GSEP Sponsored Trip

Sofia B., Troop 6088

Traveling to London with GSEP in the summer of 2018 was one of the best experiences of my life. Not only was it my first time traveling abroad, it was also an opportunity to meet a bunch of new people and travel in a way that I haven’t had the means to do before. Getting accustomed to a new, much older, part of the world that we don’t have in America was really, really cool. Being the history and culture (and pop culture) lover that I am, I was pretty much freaking out at every turn. I’ve even had a lot of inspiration to write a few short stories based in London for my major this year. One of my stories ended up being, in the eyes of my teacher, “the best thing I’ve ever written for him,” which was intensely high praise.

I think my favorite part of the whole trip was the amount of free time we had, which we got to decide how we would fill. With my love for history, I was excited that our group chose to go on a London ghost tour and to explore the city on our own. I remember that, during our visit to the Girlguiding Activity Centre, we were given a scavenger hunt activity. The scavenger hunt led participants through the whole city and was going to take many hours to complete. We did one or two of the list items, which led us to Oxford Circus. Once at Oxford Circus, we decided to go shopping instead! Later, we met the rest of our tour group at Trafalgar Square - which we had jokingly started to call “T-square” because no one was able to say “Trafalgar.” That day was one of my favorites and I appreciated that we were able to choose an alternative itinerary based on our interests!

I think another favorite day of mine was when we visited the East End of London, which has experienced a renaissance that resulted in some of the most incredible street art in the world. In the East End, we went on a street art tour and chose a place to grab lunch (we got burritos!) Next, we visited this fantastic underground flea market. I found some of my favorite souvenirs from the city there!

Overall, the GSEP trip to London really opened my eyes to the concept of travelling more; I’m even looking at the option of a travel-related gap-year program!

I’ve gotten so much personal growth from visiting that wonderful city, and I would definitely go again if given the opportunity. I'm so thankful to Girl Scouts and GSEP for the experience of a lifetime!