Texas Trip - Daniel Soffe - King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School

Day 1:

I woke up at 2:30am and made my way to school, getting there at 4am, ready for the long day ahead. The coach took two hours to get to Heathrow, where we would get the plane. Most of us slept on the coach there but some of us spoke and had great fun on the way down. We then went through security before having a bit of time around the airport. Six hours after getting to school, we had finally got onto the plane. We spent ten hours on the plane, where I tried the games on the back of the seats and watched a lot of movies. About eight hours in, Ben and I went to the back of the plane to stretch our legs after hours of motionless sitting. Once landed, and after we made it through the borders and customs guards – who were very grumpy men, we found our bags and got on the coach to the hotel.

We were greeted there with goodie bags, our IDs for school and a big banner. We took photos and we went to our rooms, which were probably the nicest hotel rooms I have stayed in. We changed our clothes and unpacked all of our bags, before coming back downstairs to go out and get something to eat. We went to Arby’s, where the portion sizes were enough to kill an elephant. I then made a phone call home to my mum, she answered but had told me that I completely forgot the time difference and it was 2am over there! Mr Sanders, Mr Thaper and Miss Morgan then took us to Target, where we grabbed all the necessities for the week – energy drinks and sweets. We finally got to bed.

Day 2:

We woke up at 9am, ready for the long day that was ahead of us. We were going to the Brazoria County Fair! We ate breakfast and got another coach, which was only about an hour to the fair. We had great fun and managed to see amazing things including cowboy hat making, a farm (with llamas and zebras!) and saw some strange food like fried alligator on a stick! We then went to the best part of the fair – the Rodeo! We saw one of the strangest things to us – sheep-back riding, where toddlers tried to go the furthest distance on the back of a sheep! We then watched some of the craziest ‘sports’ ever, such as people wrestling bulls to the ground, people lassoing bulls, people riding the back of an angry horse as well as some other ‘interesting’ activities. It was brutal but amazing to watch. We then went back into the fair to buy some rubbish and enjoy some rides. After a couple hours at the fair, we then headed back to the hotel, we changed and then went out for tacos!

Day 3:

At 6am, my alarm clock went off for school, which is much better than my usual time! We got changed into our uniforms and ate breakfast, and then at 6.30am, we were met with an American school bus. Nobody had ever seen one before so everybody was very excited to get on. We met Major Hawn, who was our bus driver for the remainder of the week, who drove us fifteen minutes to the school. Once there, we were met by Mrs McMahon and Mr Stewart before stepping into the high school. We then were taken into the library, where Mr Stewart told us about the history and background of the school; we then got to realise how different the American schools actually are from our school. The American teachers were a lot less strict on phones and students talking in lesson. However, my partner – Diego – was in all AP classes, where everybody is much more sensible and ready to learn.

Everybody in the school was obsessed with our accents and were not scared at all to come up and ask us to say silly phrases! All of the students told me about how terrible their lunches are but I did not believe them, I got the nuggets and I had only had half of one before giving up… they were right! We then had 2 more lessons; after a tiring school day, we took the bus back to our hotel, where we quickly refreshed and then left to go to Main Event Entertainment. We did laser tag first, I cannot remember what place I came but I am sure it was top 5. We then went into the arcades and played pool against one another – that is not a good topic for me – and also did bowling. We then finished up at Main Event Entertainment and went back to the hotel after a similarly long day.

Day 4:

It was back to school again! Classes were really good and for our last lesson, we attended a flower arranging class. We made Halloween-themed flowerpots, which were fun to do, even though mine did not look very good in the end – my spider had a melted head and deformed eyes. Next, we had not finished school yet though and went to see a play performed by the students at the school. We took the school bus back to the hotel for yet another tight turn around for us to leave again to this time go to the mall!

When we arrived, we split up into groups and then we went to Chick-Fil-A, which had the most amazing food – we need it in the UK. We then went around some of the shops, where I bought myself some clothes as I underestimated how much I would need – like every holiday I go on… We spent the rest of our time there going around the technology shops and shoe shops. We were then rounded back up and made the walk back to the hotel, and ended off yet another amazing day.

Day 5:

We woke up at 8:45am for one of the best days on the trip, the NASA Johnson Space Centre! We went downstairs and had breakfast, where we waited for Major Hawn to come and take us to the Space Centre, before we drove to the high school, where we picked up the American students. We then made the 45-minute journey to NASA. As we drove in, we went past a number of rockets and replicas. We went through the gates and split up to explore the different models and replicas the museum had. We got loads of photos with different rockets and the insides of them; we also went inside a shuttle on a plane, where we got lots of stunning photos. Then, we saw replicas of the Apollo mission control console, samples of real Moon rock and other rockets. We returned to the main building for a tram tour of the NASA buildings, including a stop at a training site for the astronauts. We saw a replica of the International Space Station and as we moved along, we saw the engineers working on different things and it felt like it was very important work we were seeing.

