A History Class Field Trip!



Some of us in the van on a field trip!

For the most part, this past week had been mostly classes, writing papers, and meetings for various clubs that I belong to.  Fortunately, my American Material Culture history class took a refreshing step out of the classroom this past Thursday for a field trip!

Since the class directly deals with material objects, artifacts, and cultural trends, the best way to learn is to go out and see the things for yourselves.  So, we all climbed into a couple giant Mercyhurst vans and took a history class tour of Erie and its cultural landscape.  It was a short tour; only about an two hours, but it was still enjoyable and an awesome way to break the monotony of sitting in the classroom for so long.  The highlight of our Erie mini-tour was definately stopping at Erie Water Works.  Here we got to have a tour of the facilities and the GIANT engine from the early 20th century that is nicknamed "Big Bertha."  It doesn't work anymore, but it was used for a really long time to pump water from Lake Erie to the surrounding areas!

The history class field trip definately reminded me that Erie isn't just the place where I go to school.  It is a thriving city with a lot to do, see, and learn about.  When you visit Mercyhurst, make sure to check out downtown to get a true feel of what Erie is all about!

Well, back to my long to-do list!