Students spend spring break in England and Scotland
Prep juniors and sophomores traveled across the pond March 3rd through 11th for the England/Scotland spring break trip.
The students flew over night, arrived in London in the morning, and immediately dove into their day. They met their tour guide, Emma, who would be with them for the whole trip. She took them on a walking tour of some of London’s most famous landmarks including the Globe Theater, Millennium Bridge, and St. Paul’s Cathedral! Later that afternoon, the group stopped by the Borough Market. Located under a bridge, Borough Market is a wholesale food and retail hall where the students were given about 10 pounds each. They were told to explore, tasting all kinds of delicious foods. Mrs. Wilkinson added that, ”I had the biggest strawberry I have ever seen!”
The next day, students went on a sightseeing tour. They visited West
minster Abbey, the Imperial War Museum, the Tower of London, the two houses of Parliament, the London Eye, and Buckingham Palace. That evening they attended the musical Les Misérables.
Day three was full of wonderful wizardry. The students went on the Warner Bros. Studios Tour where they got to see breathtaking sets, authentic props, original costumes and could try butterbeer!
The following day they visited the famous Pineapple Dance Studio for a Les Misérables musical workshop. The students worked on the song “One Day More,” complete with blocking and acting. They stopped by Covent Garden to grab a quick bite and shop in a few stores. They took the tube to see Windsor Castle, and the Queen of England was there while they were visiting! That night they visited the West End to revisit the theater to see Come From Away, a musical set in the week following the 9/11 attacks. It told the true story of when 38 planes were ordered to land unexpectedly in the small town of Gander in Canada, including how the travelers’ lives changed and the people in the small town that took them in.
The next morning the students visited Stratford-Upon-Avon where they got to see Shakespeare’s birthplace and Anne’s cottage. That night they packed up their stuff to journey to Scotland.
When the train arrived in Scotland, they set off for another eventful day including the Writers’ museum and lunch at the Elephant House. There, some of the students tried haggis, a famous Scottishdish, featuring sheep intestines.
On their last day, they took an Edinburgh Castle tour followed by a pizza dinner. Later that night, they went on a ghost tour in famous places of Scotland and vaults underground. They said goodbye to Emma and packed their bags to come home, but their excitement was far from done.
When they arrived home, students, teachers, and parents who attended the trip were put in a fourteen day quarantine until March 25th. In London, there were signs urging people to wash their hands, but no one was too concerned. Mrs. Wilkinson shared that, “As we landed in Jackson, President Trump was giving his announcement saying that European travel would be stopped. We made it home under the wire. When we left on March 2, only a few people were wearing masks in the airport; when we left Scotland on March 11, we saw lots and lots of masks. We could tell that something was changed. We feel fortunate that our trip wasn’t affected at all. It’s a miracle that we literally came home just as things were escalating.” Although COVID-19 was not what students were expecting to come home to, they were happy they were fortunate enough to have experienced London and Edinburgh to their fullest befor
e returning home. Junior Sara Foster Dryden said that “It was sad to hear the travelers and any family they had been around had to be stuck in their homes, but it was worth it to experience London.”
