Leading up to arriving in Ariccia I had so many plans, expectations, hopes and everything in between! I had been planning for this program since the day I signed up to go my freshman year. I had put so much thought into where I would travel on the weekends, how I would manage my school work, what I would want to see and things I would want to do. I thought I had it all perfectly planned out to the point where nothing could go wrong, little did I know it would only take three weeks in for my first mishap to occur! 

During our third weekend trip to London, all had been going just as we had planned. We were enjoying all of the sights, shopping and fish and chips London had to offer us. It was a great trip with even better company. 

And then Sunday came around…We had planned to go to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. Upon our arrival we found the gates to be closed and a sign stating “Changing of the guards has been cancelled for today.” It was disappointing but nothing too major, we figured we would get a jump start to the airport so we headed for the train station. To our surprise we meet two boys who were also traveling for the weekend who informed us that the train that goes to the airport had been shut down for the day. But not to fear, it was something we could easily overcome by calling an uber to the airport instead. From there we had been feeling a little defeated with two of our well thought out plans going down the drain. We had finally settled into our gate in the airport when we looked up at the screen to realize our flight and about 15 others had been cancelled due to a storm that had rolled through London that day. If you can’t tell by the theme of the story, bad things happen in threes!

As you can imagine the airport became a chaotic game of “who can get to the help counter first”. With no such luck, we got in line too little too late and ended up waiting for 4 hours for them to tell us that there wasn’t a flight out for three days. Keep in mind we have to be back for class on Monday! Feeling defeated and frustrated, we checked in to a hotel right next to the airport. From there it was a race to find what travel options we could take to get us home to Ariccia in a timely matter. 

In the end, all seven of us were able to make it home by Monday night. It took all planes, trains, and automobiles but we made it. The moral of the story is that no matter how much you plan and plan, nothing is ever perfect so use the mishaps as a learning experience. We were able to stay calm and work together to make sure we all made it home safe. You never know what life is going to throw at you, especially while traveling so expect the unexpected!

With that being said, I’m so excited to see what the rest of the semester has in store!

• Abby Rice