Day 1:
4am! Not often is it a time of excitement for me, or anyone for that matter. However, this was different, this was the beginning of an adventure of which the build-up was extravagant. The long-anticipated trip was upon us, and as the coach turned the corner onto the deserted Soho Road, the long haul of a journey had begun!
It was a two and a half hour journey to London Heathrow airport, but due to the adrenaline (or tiredness), it lasted the blink of an eye! We arrived at Heathrow at 6:30am, and I get myself the first cup of tea of the day from Café Nero. We eventually all completed the passport control and security stage, giving us some time to grab a spot of breakfast. I barely had time to tuck into my bacon sandwich before we were called to board the plane – one of the most sustainable and eco-friendly planes in the world I might add. We took off and eventually, hour after hour, movie after movie, WE HAD LANDED! As we got off the plane and turned the corner to passport control, my jaw dropped; it was like Disneyland, the queue was lengthy to say the least. After lots of queueing and picking up our baggage, we walked out into the American air and wow! I was melting; and practically begging to have an air-conditioned coach to the hotel. Thankfully, my wish was granted and I nearly dozed off. At last, we arrived at the hotel to be greeted by the principal of Dulles High School, Mr Stewart, and the organiser of the trip from the US side, Mrs McMahon.
After lugging our bags to our rooms, we were given a set time in order for us to eat our first meal on American soil. We were slightly delayed due to Basel and Ibrahim being late down to reception… thanks guys! Little did we know that this would become a common theme over the course of the trip. We eventually started walking to a restaurant, which would give me memories for life, Arby’s. The milkshakes, the burger, the chips! Everything was huge, it was a mountain of food, despite being a ‘small portion’. I still managed to devour my meal, and guzzled down my gigantic and rather sweet chocolate milkshake. We then walked back to the hotel, I was shattered and the meal did not help; we finally head to bed.
Day 2:
The first full day started with breakfast at a surprisingly reasonable time considering the events planned. This was followed by a coach picking us up shortly after to take us to the Brazoria County Fair. It was evident there were some tired bodies on the coach, with people quickly falling asleep despite ‘supposedly’ having a good night’s sleep! We eventually reached the fair.
As we entered, the live animal section was rammed, but it turns out the majority of the people were the owners of the different animals. We then arrived in the main part of the fair, where we explored the stalls and games. The first thing my friends and I did was get a drink, very wise! There were the options of homemade lemonade or a variety of different sodas. I chose a Coke Zero sugar as it had more liquid in the cup, and due to the weather (35-degree heat), I believe that was the correct decision. After an hour of exploring, it was time for the rodeo show! As we took our seats, we got to embrace the hilarity of watching children no more than 6 or 7 years old try and hold on for dear life to sheep, who were running around the barn like absolute nutcases! The next part of the show consisted of some of the bravest of people attempting to stay on horses, who were absolutely determined to launch these poor people off the saddle. To my surprise, about 85% of the riders managed to stay sitting on the horse, so hats off to them. After the rodeo show, we were starving! I had the struggle of choosing whether to get the safe option of a pizza, or the highly recommended DEEP FRIED OREOS! I took the risk of testing whether my stomach could take this type of food, and thankfully it could. Finally, the one story that makes us laugh to this day is where an innocent little boy, who was holding a pig on the lead went to greet his mother, and the look of horror was unforgettable!
Day 3:
6am… it was time for school. I felt a sense of pride when putting on my freshly ironed uniform, mainly because I had done the ironing the night before and not put a hole in any of my uniform to my great delight. We eventually raced down the corridor to the lift as Gagandeep had decided to iron his uniform again! I managed to somehow finish my boiling hot porridge and finally, it was time. The world famous American yellow school bus had pulled up outside reception! As we stepped aboard, numerous phones were out taking pictures of the inside of one of these worshipped vehicles.
