Thank you Granby
We owe our wonderful town a huge thank you. With your support we were able to make a dream come true this summer by going to England and France for two weeks with the People to People Student Ambassador organization. Our group consisted of 42 kids and 5 adults from Connecticut and New York states.
We spent 8 months preparing for this trip, attending monthly meetings and completing research projects. We spent hundreds of hours fundraising - you may have seen us at Geissler's or Stop & Shop selling baked goods and homemade chocolates. Or perhaps Siena delivered you some Valentines goodies or Kurt sold you a Christmas treat. All the hard work was worth it.
We arrived at about 6am and then quickly started our adventure at our first London destination, the London Eye Ferris Wheel. The 30 minute ride gave us plenty of time to enjoy the view as well as get some magnificent pictures of London. Over the next 9 days, we visited more sights than we can mention here but the highlights included tours of Runnymede, Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guards, a cruise down the River Thames, a night at the Savoy theatre (Let It Be - The Beatles), the Tower of London, meeting with a past member of British Parliament at the London School of Economics and learning about British government, medieval fortresses where we learned and practiced medieval battle techniques and watched the firing of a trebuchet. We went to the top of Warwick castle, explored the Salisbury and Winchester gothic cathedrals, visited Shakespeare's hometown where we took an acting class, visited the filming locations of the Harry Potter movies, toured the city of Bath and the Roman Spas, and visited Stonehenge. We were busy and exhausted every night!
From there we crossed the English channel on an overnight ferry to France. Paris was incredible and we went to the top of the Eiffel tower, a terrifying but rewarding experience for some. We spent a day at Normandy, and participated in a ceremony in honor of our fallen soldiers. We visited The Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, enjoyed a French art class, spent a day at the incredible Versailles, visited Notre Dame and the Sacre Coeur Basilica, and walked through the Arc de Triomphe. In addition to these amazing experiences, we also got to try unique foods. Bon appetite! Our most talked about appetizer was escargot or frog legs! Some kids dove right in while others just stared at it horrified. We were so sad to see our amazing journey come to an end and we spent our last day having fun and celebrating our new friendships in Disneyland Paris.
We hope that some of our friends will have an opportunity like this in the future. It truly is life changing and a priceless experience. We can't thank you enough Granby for helping us get there. Let us know if you have any questions about the program or our experience - we
would love to share it with you!
Gratefully,
Siena Sandridge & Kurt Bryant
