As some of you know, Becky and I are advisors for our school's Model United Nations Club. Back in March we took 9 students to a conference in Ankara, Turkey. It was a lot of work for us, but a big success for the students and the school. So at the end of last year we aimed a little higher and began planning for a trip to the Royal Russell MUN conference in Croydon, England - Croydon being a suburb to the south of London. We had no idea what we were in for.
First off, in an attempt to grow the club and attract interest we increased from 9 students to 16; which is a sizable change when you're counting heads in airports or walking down the street. Being in Morocco, many of our students needed visas to visit the UK. Unfortunately, many of them forgot to start the visa process on time. This meant that in early October, 10 days prior to departure, I found myself on a bus with 11 students on our way to the British Embassy in Rabat. Embassies aren't as nice as one would think and they don't smile much. Luckily we got all of our visas and were able to head off to the conference.
The day after we arrived was our tour day. Though the conference is the reason for the trip it is nice for students (and advisors) to get to see some of the city that they are visiting. We set out early for a full day of sightseeing. As we headed into central London we could see the new skyscraper called The Shard looming in front of us. Our first stop was the historic Tower of London next to the iconic Tower Bridge. After that it was a panoramic drive around town where we saw, among other things - St. Paul's Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Hyde Park. Our next stop was at Harrod's where the students did some shopping and Becky and I got a bite to eat at a fifties-ish diner on the top floor (when a single t-shirt costs around $75 we decided not to do any shopping). Our final stop was the London Eye. It takes about 30 minutes for one revolution of the wheel and during that time we looked out and took in the sights of London. How amazing.
Next day (and the 2 days after that) we found ourselves at the conference and slowly unraveling. A single teenager is exhausting - 16 is nearly unbearable. Every night we had to stay up until the 11:00/12:00 curfew when we checked to make sure students were in their rooms. Then we would set an alarm for a different time each night, wake up, trudge through the floors and hallways (we were spread out on 4 different floors) and let ourselves in to each room to make sure no one had snuck out. Then back to bed for a few hours before heading off to another conference day. On top of that, Becky and I and quite a few of the students got sick (a 4 day fever is exhausting).
Finally it was time to go back to Casablanca. We were all exhausted, but we think the trip was a success and everyone had a good time. The conference was well ran and the Royal Russell grounds were absolutely beautiful. As we pulled up to the school the trip didn't seem worth all the effort, but after some time to recover we knew that it was.
Now it's time to start planning for next year's trip. Where will we go...
To view tour pictures, click HERE.
To view conference pictures, click HERE.
NOTE: Since this was a school trip, we can not show photos with students in them which is unfortunate because we have quite a few and they are really great.
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