St Edmund's
La La Land – Travel day
Bright and early, still shrouded by the dark winter sky, we met at school to board the coach at 5am. The journey to Heathrow bubbled with a gentle, sleepy excitement and we arrived in good time. After check in it was time for much needed coffee, with our breakfast choices ranging from porridge to toasties and even the odd early morning tuna and cucumber baguette.
It was already clear that this group of St Ed’s pupils were one of the best we’ve had on a trip. They were excited not only to be visiting Los Angeles (which for many could well turn out to be a once in a lifetime trip), but to be spending time away with each other. Their love, care and concern for each other shines clearly through and any non-drama pupils have been welcomed with the openness and inclusiveness that we have fostered and come to expect from our own pupils. This was already showing signs of being the most coherent group of young children we’ve ever taken on a trip.
The flight was top drawer: smooth, comfortable and we were fed like kings by staff that genuinely seemed to care. Although it happens whenever we take a group anywhere, either in the UK or abroad, we never tire of the amount of compliments we receive about the behaviour, respect and warmth that our St Ed’s pupils show towards others. On arriving at LAX, a slight delay waiting for the coach was not to quell our excitement and positivity as we waited together in the warm sunshine, chatting and laughing; once aboard, the trip to the hotel was filled with expensive car-spotting, palm trees and traffic, reminiscent of the opening of ‘La La Land’s, ‘Another day of sun’. Checked in by a larger-than-life character going by the name of ‘Uncle Sam’, we all went to our rooms for a shower and a change of clothes before heading out for our first taste of LA, despite it being 4am UK time. Universal Studio’s, ‘City walk’, gave the pupils a glimpse of the bright lights and buzz this city has to offer walking around wide eyed despite the time to find food and have a dance in the main square, returning with baseball hats, films of them on ‘Dance cam’ and wet trousers from dodging water fountains. Cream-crackered, we piled onto the coach and headed home to try and get some sleep…
