CIS Olympic Choir Trip – London Journal

Teacher - Ms. Bonnie Brewer

Student - Ms. Lauren Jeon

Wednesday, May 21

We arrived in London today and started our exploration of London right away. As we drove from Heathrow Airport to the city centre, I was captivated by the beauty of London. The trees were thick with green leaves, buildings were old but strong. This was definitely not Beijing!
Our first stop was in central London, beside Westminster Abbey. We sang the Olympic song and had our picture taken in front of the iconic Big Ben. Behind Big Ben, we could see our next stop, the London Eye. We walked past historic buildings and across the River Thames, keeping an eye on the Eye the entire way. Ohh, but it wasn’t time to get on the Eye yet! We needed to take a cruise on the river first. Up and down the Thames, we saw dozens of important London sites – the House of Parliament, the Tate Gallery, Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, the Tower of London. I think the children’s favourite was the pirate ship.
After that, we climbed onto our pod on the London Eye, and settled in for our 40-minute trip around the wheel. It went so high! We could see so much of the city this way. When we reached the top, we sang the next verse of the Olympic song. Upon reaching solid ground, we celebrated by getting a big English ice cream – Yum!

All of us in our choir group had been looking forward to this London trip for such a long time that even as early as 4 am in the morning, we gathered at school eagerly waiting for our journey to begin. Sure, it was quite hard for some members to be awake that early, but we had all the time in the world to sleep during the flight. I mean, what’s a few less hours of sleep when London is calling you!!!
We finally arrived at the airport in England around 12:00 London time. It took about 30 minutes to get to London from the airport. While on the bus to London, we couldn’t take our eyes off the beautiful sights in our view.
The first place we went to was Big Ben. As Olympic Choir, we got a great opportunity to sing in front of it. Then we went to ride a ferry on Thames River and also see the London Eye. Luckily, the weather was great and we got to see amazing panoramic view of London. It was really great to see so many wonderful sights in just one day. As we had expected London was one great city!

Thursday, May 22

Today we went to Greenwich, where the 0 meridian is located. The park there was beautiful and we took a few moments to sit in the grass while Miss Davies taught the children how to make daisy chains. We walked on to the museum where we learned about longitude and clocks. The students were fascinated by the displays of experimental clocks and geography and astronomy displays.
After Greenwich, the bus took us on to Cambridge, home to the famous university. One of the first things we saw there were the small boats being rowed down the river. We walked on to see the many colleges in the town. The buildings were so old, I could easily imagine students from hundreds of years ago strolling through the courtyards. Wouldn’t it be nice to attend university here! Maybe some of our students will return here someday.

On the second day, we went to the Greenwich Park. It was a nice, sunny day so it was great to be outside. You can imagine how green and beautiful the park was. The special thing about this park was that it has a place located exactly on 0 longitude. It was quite interesting and we all got a chance to stand on that 0 longitude line.
In the afternoon, with great anticipation, we arrived at Cambridge. Cambridge was, for me personally, my favorite place during this trip. There were man amazing historical buildings and I really enjoyed looking at them. Anyways, all of us had a great time at Cambridge. Of course, most of us couldn’t leave without that Cambridge T-shirt as a reminder of this great place.

Friday, May 23

One of the most famous Englishmen ever is Shakespeare, so it is only fitting to visit his home in Stratford-upon-Avon. It was a rainy day here – a common day in England, so our first stop was to buy umbrellas to keep us dry. Then, it was off to Shakespeare’s birthplace, a quaint Tudor house, obviously there for a very long time. We modeled our new umbrellas in front of the house, then walked on to his daughter and granddaughter’s houses. We went to the church where he is buried and visited his grave, which is marked by a Shakespearian quote and a statue of the famous playwright. I like Stratford a lot, because of the care and attention the town put into presenting their history. It is a lovely town.
After managing to stay good and dry despite the rain, we piled on the bus and drove to Oxford. Perhaps the most famous university in the world, it looked the part. Distinguished buildings, grand libraries and intellectuals filled the streets. We went to Trinity College, where some scenes of Harry Potter were filmed. While there, we also visited the cafeteria. It sure didn’t look like our cafeteria at CIS! It was very elegant, with wooden furniture and portraits on the wall. The food cooking in the kitchen smelled great. I wish we could eat there everyday!

On the third day, we went to Stratford-upon-Avon, where William Shakespeare’s old house and grave is located. The rain came that day but we had all expected rain sometime during our trip to England so we were pretty much prepared. The only drawback was it was hard to take pictures. The village had a cozy atmosphere and walking around the village was quite peaceful and enjoyable.
Next stop was Oxford and everybody was quite excited because we were going to visit the place where some scenes from Harry Potter films were taken. The place was called The Christ Church. When we arrived there, we could recognize those places where the scenes in the Harry Potter movies had taken place. The hallways and staircase seemed somewhat familiar. Oxford, as we found out, also had many other interesting sights and we enjoyed them a lot.

Saturday, May 24

Today we stayed in London, which was a nice break from all the traveling over the past 2 days. You can’t go to London without visiting the queen, so we went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. It was a lovely sight, with nice music. We went to the National Art Gallery, and saw beautiful paintings. My favourites were by Monet, Seurat and Van Gogh. It was so exciting to see in person the paintings that we see so often in books!

On this day, we went to see where the Queen of England lives. You might have heard of this place, the Buckingham Palace!!! Unfortunately, we were not able to meet Queen Elizabeth II, but we got a chance to see the changing of the guards, which is quite a special ceremony. Along with so many people, we watched the ceremony with great fascination. The guards with the tall black fur hats and red coats left quite an impression on all of us. In the afternoon, we went to the National Gallery. The building was enormous and overwhelming, to say the least. It was really impressive, but the things we were able to see once we got inside the building was even more impressive. There were many paintings by famous artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Van Gogh. It was really fantastic to see them in person after only having seen them in books only.

Sunday, May 25

Today we will go home to Beijing, but we can’t leave without visiting one last place. The Natural History Museum was a great place to take the kids, where they could explore exhibits, learning about bugs, dinosaurs and so many other things in nature. I wish we had this museum in Beijing! We stopped to have a traditional English Sunday dinner (delicious!), and then we left London with lots of great memories and much heavier suitcases!

It was the last day. It was really surprising to see how time goes by so fast. In order to have a great last day, we went to the Natural History Museum. The place was terrific. It contained all the histories from a very long time ago and special things to look at like dinosaurs, fossils, and other historical and scientific facts. For lunch, we had a really nice traditional English meals and also, well known fish and chips. Everything was delicious and everyone enjoyed the meal very much. Afterwards, it was time to go to the airport for the flight back to Beijing. I am sure all of us were, sad to leave and wanted to stay more. But, it was time to go back. Without a doubt, this trip to England was the best event of the whole year and we will keep the precious memories from this trip for a very long time.