On the South part I

I arrived in coastal Georgia twenty-two days ago and am still feeling my around. I would be dishonest if I did not say that I arrived full of every Northern elitist notion about the South as backward, banjo-pickin' lynching and full of every style of idiocy known to man. I recognized that these were stereotypes and just as wrong as any other stereotypes. Northerners are just as bad, if not worse, and the elitism takes the cake in that regard.

Some initial impressions: it is a pleasure to teach to a classroom that reflects the diversity of this great nation. I have spent the first four years of my teaching career, frankly, teaching a bunch of traditional age, white farm/ranch kids at Purdue and then in Wyoming. As many of you know I'll return to Wyoming in an instant if the opportunity arises, but the homogeneity of the student body will always strike me (born and raised in NJ) as strange. There is no majority here (save women, who clearly outnumber men in my classes by a large number, the division is probably 70/30 and in one class 16 to 3) in terms of race, or status (traditional or non-traditional).

The students are very polite, there is far too much "sir"-ing here for my taste, something I explained makes me a touch uncomfortable because very often when I use the term I am mocking someone. The branch campus is clearly the red-headed step-child to main campus, expressed in every detail from the rooms, the resources, the faculty and the parking (to name a spare few).

As for the area itself - I have yet to find myself impressed with Savannah, but I reserve my judgment there until such time as I have had the opportunity to explore. The suburbs of the city are as dreary as any suburb and equally as soul-less, but I attach no particular southern accent to that dreariness.