Easter in the States (From Penarth Times)

Easter in the States

STUDENTS from St Cyres broadened their horizons with an Easter school trip - to America!

Some 31 A-level History and Politics students headed off for an eight-day visit to the famous sites of three cities on the east coast of the USA.

On a rather wet first day, the students were glad to get indoors and surroundings could not have been much grander that the House of Representatives in the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, Union Station and the famous Smithsonian Museums.

The second day by contrast was glorious sunshine, and they enjoyed a walk around Arlington National Cemetery, where they visited the burial place of JFK as well as a very moving memorial to the US soldiers who have died in Iraq.

The walk then took them to the Lincoln Memorial, the Whitehouse and the memorials to the Korean, Vietnam and Second World Wars.

In the evenings they dosed up on American sports and fast food at the ESPN Zone and Hard Rock Cafe.

After a three-hour bus journey to Philadelphia en-route to New York, students used their hour break to eat and in some cases visit a museum and the Liberty Bell.

A group of the boys used this time to visit the Philadelphia Art Gallery - a cultural experience you might think, but their motivation was to recreate on camcorder the run up the famous steps from the film Rocky.

Unfortunately, during this historic race, James became the only casualty of the trip with a grazed knee!

In New York they visited historic areas of New York such as Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown as well as the high-rise areas of Midtown and the Financial District. Highlights of the visit to New York included Ground Zero, the top of the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, the Rockefeller Centre and Ellis Island, with close views of the Statue of Liberty.

The majority of pupils participated in ice skating at the world-famous Wollman Rink in Central Park.

Students enjoyed the bright lights, generous food portions and shopping in Times Square.

A highlight was on the penultimate night when they all attended the Ambassador Theatre on Broadway for an excellent performance of Chicago, which even the lads enjoyed - perhaps it was the scantily-clad dancers!

On the last evening they all ate together in Bubba Gumps - a very friendly Forrest Gump-inspired restaurant - which everyone agreed was a good way to end the visit.

The visit organiser and Head of Politics Scott Britt would like to thank Emma Laidlaw and Colin Turner for their help before and during the visit as well as the students for their exemplary behaviour at all times.