I cannot believe today is the last day. The trip has brought me so many new memories and new friends that I am grateful for. This has been a once in a lifetime experience that I can remember forever. I am so grateful that I chose to do this. I made new friends from other campuses and now we can be on the struggle bus of nursing school together. Classmates of mine from my campus, have become my closest friends. If you get a chance to do this trip, you should take it. I will warn you that you need good shoes, drink lots of water, and have lots of fun because I definitely did.

We started the day taking the tube at Paddington Station for about 15 to 20 minutes I believe. Then we took a brief walk to the Florence Nightingale museum. She is a pioneer of modern nursing, but Mary Seacole was also a part of nursing history. She was recognized long after Florence for her contributions and given a statue as well. Chenenye did a brief lesson about her at BCU. If it was not for her, I would have never had known who she was. Florence Nightingale is known as the “Lady of the Lamp.” She is responsible for leading several nurses to care for soldiers during the Crimea war and save hundreds of lives. Florence was a force to be reckoned with and she did not let anyone stop her from continuing the care people needed.

Then we took a very long walk to get to Borough Market. This market is absolutely amazing and you have to go. They have food from all over the world, produce, and fresh baked goods. We stopped to get a fresh squeezed juice. They were so refreshing after a 35 minute walk. Then we tried the chocolate covered strawberries and I practically ascended. The milk chocolate was rich and the strawberries were so sweet. It was the perfect combination. My lunch was fusilli past with a spicy sausage ragu. I love pasta and Italian food is the key to my heart. I also tried a friend of mine’s pumpkin tortellini pasta and it was sweet and savory. The perfect combination!

Next adventure was to walk to Tower Bridge and take a million pictures there and big ben. On our walk to get to the London Eye, 4 out of 6 got yummy gelato. I got cookies and cream on a waffle cone. It was the perfect cold treat in this warm weather. There was a funny street performer there on a 7 foot unicycle. He was really funny and entertaining. He was able to fit his whole body through a tennis racket. The moans and groans he made trying to get through had me in tears. This was a great experience.

We rushed our brisk walk to get to Buckingham Palace. We arrived at the perfect time to see the changing of the guard. They played modern music and my favorite was the intro to Star Wars. It is one of my favorite movie series besides Harry Potter. There was a train that we needed to catch in order to go to the Jelly Cat store. Once we got to the store, we roamed around bought a few souvenirs for ourselves and our families. Then the coolest thing happened. We got to see Dua Lipa, which was really cool. She had an item come out that had her face on the advert. She was even prettier in person.

This trip has been so amazing. I would tell you more, but we just arrived back from Moulin Rouge and it was 1,000/10. The stage, costumes, and actors were phenomenal. It was just as amazing as when I saw Kinky Boots on Broadway in NYC. The music was amazing and I was singing along. It had a friend of mine and I dancing in our seat the whole time. This trip could not have been more perfect without Dr. Marks and Mrs. Shuey. They have not only been amazing chaperones, but like moms to us. I felt so safe and completely supported throughout this whole trip. There were days where my legs were hurting from walking so much and they slowed down and walk with me so I didn’t feel alone. Both of them checked up on me constantly and asked if I needed ibuprofen or if I needed heating gel. iIf you take this once in a lifetime chance opportunity to be able to go with them, you will not be disappointed.