Cornbread, Sushi, and Sunshine

One of the greatest privileges of teaching that I've enjoyed is getting to teach someone else's class.  It's fun--it's usually a guest spot so I feel really special--and it gives me a chance to interact with many students I wouldn't meet otherwise.  I suppose it's a bit like being an aunt; I get to have fun with the 'nieces and nephews' but then mom and dad (or in this case the class professors) have the hard work of giving grades.

On Tuesday I attended Professor Trakas and Professor Lane's class called "Cornbread and Sushi."  It's a course that explores what it means to be a Southerner, and how our regional identity is shaped.  The question under consideration on Tuesday was 'is Florida a Southern state?'  Geography provides a simple conclusion, but the cultural answer is much more complex.  It's yes (in terms of history) and no(in terms of how outsiders view the state).  We had a wonderful hour talking about tourism and economic development, and how what is 'unreal' about Florida shapes the state's reality.  It was some pretty heady stuff!

I'm so envious of this group of students because they get to continue their explorations into Southern culture on a travel interim and they will be journeying through Florida in January.  If I was free this interim, I'd be at home to meet them and offer them, maybe not sushi, but some grits and bacon and a glimpse of the real Florida that I know, where both good and bad elements of the  Old South live and Mickey is somebody's first cousin, not the local mouse.

Comments

[GG]

Interesting topic...my mother came from Pennsylvania, although my grandparents moved to Florida with the youngest two children in the 1960s. I remember my aunt telling me she thought Florida would be like California...movie stars and Rodeo Drive. Talk about culture shock! As she says, she fell into the cracker barrel not unlike Alice down the rabbit hole.

[Como hacer Sushi]

On October the 12th of 1997, six thousand japanese in Yoshii made the world's longest sushi roll. It was 1km long!

Thanks, fuser

http://comohacersushi.blogspot.com/