The Training of the Crew

Phew! We made it! From California to Illinois to New York and all the places in between, we got to London! 

After settling into our hotel, we hightailed it over to CIEE where we met loads of people and had our first orientation sessions. The real adventures began on Monday after we'd all gotten a good night's kip.

The students had several thorough trainings on staying safe in the city and taking care of themselves and others. We even went over how to comport ourselves on sidewalks, on escalators, and moving with haste onto the Tube so as not to be left on platforms. Then it was off to practice all that they learned! They went on their first tube rides as a group to make it to the day's very photogenic excursion: a panoramic bus tour of the city.

Tuesday was the busiest day by far. The students had their first course in creative writing and chatted to each other about their approaches to writing and why they write. To get them ready for some creative ways of looking at art, Dr. Rosa Rogers had students practice describing copies of some of the art from the museum to each other. She also prepped them for a mighty task--rewriting a final monologue from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

After a scavenger hunt through the British Museum, students got more practice using the underground and made their way over to The Globe for the opening night's performance of The Taming of the Shrew. Maybe ask your child about the massive teddy bear and the director's vision with the costumes adding to the themes as well as a connection to Taylor Swift's "Madwoman."

It's been a full week already--and it's only Tuesday! Thank goodness that tomorrow is more slowly-paced to give everyone a bit of breathing room!