It's time!
I am leaving for my adventure along with my daughter Marissa and over 40 students from her High School!
Firstly, all of the students are playing 'Survivor' on every trip. You can get voted off for several different reasons which I will gladly highlight through my posts over the next few days:)
The interesting thing that I was unaware of from last years' trip is that there is actually an 'EF tours' scholarship of $1000 up for grabs!!! So the final student standing through the trip, that hasn't been voted off by Finnigan, recieves $1000 from EF Tours...how awesome is that?!!!
We have been split into four groups of ten students also, we are in Finnigan's group which is fun, and each group is competing with each other as well...for example, before we all loaded onto the bus in Abbotsford, each person's bag needed to be weighed...the group with the lowest total weight would get immunity for the day...Marissa had the heaviest bag, weighing in at 49.6lbs!
I am proud to say mine was 38.6lbs but unfortunately our Team Finnigan total weight was the highest so we were last place...Marissa, also, was voted out!!! The kids can try to get voted back in again with random acts of kindness throughout the trip...you just never know what Finnigan is going to do next!!!
Jaime and Olivia got to deliver us to the school...
Now as we are driving to the airport one of the male students realizes that he's forgotten his wallet at home with his bank cards and cash for the trip! His mother was not too thrilled to have to race home and then race out to Richmond to deliver it to him before we were able to clear security or get checked in! He got voted out of course!
Departing from YVR for a 7PM flight yesterday...pretty smooth sailing through Customs and security with 40 students and 9 adults...Mr. Finnigan, Marissa's teacher and head coordinator, has really got a well oiled machine and after taking so many kids abroad over the years, he's got some great systems in place. We had just enough time to grab a snack or dinner and then it was time to load the plane!
To keep things exciting Finnigan trys to pick pockets and backpacks...just to show the students how easy it is...even with him not being a professional! I can't even count how many students were pick pocketed by Finnigan in the first couple of hours!
After a great 9 hour flight to Heathrow, with little to no sleep, we needed to be ready to go once we arrived which was noon local time. Pretty speedy through customs and getting all our luggage...I have come to realize that a lot of the trip is spent waiting for everyone to be together before we can carry on to the next location! Love our fun bus for the ride to the hotel...
Upon arrival however, we have another male student who has now lost his passport!!! Oh yeah, you read right...can't find it...calling the Consulate and now needing to figure out a 24hr passport...Finnigan is not happy, and I'm pretty sure that student has been voted out!
Remember that it's Day One still...so much excitement and some tired legs for me...off to bed!
Here's a couple of shots from our travels around London...
Our hotel is right behind the Wembley stadium and a 3 minute walk to the Underground, super convenient.
I almost got everyone in this shot...we are walking, walking, walking!
Starbucks, of course, but how gorgeous is the entrance to this one here ?!!
Typical red phone booths of course and a selfie shot with Marissa and one of the other chaperones, Marvin!
Have a great day and if you are following along on our European adventure, I'll be trying to post daily!
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