England becomes the new 'hometown' for student with rare study opportunity
By DELANEY RUSSELL

Delaney Russell with visiting mom, Cindy, and Anna Stover went to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theater in West End during Delaney's recent study trip to England.

During the past three months while my classmates were at school, I got the opportunity of a lifetime. I accepted a chance to travel to England to study for three months. Naturally I accepted, but I had some fears. I would be living in a country where I knew no one, literally no one, for three thousand miles. Driving was impossible, so how would I get around? What was the school going to be like? What if this is all a huge mistake? Nevertheless, I manage to assail my fears and step on a plane.

When I first got to England, I instantly fell in love with it. I loved the people, the cars, the food … well maybe not the food. It is pretty terrible. But I knew that I had made the right choice when I first saw my new high school. High Wycombe High School for Girls is the pride of the Southwest in England. It has some of the best facilities, the best teachers in the region, and the brightest students. Yet I was a little worried when I first saw the campus. Not only was I going to have to contend with an all-female population, something I've never had to do before, but I was also going to have to deal with almost 5,000 of them. Yes, you read right … 5,000. High Wycombe is like a mini University of Georgia complete with its own halls for the different subjects. Not only are there multiple buildings, but all of them are two and three STORIES. The stairs, the multitude of girls, and the fact that I had no idea where any of my classes were, made for a very rough first day. But I soon learned the ropes, found my buddies, and fell in love with High Wycombe.

Some interesting photography shows some of Delaney's best new English friends, Imogen, Caroline, Izzy, and Becca.

But to me the best times were not during school. They were the times when I got to explore the England outside of London. I have some of the best guy friends who attend Eton and Radley College for Boys, so I got the inside look at two of the best high schools for boys. Since Oxford was only 45 minutes away and most of my friends went, I got the chance to spend weekends at the university. I've seen Windsor Castle up close, have gotten a personal tour of Parliament with my Government and Politics class, and have even watched the Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race from the banks of the Thames. My friends and I had so many grand adventures together, which I could never have experienced had I just been visiting in London. I really miss them.

But all good things must end, so in the first week of April I packed my things and left High Wycombe to visit Anna Stover, our native daughter of Washington-Wilkes. She's in London now, working out of Heathrow Airport as a flight attendant and she allowed me to stay at her apartment in Hammersmith. So I got to see London as a (sort-of) resident, not just a tourist. By day, I got acquainted with the subway system, and tried to findmy way through London streets without a map. I even found the famous Peter Pan statue, but it took me two days of being lost in Hyde Park to findit. (Molly Newsome, you should be getting a picture any time soon.) But by night it was all hot new restaurants, pubs and bars, seeing Wicked on the West End, and good times with Anna. It was the perfect way to say good-bye to England.

After spending some time "lost" in Hyde Park, Delaney finally found the famous Peter Pan statue.

All in all the experience was just amazing. Anyone who gets the chance to travel to a new place for a while, GO FOR IT! I mean it. Not only will you learn that you can survive without a car, but you'll meet all sorts of people, even ones you don't like and you'll learn that you can deal with people who aren't exactly your cup of tea. I was lucky. I ran into only two people that I wasn't very fond of. Everyone else was phenomenal and my friends pretty much stole my heart away. I think that I've found my place in the world because of this trip. Gertrude Stein once said "America is my country and Paris is my hometown." Well for me, replace Paris with England.

Delaney wondered how she would get around without a car. Here she is at the Tower Hill tube station in London.