In the beginning, the England Team was in CHAOS! We were all busy and didn't have the time to set aside to actually get into the meat of our trip to London, England. After some regrouping we were finally able to become organized and start putting our trip together.
Lizzy put me in charge of finding our Hostel, which was a HUGE deal because that's ultimately where we were going to sleep and live for the day while we were in London. At first, I didn't really think it was a big deal. I had the mentality that all I had to do was go online, find a website with trip information, and pick a place in our location that we wanted. I was well aware that I would have to talk to people to plan and get further information but I thought it was a pretty easy task. But that's not it at ALL!
Finding a hostel 3-4 months before we go on a trip is equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack. I seriously could not find a hostel anywhere. The problems would be that our ages didn't match with the hostel age restrictions or there wasn't any openings for an all female bedrooms. (After all, we couldn't stay in a mixed room with BOYS! It'd be just too scandalous.) But all in all, finding a hostel was terribly difficult, I talked to so many trip-helper-people, looked at so many hostels and hotels, and all of this really stressed me out and killed my vibes.
This hostel search made me feel like I was in an endless scavenger hunt for just one piece. Finding the hostel made me anxious and mad because I had so much other things going on. I swear I could never be a travel agent because this search had me literally crying myself to sleep. Since I couldn't find the hostel, Emma and Lizzy couldn't go along with their plans because we didn't have a place to stay. Sometimes I felt like everyone thought I wasn't trying hard enough to find the hostel because for a while it seemed like every meeting we, the England team, didn't have much compared to the Iceland team and sometimes I felt like it was my fault. I felt like I had the world on my shoulders with all the school work and social issues I was dealing with. :(
Coumbah
One of the HARDEST things to do as leaders of girls of this age is to not rescue them when they are struggling with a project. We encourage, we give ideas, then we hand the project back to them to complete. Coumbah really worked hard at finding a place to stay, and for weeks wasn't gaining ground. Donna and I could have stepped in and found a solution, but by doing that, Coumbah wouldn't have learned the lesson about being unreasonable in your quest for the RIGHT situation. This experience will help her immeasurably in life; she will look to herself to solve problems.....and will find much better solutions. I'm SO PROUD of her!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteBy the way.....she found a GREAT hostel and an AMAZING price in our target area in London. Mapesbury Budget Hostel, $30/night/person, and we will have a private room (for 9) with a lock on the door. The hostel provides breakfast for that price, even better, and specifies it is NOT a party hostel - another issue we were running into, with hostels having their own bars and openly encouraging partying for people much older than our girls. The girls want to CONNECT with people from all over the world, and being in a hostel is a great way to spend time with other travelers in a way not possible in a hotel. They are planning to host some sort of evening event to get to know the people in the hostel better, kind of a meet and greet - I haven't heard all the details yet, but knowing Coumbah, who has NEVER met a stranger, it will be an amazing experience!!!
Great story!
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