Diego Febres-Cordero

Day 1: Team No Sleep

One of the hardest things to do is sleep on your way to an exciting destination. It’s highly recommended you get some and it turns out to be extremely vital to your survival of activities on that coming day.

We landed at Heathrow airport on, Monday, May 6th and hit the ground running. Landing felt so surreal as you make your way through the airport slowly contacting stronger and stronger accents. It no doubt leaves a smile on your face listening to the differences in our own languages.

After a short wait outside, to get some fresh air, we all mounted up on a bus and started towards some tourist attractions. Naturally we had to cross of some of the big-name tourist traps, so we made it to Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London.

Buckingham Palace never ceases to amaze. The London living quarters to Queen Elizabeth II is an extraordinary palace in the heart of London. Tours for the Palace only occur in late summer, so we were not able to go inside, but we did get a chance to explore the plaza and park outside of the Palace. With some unfortunate timing we had to leave moments before the changing of the guard.

Our next stop was the Tower of London and I was excited for it. Earlier in the semester I had the opportunity of doing a research project on the Tower’s history and it all came to fruition as I was standing at the open gate. After hours of rigid research and sifting through information on the Tower I felt as if I should be giving a tour myself. Walking through the site I felt like an encyclopedia with information pouring out.