ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — Tristan Smith, a Robertsdale native and 2007 graduate of Robertsdale High School, is taking a semester off from her nursing studies at the University of South Alabama, but that doesn’t mean she’s taking a break.

Quite the contrary, Smith just finished filming the second season of CMT’s Sweet Home Alabama and she’s been busy promoting the show.

When interviewed on Monday, she had just returned from a weekend at the University of West Alabama in Livingston, where she was a student before transferring to USA to pursue her career in nursing. She participated in UWA’s Homecoming Festivities.

On Wednesday, she will travel to Sherman, Texas, then on Friday, she will be in Dallas before appearing at the Big River Jam in Coffeeville on Oct. 28, all to promote the new CMT series, which begins airing on Thursday, Oct. 20 and will air every Thursday at 8 p.m. for the following eight weeks.

Smith is one of 22 bachelorettes vying for the affections of Tribble Reese, a Birmingham bartender who was runner-up on Season 1 of the popular series. Both seasons were filmed at the Dorgan Inn in Fairhope.

“He is just a true Southern gentleman and Fairhope is such a beautiful place to find love,” Smith said. “It’s all very real and it was such a great experience. I really enjoyed my time on the show.”

Smith said she is good friends with Robertsdale’s Cody Harris, who finished among the final seven of the 20 contestants from Season 1 and it was through him that she was contacted by the show’s producers and asked to participate.

The daughter of Lynnie Smith and the late Ted Smith, who owned Central Cabinet Shop in Robertsdale, Tristan Smith said her father’s death seven months ago became an integral part of her experience on the show.

“I really didn’t want to talk about it, but the show’s producers encouraged me to because it is such a big part of who I am,” she said. “In a lot of ways I think it helped me deal with things that I hadn’t had a chance to deal with and helped me open up in ways I hadn’t opened up before.”

Talking about her father’s death also played an integral part in her interaction with Reese, she said.

“He was so sweet and got really emotional about it,” she said. “He was very sympathetic and really listened. It was great. I couldn’t have asked for a better situation.”

Like Season 1, the second airing of Sweet Home Alabama pits country versus city, and this time there are 11 country girls going up against 11 city girls. As with the first season, Smith said, the dynamic makes for some very real fireworks in the house.

“I didn’t really get involved in all that, but it was hard not to,” she said. “We’re (the country girls) just so different from them. We just have very different backgrounds and were raised with very different values.

“I really think it was worse than the first show. Girls are so catty to begin with and girls are very competitive. When you have 22 girls competing for the same guy … let’s just say it got pretty heated.

“It was interesting to see how some of the girls would act one way in front of Tribble and another way when they were away from him. I think there was a fight just about every night in the house.”

While obviously she cannot reveal anything about the results of the show, Smith said she really enjoyed her time during production and felt she represented the area well.

“I am blessed to have such good parents,” she said, “and I feel I carry their values and the values I learned growing up in Robertsdale with me.”