UNFORGETTABLE JOURNEY

When the  teacher first told us that the spelling contest will be held in our school, and that the prize will be a trip to an English- speaking country, we were all excited and we all wanted to win.  I didn’t think I had any chance to win, and when it happened, I was both happy and surprised.  That made me realise I could do it, and the very second we got the words we were supposed to learn for the finals, I got right down to business.  To make the long story short - I won.

It was actually a disappointing feeling, to be able to choose from so many awesome destinations, and getting to choose only one at the end.  I wanted to go to America, as most of high school students do, but my mum was worried that USA has no proper medical care, and that it is too far. So I decided to go to Bournemouth, beautiful town on south coast of UK, only an hour or so away from London. I went there on 12thof August.  And I wasn’t disappointed, because it looked just like old English towns you can see in movies based on Agatha Christie’s books. I lived with the host family: Mrs. Sarah Rees, Mr. Paul Rees, their baby girl Maddison and my roommate Virginia from Spain. It was really amazing to get to know their lifestyle, their cousins and friends, their habits... although I didn’t like their cuisine very much. They were amazing family.

The school was actually an old building called ‘’Freemason’s hall’’, and is still used by Masons for their rituals. We even found a box full of real human bones in one of the classrooms (no kidding). I got in advanced class, which was really small and only consisted of eleven girls. Most of them went home after my first week, so next week we mixed with other advanced class, which was much funnier and we did more interesting stuff. We had two teachers: ms Aileen Dobbing and Mr. Matt Lovegrove. They were both very young and they acted like they were our friends. I really learned a lot from them in two weeks I was their student.

On August 18th we went to London. It was truly amazing. The Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, double-deckers and payphones... it was like a dream, I couldn’t believe I was actually there. Next day we went to Stonehenge and I was... well, astonishedJ. We also went to Salisbury, and that was the part of my journey I liked the best. Salisbury is the most beautiful town I have ever seen.  Centre of the town hasn’t been redecorated since it was built around 13th century.

I have met some extraordinary people while I was in England and I really hope I will stay friends with them. It didn’t matter where you are from there, all that mattered was that you are a good person. I will most certainly never forget Hazalsu Dinc from Turkey, Pedro Vieira from Portugal, Jose Andres Fernandez Tomaseli from Venezuela, Valerie Eckman from Belgium and so many other people who made Bournemouth paradise on Earth.

Winning the Spelling Bee contest made me realise there is no thing that is more important than knowledge, and learning things that interest you. I know it sounds like I am some kind of a nerd, but it actually is truth. Knowledge can get you anywhere.

Paula Čivrak, 2. b