Fifty Forward Day 5

We started off the morning by touring the Parthenon in Nashville. It is a full-sized replica of the real Parthenon. We were able to tour the Parthenon for free because Larry is friends with one of the tour guides. The Parthenon was beautiful and huge. Inside the Parthenon was an artist’s interpretation of what the statue of Athena looked like. We learned about how the statue was an optical illusion. The pillars surrounding the statue are not the same size and the upper portion of Athena is actually larger than the lower half. This was all to make the statue itself appear larger. The Parthenon was also full of mathematical proportions. For example, the statues on the sides were in perfect symmetrical proportions.

We then went back to the church to continue volunteering for the Adult Day Services. When we arrived, no one was there. We figured out that the school was closed down due to the “snow flurries” from the day before so they shut down all services in the church also. I thought it was funny because there was barely any snow outside; it was just cold. Obviously the people who live in Nashville are not used to the snow. Since our volunteering activities were cancelled, we decided to just make it a sight-seeing day.

We went to lunch at a restaurant called Monell’s. It was a family-oriented restaurant that was in a big beautiful looking manor. The restaurant had a very family style and Southern feel to it because you sat with other people and passed the food around. Also, there were signs making it clear that there was to be no cell phone use at the table. After lunch, advised by the two gentlemen who sat with us, we went to the hotel called the Gaylord Opryland. The hotel was absolutely huge and beautiful. It had a very exotic feel to it with trees, plants, and water. There were lots of shops and restaurants in the hotel. I felt fully captivated by the gorgeous surroundings. After the hotel we went downtown to a place called Layla’s for country and bluegrass music. There were lots of “honkey-tonks” downtown where they had live music and dancing.

In conclusion, the trip was an amazing experience and I had an absolutely great time. I bonded really well with the other members of the group and we all became good friends. I had lots of great laughs with them that I will remember for a long time. I did not really have much expectations going into the trip. My favorite aspect of the trip was hanging out with the elderly members at the Bordeaux site. We felt right at home there and we could tell they all started to feel attached to us. Jean Wilson, the director there, was also very grateful for us. My impressions of the non-profit world changed as I saw kind of two sides to it. I saw the nice big looking building at Knowles site where there is more work oriented attitude and not as much play compared to the smaller building at the Bordeaux site where there is much more fun and compassion.

I have not posted any photos in my blog posts because I am planning to create some sort of scrapbook with all the photos we took, so be on the lookout for that!

-Yasser Hassan