Class Interview Transcript

1. Had you ever been to Nashville on vacation before you started looking here for college?
Classmate: "Not for tourism no. Except there was one time when I was really little and my family went to the Grand Ole Opry."

2. When you travel, what generally draws you to the location?
Classmate: "We generally don't go on vacation. We travel when we go visit family. Or we go places where family members live."

3. How often do/did you travel?
Classmate: "Not very often. About once or twice a year, and less when I was in high school. I go visit my sister in Dallas. And my parents travel a lot more, but it's to come see my sister and me."

4. What do you like to do on vacation?
Classmate: "Relax. I don't like to do touristy things. Like if I was in NYC I would want to do all the landmarks and "big apple" things. Tourist places are too crowded."

5. Do you typically go to resorts, or tourist attractions?
Classmate: "No tourist attractions. I wouldn't do either because normally when I travel it's to visit family so I would be with them. And I will stay with my family, not in a hotel."

6. If you were to recommend something to do, or a place to go in nashville, what would it be?
Classmate: "I would say see what kind of concerts are playing at like 12th and Porter or Exit/In? Or I would tell them to come to Belmont's campus and see what student things are performing. Like if it's spring with all the spring recitals, they could come see them."

Artifacts Y'all

There could be many different artifacts when considering Nashville tourists. Their souvenir knickknacks, their cameras, and their "foreign" accents could easily set them apart from real Nashvillians. But always, people who come to Nashville assume that they should dress just like the celebrities they see on CMT. They mistakenly sport cowboy hats, cowboy boots, and large, gaudy belt buckles thinking that they'll fit in with the country music scene. I'm a hostess at Demos' downtown and I can't believe the number of people who walk in looking like they came off the Dukes of Hazard set. Oddly enough, our managers encourage us to say y'all, reinforcing this odd stereotype.

Symposium Event

Though I went to see Dr. Dixon speak, I got a lot more out of going to the "Speaker Panel" convocation. But it wasn't because of Maya Angelou's presence, it was because of speaker Rafia Zakaria. She was extremely well spoken, and brought to my attention some very worrisome topics facing today's generations of Americans of Middle Eastern descent. I had worried about the treatment of Middle Eastern-Americans in the past, but I hadn't thought of the children growing up in a time where people don't trust and respect their race. Zakaria spoke of her daughter, saying that she will get pulled aside for extra screening at the airport, and it made me really think about how assuming white Americans are of other races.

Focusing in More

What I generally came to realize is that a lot of the times, people do things to avoid having contact with other people. People had their eyes focused on the ground, so that they didn't have to talk to other people. People also use their phones as a way to tell other people "Hey I'm busy on my phone doing 'important' things, please don't disturb me." This holds true not just on Belmont's campus, but everywhere!
Also, people don't seem generally happy when you just look at them walking around. They look halfway miserable sometimes, and I don't think that they are truly miserable, they just aren't aware of how their body language comes off to other people.

Observation

While I was observing people in the Beaman studying area, here are some things I noticed.
Most people who were walking around, didn't seem to be walking with purpose, even if they were cutting through the building on their way to somewhere else. Most people looked relatively bored. Many people were on their cell phones, avoiding the world around them.
However, there were people walking together that seemed to be more social, and not as standoffish.
Also, there were many "types" of people. There were guys in basketball warm-ups, girls in exercise clothes, men in business suits, and people in jeans and normal clothes.
Within the people that were sitting down at tables and chairs, many were actually doing their homework. A great deal of people were on their computers, but if you looked closely, you could tell that they were on Facebook or Twitter.

Possible Research Topic

After reading in Fieldworking, I began to brainstorm what I would find interesting to research and write about.
My freshman and sophomore year at Belmont, I would sometimes go to a Spanish speaking church so that I would pay better attention to the service (I'm partially bilingual). Perhaps I could conduct research there?? I'm not sure what I would research without involving stereotypes about Hispanic people.
Another idea I had was to conduct research about tourists in Nashville. Some things I could research could be:
1. Why Nashville?
2. What, in particular, brought them here? Ex: Country music, state capital, other unknown Nashville tourist things
3. Where they are from?

So so far, I haven't decided, but hopefully soon I can pin down what exactly I want to do.