That Took a Wrong Turn

"Katherine?" The first word I heard that woke me up. I had my alarm set for waking me up at 8 a.m., and it did it's job, but I saw that Hummd and Gwennie were enjoying their pleasant sleep, so I did the same too, until Hummd called me and then I checked the time. “It is 8:19," I responded with the time since we were still in our beds, and that is how you get a room of 3 girls to jump out of bed almost instantly. We ran towards the elevator (I was leading the way, so I am not surprised) but we ran past the first two elevators and did not notice until we came to the last one. I find it kind of funny because we were so fast, we took a wrong turn. We noticed that it was not really familiar, but it led to the lobby and that is where we needed to go. Luckily, we arrived on time and all headed out to eat.

We took the MARTA bus and stopped at the Lindbergh Center Transit Station. Then, we proceeded with our "breeze" cards to get on the Southbound train. In Atlanta, they call the train station MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority), unlike the Bay Area, where we ride on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). What is really different about the two transit systems is that BART uses both a metro-card (like Clipper) and ticket, whereas MARTA strictly only uses the metro-card, breeze. The train ride was roughly around 35-40 minutes long to get to where we wanted to eat, which ended up at the Curb Market. It was filled of many, smaller shops that filled up half of the marketplace that also sold food. Unfortunately, I do not remember the name of the shop that I had ordered from, but I had eggs with cheese, two slices of toast, sausage, and grits. I never had grits before (there is not a lot offered in the Bay Area) nor knew what it was made from so I wanted to give southern food a try and experience a new taste for once. Grits are actually from corn and it was absolutely great when I tried it. Arnold had the same order as mine, Hummd had a really healthy wrap (that was made completely out of salad) with a smoothie, Gwennie also had a smoothie but ate fruits, and Jenny had a smoothie as well. 

After finishing up on breakfast, we had a short walk to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and to the Ebenezer Baptist Church (where he preached) afterwards. We went into a room where there was a 25 minute film on Dr. King's life. We gave ourselves a self tour around the center and the gift shop. At the gift shop, there was a postcard that had a picture of Martin Luther King Jr.'s burial monument at exactly where we had passed in order to get to the site, and Hummd asked if it was the actual monument where he was buried at, and it is.

The entrance to the National Historic Site.

A memorable quote by the famous Martin Luther King Jr.

 The Ebenezer Baptist Church had a presentation that started right when we entered the building (what great timing). I learned that it was created by John Park and by 1922, the entire church was complete. It was and continues to be a very vital part of the community. Christine King Farris, Martin Luther King Jr.'s only sister, is currently 87, retired 6 months ago, and still goes to the same church from across the street. Martin Luther King Jr. was competitive with his sister, he got baptized at the age of 5 years old, and graduated high school in the 11th grade at the age of 15. There is now a new church across the street, known as horizon based, which was opened when the Congressmen held a special service in the Ebenezer Church (also known as heritage based).

We had to leave the presentation a little bit early to get to the Emory University tour in time. Once we had arrived at the college, we stopped by Starbucks to get light lunch and then proceeded to the room where the informative session was given. One of the admission officers gave the presentation and started off with mentioning the Oxford College, where the first two year students go to before transferring onto Emory University. She mentioned the class sizes (average of 30-40 students) and a total of 5,000 students who attend Emory University. Then, there was a short activity where half of the room of students would define success and my half was to define happiness. The whole purpose was to make us all feel like we were already a part of the community. When we were all asked of the meanings, one person defined success as interchangeable with happiness, it is what makes you happy. Another person was asked to define happiness, and she set the definition was something that can not really be defined but is important in your life.

The sign behind the front desk in the undergrad admission building.

The most information that I gained from the informative session mainly regarded towards the application process and the advice that the admission officer gave us. She suggested us all to forget about the institution and solely focus on the moment in your life when you really felt the intrinsic experience, to focus on what is important to you. I thought it was less intense and pressuring than Rice University's application process because the last thing that the admission officers look at are the standardized testing scores, kind of unlike Rice where the 75th percentile has SAT scores of 800, 800, and 780. I really was brought into the whole holistic review that she talked about, where the story of the applicant matters the most, of course with other factors like academic records or the possible change that they can bring to the school. After the session, I was really excited about the campus tour, and after Katerina, our tour guide, led us through the entire campus, I absolutely fell in love with Emory and will be applying in the fall. I know that I will absolutely tell as many seniors that I know to definitely check out the college because it is just so amazing. My favorite part was the diversity, interactions between the students, and open amount of research and creations that are made by students themselves. She mentioned the different and creative clubs that students have established at the school, and the creativity continues to build on, with their own choice of combining majors. Hummd, Arnold, and I proceeded straight to the gift shop once the tour ended and could not help ourselves from buying Emory apparel (plus we were given a 25% off discount on the clothes)!

All matching with Emory gear (again on tip toes)! 

We went to a frozen yogurt store to cool ourselves off, and headed back to the hotel to relax until dinnertime. Dinner was at a BBQ place, where we all got to experience true southern food.

Phantastic pulled chicken and beef along with macaroni
and cheese and slaw.