#welcometoatlanta

Back in mid-January, I made a spontaneous last minute decision to visit a close friend in Atlanta, GA. This long-awaited excursion down to the South had been an ongoing discussion amongst my friend group for approximately two years but it all never amounted to anything except talk and speculation! Our musing had dragged on two years too long but in the end, I’m glad that we were finally about to make this trip a reality.

We decided to only spend a long weekend there, so not a whole lot of time to explore but just enough to get a taste of the South. I find it truly a fascinating idea to be able to visit an entirely different geographic location within the span of just a weekend. As I’m currently in my senior year, I have been wondering about how to maintain a balance of work and play once entering the dreaded territory we all acknowledge as “the real world.” It’s probably unrealistic to believe that one can do these sort of weekend trips, but hey I can dream right?

As this was my first time flying to the South, I really had no idea what to expect, which was in a way sort of thrilling. Immediately after landing and stepping into the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport, I was struck with the permeating smell of fried chicken.

The first thought that came across my mind was, “Oh, I’m most definitely in the South.”

Seriously, the entire airport smelled like greasy, fried chicken heaven. I would never have expected it but the Atlanta Airport is mad huge and it took what seemed like forever just to get from my terminal to the other end of the airport. I purchased a “Breeze” card which is what people here use to get around and took the Marta, a local train that I kept mistaking for “Martha” to the North Avenue Station.

After getting off the train, I was able to take a stroll around the campus, soak up Georgia in all its beauty and meet up with my friend. What I love about Georgia is the colors from the sky—everything looks as if it has a pink/peach hue filter overlaid on top of it. Is this also another reason why Georgia’s namesake is the peach?

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Conveniently enough, located right next to the World of Coca-Cola was our next expedition—the Georgia Aquarium. The Aquarium was super spacious (at least comparatively to the Boston Aquarium I went to last week with some friends) that contained a wide variety of creatures I haven’t seen elsewhere. I spent maybe way too much time intently observing penguins waddling around and ruffling their feathers. There is something so therapeutic about browsing through an Aquarium, possibly because everything is filtered in a cool blue hue. As Tom Ockerse always says, blue is the most pleasing and relaxing color. I also was able to see a Beluga whale for the first time. I swear I made eye contact with one for a hot second.

The rest of the trip primarily included exploring the campus, learning about the pros and cons to Georgia, eating a sinful amount of unhealthy Southern food, drinking, playing card games, and a surprise celebration for my birthday! The morning my friend and I were supposed to leave early for the airport, both of us overslept. I woke up approximately an hour and a half before our flight—woke up my friend, rushed through packing, ran all the way to the Marta train station, took a 20 minute ride to the airport, caught a transfer train to our stop, printed our boarding tickets, breezed through security and ran to my gate. I made it with less than 5 minutes before the flight left. Living life dangerously tsk tsk.