16th July (Sunday) Shiny    First excursion to London.

As it would take another two and a half hour before we could get to the city of London, we decided to set off at the meeting point (outside the Poole college) at 7:30 a.m. It was not that harsh to get up as the day broke very early in the morning. While Amy and I were heading towards the meeting point, Daniel's host family spotted us and gave us a lift . It was indeed very kind of Daniel's host lady to give them a lift whenever they requested. To mix up our students with other international students, Mrs. Rees had made arrangement for the German, Italian groups to go with us on the same coach. It was a bit crowded but all of the kids were able to bear with the fact that they could no longer stretch their arms and legs at their own will. Among the members of the German groups, I noticed a Chinese girl (by the name of Helen) who showed her friendliness by having frequent small talks with two of our kids, Karen and Anna and they became good friends later. It turned out that she was a S5 graduate and was waiting for the moment of truth on the 9th of August. She was strongly admired for her boldness to travel all by herself to a place thousands of miles away from Hong Kong without any sign of being worried by the upcoming announcement of the HKCEE results.

The coach made a stopover when we were about two-thirds into the long trek. All kids were dying to get off the coach and refill themselves with all sorts of drinks and food within their reach (of course, they had to pay) after the two hours of torture . it was so stuffy inside the coach and I started to get sick. The shocking thing that happened at that very moment was that I found the battery for my handy camera was dead and I had to rely heavily on students' cameras for capturing our every move in London.

On arriving at London, we scrapped the idea of having a bus ride because of the heavy traffic. We set off at the Westminster Abbey and walked past the magnificent Westminster premises and the Big Ben. Along the way, flashlights were countless. We had to force our way through the crowds as people from all around the world could be seen there. All kids got thrilled at the Trafalgar Square where they had a close encounter with the pigeons that feature the place. After that, we moved towards the Buckingham Palace and had our lunch in the lawn area outside the Palace. This is the Queen's residence in London and it was the first time I had been to a Palace. Of course, everybody was trying to grab the chance of a lifetime to have as many pictures taken with their acquaintances as possible before we proceeded to the British Museum still three MTR stations away. I didn't actually go inside until the last 15 minutes as I started getting sick. Oscar and Dominic were around me ('protect me' in their words) and that was so touching. I did lose my voice last night (with no fever and soar throats) and I recovered fully this morning.

Shopping became a routine work wherever we went. We were allowed 45 minutes for shopping before we had to go back to the pick-up point outside the Westminster Abbey. To acquire another feel of London, Gary suggested going back via the underground railway. The suggestion was indeed a great relief for most of us who had borne with the unforgiving walk for so long. It was like manna from heaven or a drip of water in a desert. We couldn't wait to get underground and had a quick journey back to the coach pick-up point.

Despite the heavy day, I did feel that kids started to forge a good friendship among themselves and this was important in paving the way for subsequent group activities.