Gary Bicker

(L-R) Communications juniors Uma Raja, Sam Marshall and Brianna Steidle stand in front of Big Ben in London, England.

The chiming of Big Ben resonates between the old buildings. A cherry red double decker bus zooms by and I look up to see the London Eye spin through the fluffy clouds.

On June 18, I left for an EF (Education First) tour with a handful of fellow Dreyfoos students for an 11 day vacation in London, Paris, Zurich and Davos. With social studies teacher Gary Bicker as the chaperone, I’ll be traveling Europe and documenting all my experiences here on The Muse website.

The trip began with a seven hour plane ride that began in Miami. After playing many rounds of trivia games on the airplane television, we landed in London. We were introduced to a tour guide, paired with a group of kids from Oregon and began to scour the city.

Our first stop was the iconic Trafalgar Square. Statues of lions and buff men glared down at me from impressive pedestals. Next we headed to a unique place called Camden Market. It showed a different side of London, a burrow where locals converse. The most notable thing was the vast shopping opportunities. Booths of street vendors and gift shops stretched on for miles, people sold everything from dresses to bubble tea to bongs. I filled up on souvenirs and made some poor attempts to bargain with the salespeople. After a hearty dinner (By the way, EF does a great job accommodating dietary restrictions) we took a Jack the Ripper tour.

As a horror movie lover who finds joy in all things creepy, I was excited for a chilling tour about one of the greatest serial killers of all time. However, the tour wasn’t what I expected. We waited for the Jack the Ripper guide to show up when a strange man approached us while reading a newspaper. He glanced at us and slowly inched forward. It was the Jack the Ripper guide, he was an actor, through the entire tour he put on a hilarious persona. The tour wasn’t scary at all, the guide showed us Jack the Ripper related sites and tied in jokes along with historical facts. Although it wasn’t what I expected it to be, it was still amazing.

On the second day we hit all the highlights. We walked to places like the Parliment, the Great Fire Monument and Buckingham Palace. We even saw horses march in for the first part of the changing of the guards. We also witnessed the Tower of London.

It is an EF tour, so education has to be involved. We visited a Youth Center and talked with a bunch of English kids. We discussed the differences in our schooling, what we do for fun and what life in our countries is like in general. We then played games like table tennis and fooseball. Who knew that ping pong was the perfect way to fight jet lag? The English people showed us their school and their park. It was very enlightening to see the lives of the local people. After scarfing down a delicous Asian Fusion dinner we saw the play Elephant Man starring Bradley Cooper. It was heart-breaking and powerful performance based on real events.

On the third and final day in England we woke up early to visit the prestigious Oxford University. The gorgeous place inspired many famous authors like Lewis Carroll and C.S Lewis. We saw the filming sites from the “Harry Potter” movies and learned a lot about the history of the school and what life is like for an Oxford student. Then we had free time to walk around. The university was stunning, although it was hard to concentrate because I was so caffeinated. Intense coffee is the only way to stay awake on these exciting but tiring tours.

Later we visited Camden Market again and had a traditional meal of fish and chips. As the sun sunk behind the city we took the metro to the London Eye, one of the largest Ferris wheels on Earth. I watched the towering buildings grow small and took as many photos as my cruddy camera could capture. However, I don’t think any photos (or even Muse articles) can truly capture the amazing experience in full.

The next stop is Paris, and we are taking the Eurostar train to get there. The high-speed train goes underwater to reach its destination. I’ll be sure to blog about France in the near future.