Photo by Kaiden Wynne

Terminal D at 3:30 in the afternoon. Don’t be late. A constant reminder I give myself throughout the day ensuring I’ll arrive at the airport on time. Eventually the time rolls around and I’m there early. Perfect. I check in with the advisors then head to my small group leader. After four long minutes of standing there, the most familiar of faces walk in. It’s Jadon – finally. When everyone becomes accounted for, we move through customs and TSA. I make the typical easy flowing conversation with Jadon to keep my mind off the fact that I’ll be thousands of miles away from home. It seems like it’s no time before I’m making final calls to my family and girlfriend before I end up overseas. It hits me hard then. I’m going to Europe. Europe. Receiving our tickets, I immediately turn to Jadon to find out what seat he’s in. I’m in seat 39C on the first level and Jadon ends up on the second level of this “double decker bus” as they call it… Is this a The Smiths reference? Either way I’m nowhere near him. “Now boarding all groups,” well crap I have to gather everything and go as quick as possible, nearly leaving behind my headphones. Our overall group leader, Ms. Marion, snatched them and returned them to me as we boarded the flight. Taking the lonesome stroll to my seat I discover that I’ll be sitting with people I won’t mind at all. Perfect. Around 40 agonizing minutes tick by while we sit on the tarmac eager for takeoff. Eventually the British Airways double decker plane picked up enough speed beginning the climb to 40,000 feet in the air. Nine hours pass by with micro-naps breaking up the flight to feel slightly shorter until we touchdown in… the morning? It’s supposed to be four in the morning but it’s 10 o’clock right now? Time zones are intriguing. Anyways, no time to think about that, we’re already up and moving. Waltzing off that plane the realization of going to Europe morphed into I AM in Europe. I’m in London. “Ello Bruv” reverberates throughout my brain causing a slight chuckle as I make those my first words to Jadon once I see him after the flight.

LONDON

I played “London Calling” The Clash classic on the coach as we made our way to central London. I ate at Thunderbird for lunch after we got off the coach. They had a “chicken burger” with “awesome sauce” on it so of course I got that. The first day was pretty exhilarating with a walking tour around central London. Seeing the area of Piccadilly Circus highlighted day one for me though, as I got to go recreate Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? album cover walking down Berwick Street with Jadon. I also purchased Manchester United’s 2022 away kit at a Lillywhites sports store, so I have a Man United kit from England which is so cool to me. After some more miles on the legs, we ate dinner later that evening. Then I crashed so hard on the hour bus ride home. Absolutely conked. We stayed down in south London, Croydon to be exact, 10 minutes away from where Crystal Palace plays. I had a lot less trouble sleeping that night than I anticipated. Most likely due to the exhausting walking I endured that day, but either way I slept GOOD. 

Day 2 I stepped out wearing my home united kit from 2022 and this day I got to experience parliament square where that big clock tower. Big Ben or something like that? You may have heard it before. There’s also an awesome statue of Winston Churchill there. Just looked savage and I thought I should mention it. Walking around this area felt surreal, as the stunning architecture of England was on full display in one of the most historic places in the country. Right after this we went to see another historic building, that of Buckingham Palace where the king stays. And man that building looked old but so fancy and proper all at the same time. Not sure if it was the heavy security surrounding the building but there is an intimidating yet inviting aura that it gives off. While we visited, the king resided in the palace, indicated by The Royal Standard flag flying above the palace. While there, unbeknownst to us, guards were practicing for the King’s birthday ceremony, which would take place about three weeks from the time we were there. I called my mom at what had to have been around six am back in Texas to show her this once-in-a-lifetime type experience with my best friend. After our visit to Buckingham we had tickets to ride the London Eye at 2:00, so we headed down that way. Atop the London Eye, I had the chance to embrace the architecture and just the thought of being in Europe. That’s so cool. Many cool sights riding around that massive white steering wheel, including the ever so slight sight of Wembley Stadium in the distance. Evening rolled around, so we made our way to dinner via walking where we got to see the London Bridge on the way there. We took a left right before the bridge where we walked down near the river. Along this way we came across a Champions League Final festival, as the game took place at Wembley in less than two days at that point. I wanted to go over there on in there so bad, but we had a group of 50 people and I couldn’t just go off there alone. Or that’s what I thought. Noticing my eagerness to go in there along with my elite knowledge of sports (at least I think so) in her head, Ms. Marion took me and Jadon into the little festival. She took pictures of me in front of the festival with the London Bridge in the background with pure joy on my face, in what has grown to be my favorite picture of myself. She also took a picture of me in front of me in front of a massive blowup Champions League trophy and a larger than life replica of the ball that would be used in the final on June first. This genuinely highlighted this day for me because our group leader literally just took time to take us to this festival because of our love for sports. In the past I’ve had bad anxiety on trips, and I expected that for this trip too but this little gesture showed me I was in the right hands with the people running this trip. After this we continued our walk to dinner where we had an hour of freetime after we ate and me and Jadon went to a bookstore with what should have been a eight minute walk but he got us a little lost so it took slightly longer and gave us something to laugh about. When freetime concluded we went back to the hotel on the coach where I’m pretty sure me, Jadon and the bus driver were the only people awake. I still don’t really know why we didn’t take a nap on the way back but I just know we started talking and couldn’t stop. That night we called friends and family before what was another good sleep. The next day we got up early to make it down to the Eurostar train. Nothing too encapsulating from this morning other than the fact I was insanely tired despite feeling well rested. We took off at 10 on the train to our next destination. Where exactly? Well let’s just say Au Reviour to England and Bonjour to Paris, France.