ripped from a notebook proclaiming “taken” being stuck to the door. One audacious individual actually attempted to reserve a room this way for an entire week. Not cool.

Mac.

Onwards and upwards, we walk through the rest of Stokes, and over to McInroy (Mac), home of the bookstore, another dining hall and the lovely folks of the Women’s Resource Centre – a place on campus dedicated to targeting women’s issues. 

The College bookshop

Barney was dangerously close to getting a BC bandana. 

Toy Baldwin's (our mascot)

Hello BC Kitty?

Speaking of the WRC, I was incredibly fortunate to have been able to volunteer for Concerned About Rape Education Week (CARE Week) through this group. It was an amazing week with so many fantastic events including a talk on bystander intervention by Adam Lisak, a man-only roundtable on expectations and pressures on men at BC and in the world. For me, the most incredible event of the week was Taking Back a Night – a vigil of solidarity to survivors of rape and intimate partner violence. Several incredibly brave women shared their personal experiences with a legitimately huge crowd, and when over half the crowd stood up to take the men’s pledge, led by the School’s Police Chief (a fabulous man who is so genuinely interested in making sure the women at BC are safe). It completely personified everything that is great about this school – there is an incredible sense of community that I think can only be formed through 4 years of close-quarters living.

So we’re going to head off campus now, hopping down the Million Dollar Stairs to the BC Shuttle. This is absolutely amazeballs – the school has a bunch of buses that they use to ferry students between the campus and Cleveland Circle – the main shopping hub. They even have an app so that you can track the buses and time running to the bus stop.

They're just so nice when you're going *down*

The top of Gasson

Check out the name on the clock.
Mine.

The Shuttle

So now we’re at Reservoir (Res), the D-line stop, where my hatred for the T is minimised because it only takes 20minutes, rather than 500 hours to get into the city.

The Res.

Just down from the train is Cleveland Circle which has all the student needs. There is a CVS for all your pharmaceutical and grocery needs (something that completely blew my mind a few months ago, and now I can’t fathom not being able to get cereal, mascara and cold and flu medications at midnight on a Tuesday), a Starbucks, 7/11, and the Eagle Deli, home to several different “challenge” burgers. Their children’s burger is a quarter pounder.

Mary-Anns.
The diviest dive bar.
Where decency goes to drown its sorrows. 

Eagle Deli. 

Look at the alcohol prices and weep. 

The "classy" bar. Also has karaoke on Wednesdays. 

Cleveland Circle is also where I experienced by first culture shock. This intersection is nuts! There are 5 different lots of traffic PLUS tram lines, and in a word, it is mental for pedestrians because the walk/don’t walk button barely works. In Denmark, the pedestrians are prioritised over just about everything, here… not at all. I stood at these damn lights for what felt like forever before I just gave up and jaywalked.

Fucking Liars. 

So walking just up from Cleveland Circle, we find Finns, home of the Crazy Maki sushi. I never realised before I left how (a) cheap and (b) diverse sushi is in Australia. Teriyaki chicken is just not a thing anywhere else, and  I miss it endlessly, but the Crazy Maki is a suitable compromise. And Roggies, everyone's favourite drunk pizza place. 

And from there, we can go for a leisurely stroll around the reservoir, and then back to home. 

And just as I was walking down my street, but this should appear. 

He was a friendly fellow.