We then re-boarded our tram and took it to the Apollo building. This is where we once again had another photo with the group, before exploring it. We went inside this massive building that housed a real rocket – the Saturn V rocket! A full-sized rocket that should have been launched before funding ran out for the project. It was crazy! We then learnt that this was only one of a few in the world, which really made it special. We all then re-boarded our tram for the final time to take us back to the Space Center. When we arrived, I went straight to the gift shop where I spent a crazy $97 on a variety of things!

Then, we left on our school bus and headed to Buc-ees! Buc-ees was a favourite among the American students, they sold everything from clothes to drinks, hot food to sweets. I had bought a huge refillable cup, which only cost 79 cents, which was crazy! We went back to the hotel and went in the pool. After this, we went to a fancy Italian restaurant, where we shared two pizzas between about seven of us! Finally, we popped to Target (arriving two minutes before it closed) to stock up on even more drinks and sweets.

Day 6:

By Thursday, it dawned on me that we would only be there a couple more days. We boarded the school bus for a very different day at school. We had a football game, where we played very well and even attempted to sing the national anthem, we beat the Americans 2-0 and 4-0. After the football players got changed and sang in the changing rooms, a couple of us stayed after to help Mr Thaper, Mr Sanders and Miss Morgan teach a lesson to the American students. The lesson was taught like a normal British lesson and students were told to stay off their phones, stop eating and stop drinking, which seemed ridiculous to the American students. We then talked them through the UK, especially the monarchy – which they only knew a tiny bit about! It was then time to leave the school for the last time, as this was our last day.

Around lunch, we left to go downtown and to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Major Hawn dropped us first off at the museum, where we again split up and learnt a lot about dinosaurs, machinery, Egypt, and animals. All of the exhibits were interesting to read about! After we left the museum, we made our way to the tram station to head into Houston’s city centre. When we got off, we made the walk through the city to the Discovery Centre, where there was a park, some swings and where we got some ice cream. Afterwards, we made the walk back to the tram stop and caught the bus back to the hotel. We headed back out to get some tacos and nachos which ended the 6^th day!

Day 7:

We woke up at around 9am to go to the Lone Star Flight Museum. We again hopped onto the bus and picked up our American students before making our way to the museum. When we arrived, we were split into three groups to do some activities! We firstly did some checking on a plane, with my partner and I learning what is needed for flying a plane. We later did a flight on a simulator and it was very cool, and I obviously did not crash once…. Afterwards, we had a tour of the different aircraft the Lone Star Flight Museum had before heading to a different hangar to perform some aerodynamic games. We then got on the bus again and were taken to the US military base right next to the museum. Thanks to our driver for the week, Major Hawn, who had served in the US military, we were granted access and got a tour of a live US military base. We then explored the shop at the military base, which had the best clothing I have ever seen – for example, a grenade holder and an American flag bucket hat.

After collecting my amazing clothes, we went to an area with a square of shops in including a Walmart, it was huge! I got some gifts and a kilogram of Twizzlers! We watched Dulles High School vs another local school play volleyball, before we continued to an American Football game! We watched the Bush and Clements High Schools play each other, they had marching bands, military members and cheerleaders at the game! It is a very confusing sport but I got the idea towards the end. During half time, hundreds of cheerleaders, dancers and band members performed on the field while the players got ready for another amazing half. After the game, we said a final goodbye to our American friends, Major Hawn and Mrs McMahon after thanking them for an amazing week. We went to McDonalds and had some crazy sized portions before going back to the hotel to pack our stuff!

Day 8:

This was the day we left, we woke up early and I packed up the last of my things. Then, we drove to the airport, where me and Ben went to a Chick-Fil-A, which had no grilled chicken!?! We then got in the plane and sat in our seats, Arvind and Saif sat next to me, where they fell asleep on each other in a heap. I tried to sleep but I could not until the last ten minutes of the flight, where I just fell asleep at the last second while holding a cup of water and spilled it all over myself, leaving the seat like someone had had an accident. We got off the plane in London Heathrow, where my dad picked me up and I said goodbye to the rest of the group. I then proceeded to spend the rest of my half term sleeping for about fourteen hours a day trying to recover from the jet lag.