Traveling Abroad
Since I was born, my parents used to take my brother and I to our grandparents’ house in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. When I got a little older and realized we were taking a road trip and I could actually remember what was going on, I loved those trips. I was always more than ready to pack a bag to go somewhere no matter where it was. Staying in a hotel was always so much fun to me since it was just something new and different. These trips we took whether short or long, I believe fueled my desire to travel and coming into Junior year of high school, I had one of the best travel experiences I’ve ever had.
It all started with a letter in the mail from an organization called People to People offering a “once in a lifetime” opportunity of traveling overseas as a student ambassador. It seemed too good to be true, but they had a date for a briefing just to see what the organization was all about, and I was interested so I went. Immediately the speaker talked about the trip I got the letter for and talked about going to The Old Course at St. Andrews and being an avid golfer, I knew I had to go. The process of going was not easy. There was an application and interview process which happened to be my first of many and after getting accepted from there came the fundraising part.
Obviously, traveling around from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England wouldn’t be cheap but all-inclusive, the trip turned out to be very reasonable for all we did. They taught us how to fundraise and even gave us tools such as chocolate to sell and templates for support letters for us to write to local businesses, family and friends. Along with fundraising were the monthly orientation meetings. One Saturday a month my dad and mom and I would drive down to Cincinnati to learn just how to prepare for this trip including packing, prepping, travel tips, and what to expect when we got there.
On July 2nd, 2013, 32 student ambassadors and 4 chaperones boarded a plane headed for Edinburgh, Scotland. We spent 5 days roaming around many cities and country sides throughout Scotland. Obviously, my favorite part of Scotland was St. Andrews but I may be a little biased. After getting a short tour of as much of Scotland as we could see, we loaded up into a ferry and made our way to Ireland.
Ireland was one of the most beautiful countries we went to because it was so vast, and the mountain ranges were enormous. When we first docked in Ireland, we started off our journey in Belfast. Belfast, located in the northern corner of Ireland, was celebrating their Independence Day when we made our journey through, so we weren’t allowed to spend much time off of the bus, but we did get to see a really cool graffiti wall before leaving Belfast and heading to Dublin.
After Ireland we hopped on another ferry and went to the beautiful country of Wales. Wales was a lot of fun because our first stop was the beach and even though none of us were prepared since we couldn’t get swimming attire out of our luggage, we still made the best of it and every one of us made it into the water in our nice clothes. We also got to visit a train station in Wales with the world’s longest name called, “Llanfairpwllgwyngyll.” It is 58 characters long and originally named this for promotional purposes.
After leaving Wales, we left on our trek for London. Along the way we made stops in Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield as we traveled down through England. While in London we got to witness the changing of the guard which was very cool. But, one of the coolest parts happened one of the last days we were there. We got word when Princess Kate had her baby, we were only a couple blocks from her hospital and I brought home a newspaper article with her baby in the headline. We also got to see Wicked in theatre while in London and it was my first production, so it was also very exciting.
Each country was just as fun, and action packed as the last and for 19 days it seemed like we never stopped moving. I wouldn’t trade this travel for the world, and it has been killing me to go back ever since I left. I have a travel bug and I’m looking for my next destination to scratch my itch.
It all started with a letter in the mail from an organization called People to People offering a “once in a lifetime” opportunity of traveling overseas as a student ambassador. It seemed too good to be true, but they had a date for a briefing just to see what the organization was all about, and I was interested so I went. Immediately the speaker talked about the trip I got the letter for and talked about going to The Old Course at St. Andrews and being an avid golfer, I knew I had to go. The process of going was not easy. There was an application and interview process which happened to be my first of many and after getting accepted from there came the fundraising part.
Obviously, traveling around from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England wouldn’t be cheap but all-inclusive, the trip turned out to be very reasonable for all we did. They taught us how to fundraise and even gave us tools such as chocolate to sell and templates for support letters for us to write to local businesses, family and friends. Along with fundraising were the monthly orientation meetings. One Saturday a month my dad and mom and I would drive down to Cincinnati to learn just how to prepare for this trip including packing, prepping, travel tips, and what to expect when we got there.
On July 2nd, 2013, 32 student ambassadors and 4 chaperones boarded a plane headed for Edinburgh, Scotland. We spent 5 days roaming around many cities and country sides throughout Scotland. Obviously, my favorite part of Scotland was St. Andrews but I may be a little biased. After getting a short tour of as much of Scotland as we could see, we loaded up into a ferry and made our way to Ireland.
Ireland was one of the most beautiful countries we went to because it was so vast, and the mountain ranges were enormous. When we first docked in Ireland, we started off our journey in Belfast. Belfast, located in the northern corner of Ireland, was celebrating their Independence Day when we made our journey through, so we weren’t allowed to spend much time off of the bus, but we did get to see a really cool graffiti wall before leaving Belfast and heading to Dublin.
After Ireland we hopped on another ferry and went to the beautiful country of Wales. Wales was a lot of fun because our first stop was the beach and even though none of us were prepared since we couldn’t get swimming attire out of our luggage, we still made the best of it and every one of us made it into the water in our nice clothes. We also got to visit a train station in Wales with the world’s longest name called, “Llanfairpwllgwyngyll.” It is 58 characters long and originally named this for promotional purposes.
After leaving Wales, we left on our trek for London. Along the way we made stops in Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield as we traveled down through England. While in London we got to witness the changing of the guard which was very cool. But, one of the coolest parts happened one of the last days we were there. We got word when Princess Kate had her baby, we were only a couple blocks from her hospital and I brought home a newspaper article with her baby in the headline. We also got to see Wicked in theatre while in London and it was my first production, so it was also very exciting.
Each country was just as fun, and action packed as the last and for 19 days it seemed like we never stopped moving. I wouldn’t trade this travel for the world, and it has been killing me to go back ever since I left. I have a travel bug and I’m looking for my next destination to scratch my itch.
Aaron, this seems to have been a great experience for you. One of my dreams has always been to travel to London and see what it all has to offer. I have never gotten the chance to go but I am dying to. My dad just took a trip there a few weeks ago for work and he said it was a wonderful experience and wants to take me on a trip there as well. Sounds like you had a great time traveling through England, Ireland and many other places
ReplyDeleteAaron,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like such an awesome trip. I would love to go to Ireland and see the mountains there and check out all of the scenery. I have never been out of the country but travelling is one of my favorite things to do as well. There are so many places I want to go and see.
WOW I'm so jealous of this opportunity! I won't have the opportunity to travel abroad while in school, but I really wanted to at some point. It sounds like a really awesome trip and I hope you get to do it again sometime. I hope to travel a lot someday and go so many places and I hope you get that opportunity too!
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