Mammoth cabbage... Day 7

Today we ventured to Warwick Castle. My home stay father's dad lost part of his hand whilst repairing Guy's Tower, luckily he survived. Anyways, it was a very cool castle. Afterwards, we went up to Mill's garden, which was a really nice place, it had this plant that looked like a mammoth cabbage (at least six feet tall). After the excitement of the castle and such, we went back to the home stay and had some fajitas for supper, then went to sleep.

All about Shakespeare... Day 6

This morning, we all hopped on a train to Stratford-upon-Avon, then went on another coach to get to Mary Arden's house (Shakespeare's mother). Following that, we went to Anne Hathaway's (Shakespeare's wife... not the actress) house. Add in a little bit of shopping, then back to Shakespeare's house. Add in a little bit more shopping. Had a nice ride back to the Critten's house and ate dinner, then I played with their hamster for a bit and went to bed.Mary Arden's house.

Some things never change... Day 5

Turns out that I'm no better at bowling when I'm in a different country, the Crittens took us this morning. I wound up with a whopping 84. Later on, Sara and I took the dog, Heidi, for a walk. Fast forward to brunch and sitting around the house for a few hours. We ended up taking Heidi for another walk, this time along the canal. At one point, I got to help some people open and shut the canal. I met some people from Ontario and New Zealand, which was exciting.We passed by Warwick Castle on our walk today.

Warwick... Day 4

This morning I woke up and showered, then went downstairs for a pretty disgusting breakfast. When we boarded the motor coach, we found out whether we would be having our homestays in Nottingham or Warwickshire. I wound up in Warwickshire, with only 11 other people from our group. We drove 2 or so hours to Warwick and I wound up with a family called the Critten’s. Tony, the dad, picked up Jenny and I and brought us back to his house. A little bit later, his eleven-year-old daughter, Lauren, and his fifteen-year-old son, Simon, came home from school. After the mom, Sara, got home from work, Lauren, Jenny and I went shopping downtown. I ended up buying a bag from Miss Selfridge, a disposable camera and a pink Buddha bracelet. We met up with Sara and Tony to go see the movie “Chicken Run”. That’s when my jet lag kicked in. I slept through most of the movie. When we got home, we had dinner, then went to bed.

Bye Bye Camera... Day 3

This morning I woke up early and had a shower, then we went to the Tower of London. It was a really cool place. We went back to the dorm and met with Sir Andrew Bowden, a member of parliament. That was an interesting experience, but it was kind of boring as well. For lunch, we went to Planet Hollywood. The food was okay, but unfortunately I lost my camera there and by the time I realized it, it was already gone. I spent £43 on shirts for my family. We then went to St. James castle, but we didn't get to go inside, we just looked at it from the outside. After that, we went to Westminster Abbey, but we couldn't go inside. It was gorgeous from the outside though. I bought a cute little Union Jack from the store beside the church. Later on, we went to a play in the West End called "Buddy" and it was about Buddy Holly. It was really good and all of the music was awesome. I really enjoyed that play. After the play, we went to dinner at a Thai restaurant and it was delicious, even though everything was spicy. We rode the tube back to Bankside and went to bed.

London Calling... Day 2

Today we arrived in London at 6:30 am, London time. The breakfast on the plane was disgusting. My first impression of England was absolutely beautiful. We met Kevin Bonavia, our delegation manager and our first stop was Runnymede (although when Kevin said it, I thought he said "runny meat" which really grossed me out), where the Magna Carta was signed. There was a memorial to JFK there. After Runnymede, we went to Windsor Castle and Eton, the school that Princes William and Harry go. Today was Prince William's last day... too bad we didn't get to see him. We got to see the Changing of the Guards, which was really cool. We went to a restaurant named "Garders" and it was horrible, it really didn't help our preconceived notion that British food isn't tasty. They gave us a watered down version of red pop. Ew. We got back on the coach and rode for about an hour and a half. I promptly fell asleep. We arrived at Bankside House, a dormitory in London, for the London School of Economics. It was a really cool room & I shared with Jenny and Amanda. Bankside is adjacent to Tate Modern, which is a modern art museum. It used to be the Bankside Power Station. It was a really cool art museum and the entrance was amazing. After Tate, we went on a historical tour of London. We saw the old location of the Globe Theater, before it burned down.

Off we go... Day 1

I'm post dating all of my journals (and fixing the grammar) from my People To People Student Ambassador trip to the UK and Ireland in the summer of 2000.

Today I leave for the UK & Ireland from Detroit. We have a group of 38, plus our 3 group leaders; Jan, Richard & Kristen. We are meeting our manager @ Heathrow Airport in London, tomorrow morning.
Leaving today was rough, mom and dad took me to the airport and then mom wouldn't let me go. Eventually, we boarded the plain and took off. I ended up sitting next to a guy named Mike. The flight was really long, about 9 hours.