How To Pronounce Saxapahaw

Yes, sometimes it’s nice to travel to the Galapagos or the French Riviera over break, but other times it’s nice and arguably more environmental to take advantage of the school’s location and explore our own backyard: the glorious South.

I spent the last two weekends hiking the Smokies and visiting Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, and have been faced with an inescapable truth: the South is a beautiful place with delicious food. Now, I am not regaling you with tales of travels just to boast, I am hopefully giving y’all ideas for making the most of your time at Duke.

First, I went hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Tennessee side. As we entered the fog-ladened hills, we saw a black bear. No joke. We saw a bear, for real, and it was pretty cool. It was a six-hour drive from Durham to Gatlinburg, mostly due to the torrential downpour, which actually caused my friends and I to abandon camp one of the nights and check into a hotel in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, a.k.a. the Tijuana of Tennessee, at least according to myself.

The hiking was stunning. I can’t name the flora and fauna cause I’m a bad environmentalist, at least in the classical meaning, but it was appreciated all the same. The highlight was seeing a curtain of water droplets pass over the ridge of the Alum Bluffs left from the previous night’s rain. It beat the best-looking waterfall I have ever seen. And I’m including what I’ve seen on Planet Earth.

I’ll regale you with tales of Savannah and Charleston in my next blog, but for now, one final tip, if you want a spot of quintessential southern charm, you need to check out the Oktoberfest celebrations in a small village called Saxapahaw, less than an hour’s drive. And if you can manage to properly pronounce it, kudos.