Dear gentle reader,
the journey back home was terrific. Nope, wrong word. I meant horrific. The itinerary included us going to the British Museum in the morning, but after getting back to the hotel around 11pm the night before, Mr. Kaplan and Ms. Pero decided to strike that out. The kids didn’t really have a problem with that since it meant we finally got to sleep in.
So, with my alarm being set for 4:30 AM (it was still in EST time so it was technically 8:30 AM in England), room 4925 (Me [Vicky], Peace, and Amaya) got ready for the day. We quickly packed, ate breakfast, and some of us went to Tesco (BCA’s version of QuickChek or a Wawa) with Ms. Halligan.
I, and a bunch of other kids, got British (or non-US) snacks and sweet treats to bring back home to our families. Ms. Pero ran to the next door Pret A Manager to grab a healthier meal than any of our Smarties or Oreos. When she came back and saw all of our plastic packaged carbohydrate sweets, she clocked us all.
Mr. Kaplan gave us an extra ten minutes to bring down all of our luggage. So, at 11:10AM, all of us stood outside of the Royal National Hotel with our luggage. The bus took a little while longer than we expected. About an hour longer. I was sat in my seat with a tea (that was bought for an expensive 4 pounds within that hour and ten minutes of waiting) by 12:17PM.
We ran through the Heathrow Airport (my BPM was insane), and after a quick bathroom break, we made it onto the slightly empty plane.
After a swift (not really) 7 hours and 40 minutes of a turbulent flight (do not get me started on the landing…), we made it!!! Collected the baggage and everything and waited for our bus. And waited some more. And some more. And for the first time, saw Mr. Kaplan looking distressed. It rained, we suffered, we drank out Starbucks, and we were at BCA around 11PM.
I debriefed my mom on the entire London trip for another two hours and was in bed by an early 2AM, and was awake at 6:30AM for school.
It was hectic, but it was 110% worth it.
Signing off for the last time,
Victoria Baturin.
