MEMBERS OF LAKEWOOD OVERSEAS 2007

Lorna & Jonathan Budgell - Grade 9

Scott Critch & Jennifer Hancock

BJ Lambert - Grade 9

Aaron Collis - Level II

Brittanie Mercer - Level I

Rebecca Hogan - Grade 8

Jasmine Collis - Grade 9

Brittany Keough - Level I

Things that we have learned on our travels:

- Europe is NOT a good place for someone with a weak bladder (learned from personal experience!).....bathrooms are very hard to find - when you do find them, they are probably not very clean, you probably have to pay to get in, and most likely there is NO toilet seat!!

- There are LOTS of pretty boys (as in VERY good looking) in Italy!!!

- It is very hard to find a COLD Coca Cola Light anywhere in Europe....do these people believe in ice??

- Food that is suppose to be hot...is usually not!!

- They make VERY good chocolate crepes on the streets in Paris!!

- You sometimes have to PUSH your way onto the subway systems.....'Mind the Gap'!!

- When you are VERY tired....you can sleep anywhere!!

- There are too many places to buy really good ice cream!!

- When you need a travellers cheque changed...you need to have your passport with you....right Rebecca?

- You should always ask the price of food before you order it...it could be quite expensive...right BJ?

- People in Europe do not notice the heat as much as we do......we walked the streets in Rome almost fainting with the heat and the locals wore heavy coats with scarves tied around their necks!!

- You can never count to 7 enough when you are travelling with someone elses children!!

- If you ever get a chance to take in a trip like ours....YOU SHOULD TAKE IT - We had an unbelievable 10 days!! I'd go again tomorrow!!

* THANKS FOR FOLLOWING OUR JOURNEY *

Home.....or close enough.....the parents all come to greet us at Gander airport - all our hard work of fundraising has been worth it - We had a great trip - certainly something we will remember for a lifetime - and we have the pictures to prove it !!

Not much out of any of the weary travellers on the van ride from St John's to Gander!!

Everyone (especially Mr Critch) was happy to see Tim's!!

Waiting for the shuttle to go to the hotel in Halifax for the night....we had a quick swim, a pizza party and headed to bed...one more early rise to catch the flight to St John's then the drive home!

Canadian soil....so much for 30 degree weather - still snow here in Montreal! No major problems with Customs - Jasimine was the only one who got pulled into Secondary....I guess that lookout I put out on Mr Critch didn't work after all!!

Having a lunch in Munich airport...nice faces Brittany and Jonathan!

We had to change planes in Munich....we actually had to clear Customs too....one more stamp in our passports!

You know you're really tired when......imagine how tired he was to fall asleep like this?!?

Brittany gives in and finally falls alseep...Jonathan is still fighting it....I think he's afraid he will miss something!!

BJ was the first to go to sleep (he slept so much on the plane we thought he might have been in a coma!) Jennifer looks like she's out for the count too!

Rebecca, Aaron and Brittanie were soon to follow - comfortable or not!!

Jasimine quickly found a comfortable place to sleep!

Good Bye - Roma......after a very early rise and a long bus ride to the airport, we are on our way home. On the plane we met up with an EF group from Pasadena, and a group from Clarenville - maybe the Newfie's should have taken over the plane.....never mind.....we were all too tired!!

BJ want-a-be's......everyone puts up their hood like BJ!!

Waiting for our group to head to our next meal!

Aaron catches some zzz's!

Believe it or not.... he's actually snoozing - Brittanie too.....it HAS been a long day!!

The whole group in front of the Pantheon in Rome - Our tour guides Mike and Nicole pose with us.

Look at the people?!? Typical day here?

After they have all made a wish in Trevi Fountain.

Looks like Jonathan is in trouble with the Gladitor!!

A once in a lifetime experience! Here we are in the Collisuim - it's almost 2000 years old!!

Amazing....

They are constantly restoring the Collisuim...here you can see they are restoring the floor, you can see where the lions and other animals were kept under the floor.

By far the highlight of my trip - this was REALLY amazing to see for ourselves. We were told by our tour guide that it took only 8 years and 40,000 slaves to build it.

Jonathan really did like his spagetti......although it looks a little questionable!

Aaron and Brittany enjoy an espresso?

St Peter's Basiclla

Sistene Chapel...painted by Michel Angelo....Wow!

Walking through the museums in Vatician City

We started our day by visiting the smallest country in the world, Vatician City - 108 square acres! They have their own fire department! The line up outside would have taken us about 4 hours to get in - I guess that's the good thing about travelling with a group!

On the tour bus again, heading to the hotel in Rome

Appartently you can never get enough pizza!!

Here we are on the Spanish Steps in Rome...people, people EVERYWHERE!!!

This is how people park......the cars are like this everywhere.....it makes you wonder how they get out of their parking spots? Do they wait and everyone leave the same time????

MAD DRIVERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Notice that nobody is in any certain lane???? A short drive to Rome.

Once we left St Francis, we continued to walk to the top of the hill, the streets were all like this, sometimes we didn't know if it was a street or a walkway....until we had to move to the side for a car!!!

The gangs all here...in Assisi this time!!

This is the view of Assisi on the hillside - beautiful....what a view when we got there!

St. Francis of Assisi Basicilla. St Francis was the Patron Saint of Animals as well as the Patron Saint of Italy.

We all gathered for lunch in a cafeteria type place - all kinds of food to choose from, better eat now before we explore Assisi!

We left the hotel in Firenze early and had a little bit of a drive to Assisi, just long enough to catch a few more zzzz's......once in Assisi, we had a tour of a ceramic factory - everything hand painted! They also sold wine and olive oils - they had taste testing too!!

After a long day - we get ready to head back to the hotel....Don't we look like we're having fun?!?

I think Jasmine is trying to impress Mr Critch with her math skills - she makes a triangle with her forks!!

We met the rest of the group for supper - pasta....yummy!

There are Artists in the streets everywhere - this guys has been working on this all day!

We found a small pizza place for lunch - nice hat Becky!

Notice the houses on the bridge?! Imagine living there? I hope nobody sleepwalks!

During our tours we had lots of free time to explore - we saw many statutes...some covered more than others!! This one is Michel Angelo.

We had a tour of this leather factory, these are some of the things we could have bought...all beautiful...none very cheap! They also sold gold and silver jewelery - all priced by it's weight!

This was the 'upgraded' breakfast - and it was cold! We found that the things that were suppose to be hot were cold and the things that were suppose to be cold were warm!!

After a long night on the train, we had a short bus ride and then we walked to this restaurant for our breakfast....don't they all look energetic??