Preparations and Expectations for the Trip

        Before I can pack anything, the first thing that I need to do is figure out which suitcase would be the best one to take and I need to find out where it is. At my house, our suitcases are kept on two giant shelves that are in the garage so I will have to climb up on a ladder to get my suitcase out.  I plan on packing light. I used to be a super heavy packer until I realized that I wasn't using half of the items that I was bringing and I don't want to have to carry a super heavy suitcase everywhere or be in charge of guarding a giant bag so I plan to pack as light as possible. As far as clothing items go, I have not decided what items to choose. I was told that if you don't want to look like a tourist then you shouldn't wear blue jeans. Blue jeans and leggings are what I mainly wear so I will probably end up looking like a tourist. I do plan on maybe packing a dress but I know that we will be doing a lot of walking so I will be wearing tennis shoes most of the time. I need to make myself a detailed packing list because I will be bringing items from my apartment like toothpaste and hair products and other items form my house. This is because when I am home from school, my sister and I share everything so I do not want to leave her empty handed when I leave for my trip. I am nervous that I am going forget something but hopefully I do not. I have had a couple of dreams that I forgot my laptop for the trip and that would be really bad if that happened. For my arrangements, the only part I need help with is making sure my fish are fed while I am gone. I have a ten gallon aquarium that has a veil tail betta named gizmo, two wag tail orange platys and a baby platy that was a surprise and also in the tank, I have a rubber lip Plecostomus. He is my most difficult fish because he is a bottom feeder that requires algae tablets and vegetables. I will have to blanch him a cucumber before I leave and remind them that he needs his cucumber slices two times per week. Along with my fish tank, I have a double tail betta named glacier and a half moon betta named blizzard. They are both in bowls and they will need their bowls cleaned while I am gone but my mom has lots of experience with that so it will go just fine. For the train ride, I want to make sure that I have my Minnie Mouse tie blanket and my big pillow so that I can try to sleep while we are traveling through the night. I also plan on going to the grocery store and buying some snacks that are high protein and some bottled water so that I can have something to eat when I get hungry.  On the night that we have to go to the train station, we plan on stopping at a restaurant in Champagne to eat dinner.

        When thinking about what the trip will be like, I think of having a lot of fun while learning a lot of history on a city that I do not know hardly anything about. I really like that we have an itinerary because I think that if I was going to New Orleans with just some friends or family, we would likely not know about some of the cool sites that we are going to see. I also like it because I am a schedule orientated person so it is nice to know exactly what we will be doing for the days to come and that I know exactly what time to be somewhere. I feel that this course is going to help improve my writing skills and is teaching them in a new way because a lot of the work that we are doing in this class involves a lot of writing. I also feel that it will help me to understand another culture very well because I will be spending time there and not just learning about it. As a future nurse, I feel that it is very important to understand many cultures beyond our own so that we can understand our patients better and so that we can give them holistic care. I choose to take this travel course because I needed to fill an upper level general education course and I thought that if I could travel and earn a class on my nursing degree, it would be a fun college experience that I would never forget. Everyone always says that one of the best times to travel in your life is while you are in college so I am taking the opportunity while I can.  I am looking most forward to the ghost tour because I think it will be exciting and scary at the same time. I do know that New Orleans is very into voo-doo dolls and the spiritual world so I am excited to learn more about that. I have asked many of my friends and family if they want one of the dolls as a present from when I get back and they all have told me to keep the dolls away from them. On the itinerary though, everything looks so interesting and exciting that I want to do everything that is planned because each day will be something new. I am excited to experience a new culture because I think that it is a growing experience to be outside your own comfort zone. I also really like that we have one day of free time so if we want to revisit anything or find something really interesting along the way, we will have the opportunity to go and visit. The closer the trip is appearing, the more excited I am becoming.