Final hours by Adrienne Novak

Currently sitting at the Charlotte airport getting ready to board the plan for Ohio! Today has been a bittersweet day! It's sad leaving England since we had a blast but I can't wait to be home so I can sleep in my own bed and eat food I enjoy! This trip has been a success! It was my first time traveling abroad and it was a great first experience touring many places in England and getting to travel to Paris for the day. My favorite part of the trip was getting to ride the London eye, it was scary at first but it was worth it to see London from that view! I would definitely go back to London in a second now that I have mastered the public transportation system and think I can navigate around the city pretty well.  

Hello America

So we are sitting in the Charlotte airport and I can't believe this trip is actually over. These past two weeks have been filled with some amazing experiences. On Saturday we went on the London Eye which is just one gigantic ferris wheel. At first I was pretty nervous to go on it because I absolutely hate ferris wheels. Although I did pretty much stay in the exact center of our pod I did end up liking it a lot more than I had thought. The view was absolutely amazing and it was fun to see an Ariel view of the city we had been exploring for almost a week. Another thing that we did this week was travel to Paris. I swear we have used every form of public transportation on this trip because we took a train to France. Although I thought Paris was amazing it was very different then I expected. One of the main things that surprised me was how dirty the city was. It made me very thankful for some of the semi clean cities we have in America. Obviously the highlight of Paris for me was seeing the Eiffel tower sparkle at night time. It was so beautiful and I'm so glad that I can say I have seen it in person at night in Paris. Last night was our last night and a

Group of us went to see the musical Wicked. We all loved it and had an amazing time. The story line and most of all the amazing voiced were some highlights of the show. Overall I feel like I have learned a lot more about many other cultures and the history of how they came to be. This has been an amazing trip and I'm sad its over but I'm also happy to be in my homeland :)

Almost home...

We're sitting in the airport in Charlotte waiting to board the plane. We got delayed 90 minutes but it ended up being a good thing because if not we would have missed our flight. The flight from England to Charlotte was 9 hours but it seemed so much longer! Overall I had a lot of fun in England and made a bunch of new friends. I learned a lot more about our worlds history and the significance of all the beautiful castles, cathedrals and monuments that we saw. My favorite part of the trip was going to bath and visiting the Warwick castle. I enjoyed exploring both of them. Some of the differences I noticed while I was there is that they do not put ice in drinks, the have very few trash cans, people bump in to you and don't say anything, they call their bathrooms toilets and they drive on tr opposite side of the road. After being there for 2 weeks these things started to become normal to me. I had a lot of fun in England but I am very excited to go home and sleep in my own bed and have American food! I can't wait to eat fruits and veggies and be able to work out! I had a great experience in england and made lots of memories with great people.

I HATE that we are leaving...but I'm thankful for the experience

Posting this today but I wrote it yesterday on the train. Paris was incredibly beautiful!! I loved every minute. Here is what i wrote yesterday:
I just want to write this to remember this moment months from now. I am currently riding backwards on a train to Paris and I am looking out at the French countryside and I can't believe that I am this privileged and blessed to be doing this. I return to the states in 48 hours and I am devastated by this thought. I have loved everything about this trip and England. I will definitely be returning here when I graduate and I plan to work here sometime in my career. I am so excited for what the future holds in store for me and I am so happy to have had these wonderful experiences. I am also so blessed to say that I genuinely have made 27 buddies, one of which will be a best friend for the rest of my life. On the first day Margie told us to always keep a buddy with us where ever we go and I have shared every experience with more than a buddy. Molly has become a best friend. I'm so blessed to have conquered fears, had moments of truth and shared many laughs with her and all 27 buddies on this trip. The train is starting to slow down now so here's to a day full of new adventures in Paris!! I'm so excited. I never want to come home!! Loving this life and in the words of Alex, I am living the dream! God Bless

Katie :)

Ps- I love this country so much and I can't wait to return!!!!

Homeward bound ...

Oh the last day! It was a rather pleasant day for me. I woke up and hit up the breakfast buffet one last time. After the last English buffet of the trip, thank goodness. I'm pretty tired of it, Alex, Adrianne , and I went to the Chelsea football stadium. Aka the soccer stadium. Chelsea is part of the English premiere league here in the UK. This means they are one of the top football clubs in this area. After taking many pictures and seeing my first English stadium. I headed to the Holland and Holland shooting grounds. I had to go because I love shooting and because it is my last name too. This was about an hour away. I had a blast shooting a gun, that lots of people will never be able to shoot. This company only has three stores in the world and only one shooting grounds. So it was pretty special. After hitting some clay targets I grade back to the hotel to get the last meal with the crew. On the way back I picked up some goodies for my friends an family. They'll like what I bring back I hope. The last dinner was pretty good and I enjoyed the last dinner. Despite some of the people of the group did not come. When the dinner came to a close so did my night. I packed up my last few things and now I am headed off to bed. It has been a great trip and I would do this all again in a heart beat. Thanks everyone for being friendly and spending a fabulous time with me here in London, England.
Cheers!!!!
Seth 

America Here We Come...

So tonight is our last night here and I have mixed feelings about going home. Today was great because we had a free day and it was nice to be able to be sure we saw everything we wanted before we had to leave. This trip has been a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am very grateful that I was able to experience it. This country is so beautiful and the arcitecture is absoutely exquisite. I have enjoyed just walking around and looking at all of the older buildings right next to the more modern ones. It's amazing how well the buildings work together to make such a beautiful city. America is such a young country compared to England and seeing the history up close really shows the differences between the two. This trip was amazing and I wouldn't trade it for anything! I hope I am lucky enough to get the chance to travel again soon.

Paris!

The journey to Paris was a wonderful and memorable experience. Stepping off the train and hearing and seeing advertisements and announcements in French was a culture shock initially. I have never traveled to a country where English is not the primary language and I found that there was a barrier to ordering at restaurants and reading billboards in a language that was foreign to my understanding. Even though I was not able to understand everything that was being spoken, it was wonderful to hear the local people speak in French. Walking through the Louvre was an enchanting experience. My favorite piece to view was the sculpture titled Venus de Milo. I thought it was interesting to see how the artist and people of the past viewed "the perfect" woman. Today many women who appear on the cover of magazines or billboards appear contrastingly different from the sculpture. Yet, it is interesting to see how people travel and wait to see the masterpiece despite the sculpture may not reflect current beauty trends. This made me appreciate the timelessness and beauty of art that has the ability to transcend the times. Another one of my favorite memories of Paris was the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night. I always have dreamed of visiting the Eiffel Tower and to see it at night was a magnificent experience.