We are officially 1/10th of the way through our trip. Day 4 in San Antonio was hot but interesting nonetheless. We spent the morning at the Alamo, enjoyed some Tex Mex on the river walk, split up to observe and talk to people, and then met back at a Gazebo for class. Matt Burchett and his wife brought us some Dr Pepper from Wako and joined us there. While Elizabeth, Emily, and I were wandering around we of course hit up Starbucks and had an interesting conversation with one of the baristas there. She had recently moved from California and was now living in San Antonio. We asked her if there were similarities between the two cities and she thought about it for awhile and replied that in both places people were so focused on material possessions. Later in our class discussion we talked about themes that we are seeing at each of the places thus far and we came up with the same conclusion--money. Matt brought up an excellent point when he compared the states and their identities with high school students--scrambling to find their identity in something whether authentic or not. Nashville was cowboys and country, Memphis was Elvis, Little Rock claimed Clinton, and so on. At each stop we have seen state after state cash in on these icons like selling everything imaginable with Elvis's face. As disturbing as this unifying factor is, I think it is very telling of who we are as a people--consumers. As usual, I have no concrete answers yet but I want to continue to explore whether this is necessarily a strictly negative revelation. Should we write off all of the Alamo's authenticity because they are trying to make a cheap buck? Or is consumption a necessary fuel for our country? I took this picture in the bathroom of Starbucks after our talk with the barista--its sort of cheesy but but who can't use a little cheese in their life? Speaking of consumption, we finally got some salad in the south at Souper Salads! I think we were all excited to have something that wasn't fried or greasy! yum!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Give Me a Plate and Set Me Free
We are officially 1/10th of the way through our trip. Day 4 in San Antonio was hot but interesting nonetheless. We spent the morning at the Alamo, enjoyed some Tex Mex on the river walk, split up to observe and talk to people, and then met back at a Gazebo for class. Matt Burchett and his wife brought us some Dr Pepper from Wako and joined us there. While Elizabeth, Emily, and I were wandering around we of course hit up Starbucks and had an interesting conversation with one of the baristas there. She had recently moved from California and was now living in San Antonio. We asked her if there were similarities between the two cities and she thought about it for awhile and replied that in both places people were so focused on material possessions. Later in our class discussion we talked about themes that we are seeing at each of the places thus far and we came up with the same conclusion--money. Matt brought up an excellent point when he compared the states and their identities with high school students--scrambling to find their identity in something whether authentic or not. Nashville was cowboys and country, Memphis was Elvis, Little Rock claimed Clinton, and so on. At each stop we have seen state after state cash in on these icons like selling everything imaginable with Elvis's face. As disturbing as this unifying factor is, I think it is very telling of who we are as a people--consumers. As usual, I have no concrete answers yet but I want to continue to explore whether this is necessarily a strictly negative revelation. Should we write off all of the Alamo's authenticity because they are trying to make a cheap buck? Or is consumption a necessary fuel for our country? I took this picture in the bathroom of Starbucks after our talk with the barista--its sort of cheesy but but who can't use a little cheese in their life? Speaking of consumption, we finally got some salad in the south at Souper Salads! I think we were all excited to have something that wasn't fried or greasy! yum!
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2 comments:
"Matt Burchett and his wife brought us some Dr Pepper from Wako and joined us there." = funny
Is Dr. Pepper from Wako extra special? If so, can you smuggle me some?
I liked this post in general btw.
Yah apparently Dr Pepper was invented there and I learned that there is no . in it because there is not a real doctor! thanks so much for commenting! I love it!
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