2008 National Collegiate Honors Conference
On October 22, 2008 four NMU Honors students, Stephanie Johnson, Andrea Ewasek, Hunter Harig and Kyle Schimek and the Honors Program Director, Dr. Michael Broadway left Marquette to attend the National Collegiate Honors Conference in San Antonio. The following is an abbreviated summary of their trip by Andrea, Stephanie and Kyle.
Day 1, October 22: The first day was “interesting.” Our first flight out of Marquette was delayed by 3 hours. When we finally got to Detroit we ran across the airport (underneath the cool tunnel with the technicolored walls) to get to our San Antonio flight and made it to the gate in just enough time to see them close the airplane door. They refused to let us on the plane even though it was just sitting at the gate; so, we had to run across the airport to catch another flight that would eventually connect to San Antonio via Houston. We got to Houston and again had to run across the airport to catch the next flight to San Antonio. We finally got to San Antonio, and the only thing keeping us from going straight to the hotel was lost luggage! A report was filed with the airline but by the time we made it out of the airport it was already one in the morning and the car-rental place was closed. This meant taking two cabs to the hotel; when we went to check in we were told we did not have any reservations! It turned out that they typed our names into the computer wrong so we ended up getting to the room just fine. Dr. Broadway went to bed right away. But the students were hungry; we hadn’t eaten since 11 AM so we headed for Denny’s. As soon as we sat down, the party arrived! A very drunk girl drunkenly stumbled in and announced (yelled) that it was her birthday. Over. And over. And over again. She was followed by a parade of men with half-buttoned shirts, gold chains, and chest hair-which we learned seemed to be a fashion statement in that part of town. We finished our meal, and exhaustedly crawled into bed, each of us asleep before our heads hit our very downy and exquisite pillows.
Day 2, October 23: Today we participated in the National Collegiate Honors Council’s City as Text program and went to the Alamo. The idea behind the program is to increase student’s awareness of their immediate surroundings. We looked at the area around the Alamo, what kind of people visited the Alamo, the people who worked there, who did the up-keep, who “hung out” around the site, what the site meant to people and many other things. Answering these and other questions involved interviewing people. One lady, who proudly fashioned a coon skin cap, disclosed that she had come to the Alamo because she was a great fan of Davey Crockett. A patrolman was asked what the Alamo meant to him, and he told us simply: “work.” We also learned that 80% of the Alamo and the Long Barrack (the second original building) were original and that 40 of the 188 defenders had died in the Long Barrack. These little pieces of information made the Alamo all the more real and historic and made one forget that right next door was a Hagan Daaz and across the street was a Ripley’s! Believe it or Not!
After our visit to the Alamo we decided to walk around downtown to find something to eat. Downtown reminded Stephanie a lot of Spain because it had narrow sidewalks and small one or two way bricked streets, many alleys and lots of little shops and tourist places. We walked along the river walk which was essentially a river with sidewalks on each side lined with restaurants and shops. There were many trees and plants and quaint bridges which made it quite the serene and magical place, and to top it off there were boats going up and down giving people rides. We ate lunch at a nearby restaurant. Shortly after 3:00 pm we returned to the hotel to have a discussion with the other groups who had participated in the City as Text program and visited other locations throughout the city.
In the evening Dr. Broadway took us to a quaint 24 hour authentic Mexican restaurant on the other side of downtown. The restaurant was decorated for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and upon exiting we noticed that there was a shrine for the dead right outside. It was filled with many different pictures of people’s relatives, candles and many other things. We walked back to the hotel, taking a slight detour to walk along the river walk which was even more magical at night.
Day 3, October 24: Presentation day! Today we ate at a quaint little Italian restaurant on the River Walk. It was fun to eat outside along the river, our meal was good and the view was great despite the attention of the birdlife. At 2.00 pm Hunter gave his presentation followed by Stephanie at 3.00 pm both sessions were well attended and lively discussions followed their talks. To relax afterwards we headed over to the Tower of the Americas, which we soon realized was a tourist trap. After riding the electric bull in the gift shop for 50 cents, we roamed Hemisfair Park. The area has a lot of great sculptures and fountains. Eventually we stumbled upon an art museum, which is owned by the Mexican government, and full of the work of Mexican artists. We continued wandering and ended up in La Villita, of old San Antonio, which appeared to fewer tourists. We walked over to a section of the River Walk that featured a stage on one side, and grass topped cement stairs for seating on the other. It was really nice, and apparently (according to passing river boat guides) a scene from Miss Congeniality 2 was filmed there. We then sat and watched a wedding practice take place on the stage. After admiring the happy couple for a while, we realized we were very hungry and proceeded to the Rainforest Café. 
Day 4, October 25: Today was bittersweet as it was the last day we’d spend in San Antonio. It began with Kyle’s and Andrea’s presentations which both went very well. After the presentations we went to the conference’s lunch banquet. The meal was quite good and we had the opportunity to meet some other Honors students. After the lunch we attended a presentation entitled The Biology of Faith which focused on how the brain works during religious moments.
After this presentation we headed to a street fair that we had heard about at the Alamo. It had some interesting things but it really wasn’t that impressive. There was a lot of carnival or fair type food but unlike a fair most of the food was Mexican or Mexican like. They also had a Halloween costume contest for the children and some long-horns on display. It was pretty warm compared with Marquette and after walking around a while we decided to eat at a restaurant in the market area.
On our way back to the hotel we passed the cathedral which has a plaza in front of it with some really cool fountains. There was a jazz band playing and we decided to sit at a table and listen to them. They were quite good and so we decided to stick around and even purchased a deck of cards in order to play some euchre. There were a fair number of people watching the concert and some kids started playing in the fountains. The highlight, however, was when we saw 12 people whiz by on segways. Soon afterwards we headed back to the hotel as we had a 6:00 am flight and needed our beauty sleep. We all enjoyed our visit to San Antonio. The weather was really nice and as Stephanie recalled “It reminds me of Spain except it smells better and is cleaner!”
Day 4, Sunday October 26: Our return journey was uneventful – we first flew to Memphis, then Minneapolis-St Paul before we arrived back in Marquette a mere 13 hours after we left San Antonio.
