In the last three weeks, the youth group was busy exploring London and going on many adventures!
It’s tradition that over the summer break, SLRA staff and all of the young people who attend the Youth Club sessions, head out on different trips, instead of participating in regular activities. This year, the young people had lots of exciting days-out planned: from London Zoo and ice skating in Streatham to exploring the Natural History Museum and travelling via boat through the Thames.
Visiting London Zoo
On the 1st of August, seven young people and three staff members visited the London Zoo. We decided which animals the group wanted to see. Many of us were excited to see the zoo’s tigers and lions, so we decided that this would be our first stop. The other animals that we visited were: penguins, giraffes and zebras. Spiders, however, were not so popular. Especially for one girl, who was afraid from the word alone, which led to some playful teasing from the rest of the group.
At the tiger compound, we decided to have our lunch break. Everyone ate their sandwiches and cookies while playing an animal version of the game ‘hands up’. It was fun to guess the names of the animals that the people pantomimed and we even learned some new animal vocabulary. After a while, we went on to the lion compound, but one young person said that they are quite unspectacular as the lions were quite far away and seemed relatively small. – I am not so sure about that! However, we moved on quite quickly and looked for the penguins who are always fun to watch! Tamara and I were especially excited to see them and the their beautiful tricks!
The last stop that we made during our tour of London Zoo were the giraffes and zebras. We even spontaneously heard a little presentation about the giraffes and learned that they are half-sisters. One of the giraffes is 40 years old, whilst the other is only 12 years old. At the end of the day, we were all happy yet slightly sleep from our first adventure out and about.
“It was very nice today. (…) I think it will be a nice memory.”
Young person
Ice Skating in Streatham
The following week, we went ice skating in Streatham! At first, it might sound weird to go ice-skating in August, but the London summer can often be raining and on that day, it was, so it was a smart decision to do something inside!
Most of the young people had never been ice-skating before and even most of the staff was quite nervous being back on the ice! However, everyone was brave enough to put on their skates and give it a go stepping on the ice. There was a lot of falling, shaking, and nervosity in the beginning, but towards the end, most of us were quite confident and did not want to stop skating over the ice! Plus, seeing other ice-skaters doing different tricks and jumps, were motivating us even more.
At the end, you could only see smiling faces and positive comments. To end this beautiful trip, we went to Nandos to chow down on some warm food together.
The Natural History Museum
Our third trip brought us to South Kensington’s Natural History Muesum. Entering the museum, we were already greeted by one of the oldest dinosaur’s skeletons – which was really cool. So, it became the first stop for people to take pictures and to settle in. Afterwards, we went up the escalator which looks quite specular (see photo).
We visited all kinds of exhibitions. For example, the human evolution, hidden treasures or the exhibition about earthquakes had us all gawping in amazement. Whilst at our last stop, you could experience a little earthquake by going inside a “supermarket”. We learned different things, like that the more a stone travels the more round it becomes!
It was both exciting and interesting for everyone in the group! At the end, the whale skeleton waved us goodbye.
After the museum, we ate something and went to the Hyde Park where we hired pedal boats. We split in two groups and enjoyed the sun over Hyde Park. We even tried having a mini race, but one team had some difficulties with steering the boat- so we stopped since it wasn’t a fair start! Regardless, it was the perfect ending for our third fantastic trip!
Next week, we are heading to the Thames for a boat tour. We can’t wait and our fingers are crossed for a bright sky!