Knoxville to Philadelphia was a breeze. We arrived, navigated to our gate to drop our bags with the adults and then the students all split up and different directions looking for dinner. We boarded the plane and bedded down for our long trip across the Atlantic. However USAirways decided to add a few extra passengers at the last minute along with all of their late luggage and then somebody figured out we were NOW too heavy and needed a few extra thousand pounds of fuel for which we had to wait. We arrived over an hour late into Heathrow, lost an iPhone on the plane somewhere, waited for luggage that showed up broken to pieces and then...our reserved car service didn't show up.
Oh my goodness, were we learning flexibility at this point! We finally made it to the hotel so late
that we had to make decisions about our plans for the day. We had Warner Brother Studios, Dinner Reservations and Wicked all planned for today, but in order to do all that we would have to speed there and back faster than SuperMan himself...in other words "Not Possible". So the students chose the one they wanted to do, and we divided the group and the leaders and we went.
Mr. Margene and Mrs. Mynatt took their 4 students to Warner Brothers...
while Mr. Mynatt and Miss Haley took our 13 students (gulp) to St. Pancras to collect our Eurostar Tickets for our upcoming Paris journey under the English Channel and to see this magnificently restored grand train station. For you Harry Potter buffs - that's the one where Harry and Ron are seen by everyone flying in Mr. Weasely's enchanted car :-) We also got a chance to see the sleek EuroStar bullet trains as they were waiting in the station.
After a bit of snack shopping and souvenir shopping we ventured back our rooms for a VERY brief rest and then set out for our dinner reservations at Da Scalzo Italian Restaurant near to Victoria Station...
As usual for this day we had to inhale our dinner and literally jog back to the Apollo Theatre to get our seats before the doors closed at 7:30. Hurrah for the students (and the lead navigator, Miss Haley) for getting us back there quickly!
And our time there was wonderfully exciting as you can see...
As I said the students were real TROOPERS during this very atypical start day. Thank you Thank you Thank you to them! We very much appreciate their flexibility and willingness to bend and give and take. They've been wonderful today.
At devotions this evening - at the conclusion of this horribly busy day - Mrs. Mynatt says "get good rest because tomorrow is a busy day". In case you don't know how Mrs. Mynatt plans a trip she believes in getting every single penny's worth of experience possible and not wasting a second. The kids will start laughing in a few days when they realize that Mrs. Mynatt says this every evening :-)
A note to parents...Mrs. Mynatt's phone is not working at the moment. If you absolutely need to reach one us text Mr. Margene.
PS - the iPhone was found so all of you parents can breathe a sigh of relief ;-)
Good night from London and we're planning on having a more "normal" beginning and ending to day 2!
Oh my goodness, were we learning flexibility at this point! We finally made it to the hotel so late
Mr. Margene and Mrs. Mynatt took their 4 students to Warner Brothers...
while Mr. Mynatt and Miss Haley took our 13 students (gulp) to St. Pancras to collect our Eurostar Tickets for our upcoming Paris journey under the English Channel and to see this magnificently restored grand train station. For you Harry Potter buffs - that's the one where Harry and Ron are seen by everyone flying in Mr. Weasely's enchanted car :-) We also got a chance to see the sleek EuroStar bullet trains as they were waiting in the station.
After a bit of snack shopping and souvenir shopping we ventured back our rooms for a VERY brief rest and then set out for our dinner reservations at Da Scalzo Italian Restaurant near to Victoria Station...
And our time there was wonderfully exciting as you can see...
As I said the students were real TROOPERS during this very atypical start day. Thank you Thank you Thank you to them! We very much appreciate their flexibility and willingness to bend and give and take. They've been wonderful today.
At devotions this evening - at the conclusion of this horribly busy day - Mrs. Mynatt says "get good rest because tomorrow is a busy day". In case you don't know how Mrs. Mynatt plans a trip she believes in getting every single penny's worth of experience possible and not wasting a second. The kids will start laughing in a few days when they realize that Mrs. Mynatt says this every evening :-)
A note to parents...Mrs. Mynatt's phone is not working at the moment. If you absolutely need to reach one us text Mr. Margene.
PS - the iPhone was found so all of you parents can breathe a sigh of relief ;-)
Good night from London and we're planning on having a more "normal" beginning and ending to day 2!
What a hard choice you all had to make!!! I don't know how I would have chosen between Harry Potter and Wicked! I hope Mr. Mynatt was able to stay awake through the show!
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