About twenty minutes later, we arrived at Dulles High School. We were once again greeted the principal, Mr Stewart, and Mrs McMahon, and headed to the library to be given a map of the school and meet our assigned partners for the duration of our two and half day stay at school. I was partnered with the lovely Natalie, who was a pleasure to hang around with. Despite the difficulty I had in the lessons (especially art), I had a great time meeting and greeting some of the fellow students, of which they were all lovely people. The highlight of the day however was… lunchtime… OH MY GOODNESS! You know when a famous celebrity like Tom Holland enters a public building? That was an exact feeling when I entered the cafeteria. “Can you be in my BeReal?”, “Can I get your Snap?” and “Can we take a selfie?” were some of the many questions that circulated around me whilst in the queue for my food. Eventually, after the staggering welcome, I sat at a table with very kind and welcoming people by the names of: Issa, Caitlyn, Noor, Sammy, Sam, Samuel, Ty and many more! Also, this was when the famous ‘Pass It to Kevin’ TikTok was filmed – #TikTok Famous! Finally, school was out and it was time for Main Event Entertainment.
I had a blast, especially during laser tag (pun intended)! We had a great time watching Josh rage at the claw machine, and many other games. We ended the night bowling, and let’s just say for the record that we know who goes bowling with their friends often, as Gagandeep was the winner by quite some distance. Also, it was when we met two other good friends, Heather and Victoria.
Day 4:
6am, we meet again. I have absolutely no idea how but Gagandeep and I ended up in the same scenario as the day before and ended up bolting down to breakfast. We then took the school bus back to the high school and spent the first period in deep conversation with the Varsity and Junior Varsity football teams about the difference between football in the UK and ‘soccer’ in the USA. Learning about how difficult it truly is to play for any sports club, let alone a football club, in the USA really made me feel privileged that the opportunity in the UK is plentiful for everyone. We then greeted our partners once again and followed our partners to their respective lessons. Lunchtime quickly came around and I sat with the same people again and had great conversations, including Sammy used to live in Reading only a few years ago! After military and flower arranging classes, we went to see to a matinee performance of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
After the play, we had a quick changeover from the hotel to the First Colony Mall, where it was just a brilliant experience to see the difference in shops between the United States and the UK. My personal favourite thing about the American stores are the huge variety of trainers, which are not sold in the UK. So, I bought myself a pair of grey Jordan 23s, which are now my go-to pair of trainers on the weekend. We also took a last-minute visit to Target, and the expression on the cashiers’ faces as they watched twenty seven British people race through the automatic doors was a sight of people who had seen enough and wanted to go home! The current trend was a drink called Prime, which was where 90% of us sprinted around until we found the correct aisle. I got a bottle of water and an emergency Toblerone, in case of a sudden late night starve, which is a common thing for myself back in the UK. Eventually, we set off back to the hotel and went to bed.
Day 5:
A lie-in? I did not know these existed?! It was a far more relaxed day in terms of sleeping in a bit. It was a longer bus journey to the NASA Johnson Space Center but so worth it! This was by far my favourite day out of all the incredible ones we spent in Texas – a very big statement I know!
We first experienced the virtual reality system, which was a very good experience. After an hour of exploring, it was time for the tram tour of the other buildings. Unfortunately, my poor legs were freezing as the wind was plentiful and there was too much shade… for once. However, the first stop was seeing a rocket that had been broken up into four different parts so we were able to see inside of the rocket, which was fascinating. The main thing that caught my eye were the few individuals, who were controlling robots whilst sat at a computer, these robots were rotating around in circles and also moving forward and back. This made it obvious of the technological advancements NASA are making and how our future is rapidly changing. The second and final stop was a rocket that had actually been up to space and had been split into half with the functionalities of the separate parts labelled with the tour guide providing a further in-depth analysis of the parts.
After visiting NASA, we went to Buc-ees. I tried multiple different flavours of, the highly recommended by the American students, ‘ices’, with the Dr Pepper flavour being my favourite. I also used this time to tick off the three billion sweets to bring back to the UK list, which had been handed to me by my sister! After lugging the weight of enough candy to fill up a whole Walmart store, we were given some chill time, so as a collective, we decided to make use of the facilities at our lovely hotel and try out the pool. The pool was great fun but credit has to go to Miss Morgan, who was the hostess of many water games such as: volleyball (with one of Ibrahim’s crocs), Marco Polo, and my personal favourite, Bull Dog. We then left to go to a delicious pizza restaurant, in which I shared an 18-inch pizza with multiple people – incredible!
