I have always felt great admiration for Europe, I certainly looked forward to going there one day.

This year I had the BIG chance of taking the leap thanks to the ESU. Not only did I get to travel to

Europe but I got to land in London, one of the capitals of the world and for sure the capital of

Europe. What is more, this trip was no ordinary trip. I went there to represent my country, doing

one of the things that I love doing the most that is speaking in public. I didn’t win the competition

but FOR SURE I won the respect and affection of 54 excellent public speakers of 51 different

countries. And obviously I did my very best.

LONDON, DAY 1

I arrived in London at 6 am in the morning; I was

excited and very happy. The first day we had some

free time so we visited different places. In my case,

I went to the Imperial War Museum and it was

awesome. I was astonished by the city, I found it

exciting and the people very friendly. After an

outstanding day the ESU event started. I attended

the welcome meeting in the Tudor Room of the

Imperial hotel. There I met mi roommate “Martin

Samson” who was not only an incredible person

but also a world finalist of the competition. At the opening meeting we were thrilled, we all

wanted to speak with each other. It’s not every day that you have the opportunity of meeting so

many people from different parts of the world, just amazing. After the meeting we all went for

dinner together where we could introduce ourselves.

LONDON, DAY 2

We woke up and had breakfast; at this moment I

realized where I was. It was awesome because I

was having breakfast with a boy from Pakistan;

my roommate from Denmark; a girl from Thailand

and a girl from Canada. The amazing thing was to

talk and exchange ideas with other cultures,

something I had not been able to anticipate. Then

we went to the Dartmouth house, the

headquarters of ESU. It’s a magnificent house

where we had workshops with the best speakers

in the world. What we learnt there was incredible and absolutely relevant for the competition. At

night we went to the “Queens Ice and Bowl” (there I DIDN’T represent my country well, I was the

worst player in my group and we can also say that I was the worst bowling player of all the groups

there…)

LONDON, DAY 3

This day was excursions’ day and after two typically cloudy

and foggy days, there were sunny patches. We went to

Westminster for a tour of the Houses of Parliament. We

had a guided tour in Westminster. It was incredible. There

we saw incredible rooms and historical pieces. It was all so

big and so amazing that it was almost a shame to even blink

for a second. After that we went on a bus tour in the

traditional red London buses. There we saw the most

significant places of London. It was really cool. At lunch

time we went to the London eye and we ate sandwiches

there. At 2 we went to the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

We did performance workshops with very good actors from

the theatre. This was the activity I enjoyed the most, it felt like being back in Elizabethan times.

Then we went to Pizza Express and after that we had some free time. I went to Oxford Street to

have a walk and to do some shopping with my Lebanese friend Tarek Kattouf.

LONDON, DAY 4 (Competition day 1)

The first big day had finally arrived. We went to the

Dartmouth House for the Public Speaking heats. I

was the first speaker of the first heat. I had the

difficult task of breaking the ice. I was relaxed and I

really enjoyed doing my speech. It is not easy to be

the ice breaker but I felt really comfortable. We

would not be told the names of those in the

semifinals until the following morning. We had

lunch at Kensington Palace and there we had a

highly informing session followed by a debate

session. We had dinner in Planet Hollywood and

after that we went to the theater to see Shrek, the musical. It was the most incredible musical I

have ever seen.

LONDON, DAY 5 (Competition day 2)

I didn’t feel happy when I woke up on this

last day because I knew that my

unforgettable days in London were coming

to an end. We went to the semifinals at

Dartmouth house. After that I went to the

Argentinian embassy to have lunch with

the ambassador Alicia Castro. She gave us a

warm welcome to the Embassy and we

enjoyed a very good lunch. Then I was

driven to the HSBC building at Canary Wharf to see the finals. Marina Hsien Wei Tan from Malaysia

won the competition. In the evening we went to Dartmouth house again for the Final Reception. I

was the first one leaving the Dartmouth house because my plane was leaving that very night. As I

bade everybody there farewell I realised that I was not saying goodbye to 54 competitors I was

saying goodbye to 54 new friends. My days in London are already among my fondest memories

both in my head & my heart.