Musgravetown students take in sights and
sounds of London
Angela and Jason went to London to take part in a special ceremony at the newly-restored Canada House. They had the opportunity to show the Queen an online course developed by one of their teachers. They sent several reports to SchoolNet News during the course of their visit. Friday, May 8, 1998
So began our journey. We went to the airport, where we were confronted by a very persistent, yet friendly, reporter from CBC Radio. She requested an interview which, upon permission, we gave her. First we flew to Toronto to change flights, and thirteen hours after our initial departure, we eventually arrived in the Heathrow Airport. It was 6:30 a.m. London time when we arrived -- that's 3:00 a.m. in Newfoundland. We took a forty-minute taxi ride out to our hotel, the Vanderbilt. Our hotel is really great and it is close to a lot of the tourist attractions. For the rest of the day, we did a lot of sight-seeing, which included a double decker bus tour. The bus did not have a roof on the top level so we could enjoy the weather, as well as the sights. We drove past many historical sites and learned a little history about them all. London is a very interesting and beautiful place. It was twenty four degrees outside so we decided to get off the bus and walk back to our hotel through Hyde Park. When we arrived at the hotel, we took a nap because (needless to say) we were tired! Later, we went out for supper. We traveled on the subway for the first time in our lives -- it was cool. We ended up going to the Hard Rock Cafe, something that we had always wanted to do. It was a lot of fun, we had a great time and, of course, we all bought t-shirts! By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 11 p.m. and we were tired so we went to bed. Saturday, May 9, 1998 Our day began at around 9 a.m. The weather was equally as great as yesterday. We met in the hotel lobby around 10 a.m and then we went on another bus tour. Along the way, we stopped at Hyde Park to watch "Speaker's Corner," which we had learned about from Mr. Lush. It is a place where people with strong beliefs gather to speak their mind and convert others into thinking their way. On Saturday morning, three people were there, speaking on the topics of God, religious activity and international politics. Sometimes, arguments arose between the crowd and the speaker. It was an amusing and mind-opening experience to see how others view the world and society. Then we continued on our bus tour, ending up outside Buckingham Palace. We walked to Canada House to see where we would be for the presentation on Wednesday and to talk a little about the day. Although we are still a little tired and have jet lag, we agree that London is an awesome place with much to do and see. We will continue to keep in touch with you as the week progresses. Sunday, May 10, 1998 It's been another great day in London! Since we last wrote you, a lot of really great things have happened. We spent all of Sunday afternoon at Canada House, seeing where we would be presenting on Wednesday and getting comfortable with our surroundings. We met a lot of people involved in the ceremonies, such as representatives from Bell Canada, and representatives from government offices. When we finished there, we went out for supper in Leicester Square. It's a really interesting place -- there were performers, dancers, lots of restaurants and a big crowd of people. We ended up going out to Planet Hollywood. There were a lot of really cool things there from actors, actresses and movies.
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We began our day with a visit to the provincial legislature -- the House
of Assembly in St. John's. First of all, we met Mr. Tom Lush, the member
of the House of Assembly for Terra Nova, who congratulated us for
receiving the privilege of traveling to England. Then, we met Premier
Brian Tobin, who also congratulated us. Next, we sat in the Speakers
Gallery in the House of Assembly where we, along with our school
principal, Mr. Whytie Horlick , and our teacher, Mr. Lyndon Williams,
were acknowledged by the Speaker of the House.
Then we went back to the hotel to work on our script for Wednesday. We
had to figure out what we had to do and how our video link was going to
work at the ceremonies. We finished this around 11 p.m., and we got on
the subway and went to Piccadilly Circus to have our pictures taken next
to the billboard lights. Then, we got on a double decker bus and went
home for the night.