Day 6:
For the final time, 6am… with the only difference being that Gagandeep and I were not late for breakfast. For the final time, we headed to Dulles High School, but more importantly, it was MATCH DAY! We had a nice and early kick-off on a crisp morning against the Junior Varsity team. The game was a battle and the Handsworth Grammar School spirit was in full force, with Basel heading in the opening goal 10 minutes from time. However, the mood dampened as the Junior Varsity team equalised with the very last kick of the match. We then faced the Varsity Team and unfortunately, we were no match for them as they secured a 4-0 win. Massive shout out goes to Mr Thaper, Mr Sanders and Miss Morgan for doing for a stand-in role for my Dad and screaming at the top of their lungs from the side-lines! We then went back into the changing rooms only to be intruded by the Varsity Team, who came in blasting out music, to which we joined them!
We eventually trotted off to lesson before our last lunch time, in which we were generously given American snacks such as Takis and Reese’s Pieces to try; they were delicious. After lunch, we hopped back onto the school bus and headed to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It contained exhibits on Ancient Egypt, the Jurassic period and a newly made section of our future world. However, the most interesting part for me was watching a massive wrecking ball knock over a tiny Jenga piece (which I waited 20 minutes for that to happen)! We then took a tram down further into Houston, where we were surrounded by skyscrapers and many parks. We stopped at a local park in which the teachers thought it would be a good idea to attempt to climb on the play area, only to fall through the net on the way up… There was a food and drink stall, which just so happened to sell an absolutely scrumptious chocolate ice cream, and a lovely homemade lemonade, which was so nice I ended up buying another. I had a very relaxing time down at the park and had many conversations with many other people, which was a nice experience. We eventually caught the tram back to the school bus; when on our way home, I was given some sweets, which I was unfortunately not a fan of by Victoria, but nonetheless was still appreciative of her generosity.
Day 7:
Our final full day started off with a bang at the Lone Star Flight Museum. We got to sit in the cockpit of an actual plane, which had been flown and also having a turn of flying one ourselves on the flight simulators. Mr Sanders described my trusty flight partner, Jack, and I as “the world’s worst pilots”; we discovered later that we had a faulty pedal! The most interesting part of the day, however, was being able to actually drive around a US air military base! We then travelled to arguably America’s most popular store, Walmart. This gave me a chance to purchase the remaining sweets of my list to satisfy my sister as clearly a choice of fifteen different sweets from Buc-ees was not enough. I then ate my lunch at, the highly recommended (from my friend, Sam), Whataburger. Sam was so right to recommend it as it is now my new favourite American fast food diner!
To Mr Thaper’s disappointment as he wanted to top up his tan, we had requests from people (hint: their names have been mentioned before) to attend the Dulles High School volleyball matches for the Junior Varsity and the Freshman age groups. After the volleyball matches, it was time for a live American Football college match, in where the atmosphere was incredible and was treated as an actual NFL match! The half-time show was the highlight for me, with a variety of incredible acts on show – it made me wish the UK could take a leaf out of the American Football’s book. As time went by, it was time to go home and unfortunately meant saying our final goodbyes to our wonderful bus driver, Major Hawn, and the lovely Mrs McMahon.
We then begrudgingly went upstairs to begin the dreaded packing of suitcases. After a while, it was time to eat, this time at McDonalds. As we walked back to the hotel, I took in the surroundings one last time and also took in the sensational week I had experienced, reminding myself how grateful I was for this opportunity given by my school and why life is so precious – to enjoy the good moments while they last!
Days 8+9:
These days mainly involved sleeping. It was a long journey home but was well worth it in the end to see my family again, and then play a football match for my own team an hour after arriving home. On two actual hours of sleep in the last twenty four (cheers Dad), I finally fell asleep!
I would like to in fact take this time to thank the teachers that organised the trip, on both sides of the Atlantic. They made this trip an UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE, they really contributed to myself having the best week of my life so thank you! Mr Thaper, Mr Sanders and Miss Morgan – for your brilliant banter and music taste! Mrs McMahon – for helping with the trip as I loved every second. A huge thanks must also go to the bus driver, Major Hawn, as without him, our experience would have been limited. A big thanks also goes to the principal, Mr Stewart, for allowing us the opportunity to visit Dulles High School and a massive thank you to all the students of the school for being so friendly and enhancing our experience and I hope to keep in touch with y’all! I hope the future years of HGS can provide another experience like this in the future, and if that is the case… I hope there is spare room in Mr Thaper’s suitcase for me!
Lucas Southall – 11 William
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