Nashville: High School Cultural 2019

Every year select high school students get to go on a 5-day trip to experience different cultures. This year some of the seniors, juniors, and sophomores went to Nashville to experience the birthplace of country music. We saw many important monuments such as the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, and the Country Music Hall of Fame, as well as going to places just to have fun, such as the Opry Mills Mall and Dave & Buster's. The trip was a great experience and I really enjoyed seeing all the sights and hanging out with my friends.

After landing in Nashville, we went to the hotel to drop off our things. We stayed at the Opryland Inn, which is the smaller Gaylord hotel next to the big and fancy Opryland Gaylord Hotel. Then, we got on a bus and went to the Opry Mills Mall. We got to walk around and go shopping for a couple of hours, as well as eat lunch. Next, we went on a tour of the Grand Ole Opry, one of the venues that made country music famous. There originally wasn't a building called the Grand Ole Opry; it was a country music show that performed at a church and later at the Ryman Auditorium. It moved into the Grand Ole Opry House when it was finished being built in 1974. We got to see the auditorium, the dressing rooms, and other places backstage. When the tour was done, we went back to the Opry Mills Mall to have dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. We then went back to the hotel where we went for a swim in the pool.

The Grand Ole Opry House

The auditorium inside

One of the dressing rooms

On the second day of the trip, we toured the Hermitage, which was the home of Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States. We walked around the grounds of the property and got to tour the house. We also saw a film about Andrew Jackson and walked around an exhibit about him. After eating lunch at the Hermitage, we went back to the hotel to swim in the pool. We had a lot of free time, and I had a great time bonding with friends. We then went to Dave & Buster's to eat dinner and play arcade games. I played air hockey with my friends as well as some other games. One of my friends got the 1000 ticket prize on the Big Bass Wheel, which I thought was pretty lucky of him. We played in the arcade for about an hour, and then we went back to the hotel.

Andrew Jackson's Hermitage

The game that my friend won 1000 tickets from

After we had breakfast the next day, we got on a bus and went to Middle Tennessee State University for a tour. Many people that were on the trip had never toured a college before, so it was a good experience for them. However, I had already done several college tours before, so this wasn't as new to me. We had lunch in one of the college's dining halls, and then we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. We got to see plaques and RIAA awards for the musicians that were featured there, as well as walk around museum exhibitions. We also wrote our own song (which I think turned out pretty cringy.) Afterward, we had dinner and saw live music at the Wild Horse Saloon. When we first got there, they did a soundcheck, and because we were sitting at a table right next to the stage, it was very loud. However, it settled down for a bit, and then we did line dancing. There was an instructor that taught us two line dances. After we ate dinner, the live music started back up again, and at that point, we went upstairs where they had pool tables, foosball tables, and shuffleboard tables. We played upstairs for a bit, and then we got on a bus to go back to the hotel.

Middle Tennesee State University

The Country Music Hall of Fame

Wild Horse Saloon

The fourth day of the trip felt a little unstructured. We were originally going to walk around downtown in the morning, but instead, we went downtown to the Bicentennial Mall State Park. On the border of the park, there was a wall that had important events about things that happened to Nashville, and we did a history walk to learn more about it. The main thing that I got out of this experience was that although Andrew Jackson was put in a good light during our tour of the Hermitage, he had some bad qualities, such as how he had 150 slaves which he treated very poorly. We then had lunch at a nearby farmers market, and later went on a tour of the Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman is known as "The Mother Church of Country Music," and hosted the Grand Ole Opry before the Opry House was built. It also hosted music from other genres other than country music, such as pop and rock. We got to see the auditorium, but because it was a self-guided tour, there wasn't much else to do other than just sit there, so it was kind of boring. It would have been more interesting if we could have had a tour guide take us backstage and tell us more about the auditorium, but I did enjoy the film that they showed before we went inside. After eating dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, we went back to the Ryman for the "Opry Country Classics' show, where there were lots of country artists performing. We stayed for half of this show, and then we went back to the hotel. This was the last day of the trip, as the next day we would pack up and fly back to Baltimore.

Nashville history walk

Ryman Auditorium

Inside of Ryman Auditorium

I really enjoyed the Nashville trip. Although I don't really like country music, I feel like I learned a lot, and that the trip fulfilled its purpose of teaching us about another culture. I also enjoyed a lot of the downtime on the trip, as I was able to socialize with a lot of friends and bond more with them. I had lot of fun on the trip, and since I am graduating, I am sad I won't get to go on another one.