Go east, young man!

Going overseas is an exciting and heady experience for a 13-year-old. Without a doubt I can say that my summer trip to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales was the best thing I have ever done.

But this was no "National Lampoon Family Vacation." Mom and Dad haven't been across the Atlantic yet! I was fortunate enough to travel through a program called People to People Student Ambassadors.

I joined eight other Las Vegas middle-schoolers for this three-week journey to learn about the people, places and things of the Old World. Even reading the itinerary made me excited: St. Paul's Cathedral, Blarney Castle, Parliament, County Cork, Dublin.

This is a story about those places, and about 36 kids who became best of friends and not-so-best of friends.

It's 4:30 a.m. and I have never been so excited. Yes, I'm going to London! At McCarran International Airport, I join our student group -- Travis Cochran (White Middle School), Amanda Doty (Hyde Park), Melissa Foerster (Brinley), Eric Gustke (Swainston), Jessica Kincaid (Greenspun), Mark Ladwig (Garrett), Megan Stachnik (Brown) and Alana Sussman (Guinn).

Our leader was Herb Thompson, a geography teacher at Burkholder. He has led many other People to People delegations. In each case, students earn high school or college credit for what they learn overseas. Herb not only leads our daily activities but makes sure that we keep a daily journal of our impressions.

After a cross-country flight, our group hooked up with a delegation from Minnesota. The meeting at New York's Kennedy Airport was not so good. Except for about one person from Las Vegas, none of us talked to the Minnesotans.

The two groups were a bit scared of each other. The nine of us felt outnumbered, and we were -- three to one. But, eventually, we did start to get along. We realized we had a lot in common and that's when our trip became fun.

London was one of the best places. Big Ben and Parliament were two of the top attractions. Oh, I can't forget Buckingham Palace; that was very cool. But my favorite was seeing the crown jewels at the Tower of London. That's also where Henry VIII had his wives beheaded.

Theater in London is awesome. We saw "Fame" and liked it, although our leaders from Minnesota thought the language was a bit racy.

We found out quickly that it was easy to spend money -- pound after pound. Food was expensive and there are so many things to buy, especially if you are an impulsive spender.

In Ireland, the highlight had to be the Blarney stone. To get the gift of gab, as legend tells it, you kiss the stone. Everyone in our group did it.

All across the British Isles are castles. We visited 10 of them. Perhaps the most impressive was Edinburgh Castle, overlooking Scotland's capital city. It contained a massive cannon that was credited with forcing the surrender of other fortresses. But it was so large that it could only be moved five miles a day.

In two towns -- Dublin and Cambridgeshire, England -- we got a taste of native life by staying with local families. These were the nicest people on our trip.

Our Ireland stay was great as we doubled up so there were two of us in each house. The minute we got there we learned the sport of hurling. A cross between lacrosse and field hockey, players hit a baseball-size ball around and try to score in a goal twice the size of a hockey net. It's a very fun sport. On Sunday, as you might expect in this most religious country, we attended Mass with our host families.

In Cambridgeshire, outside London, we were hosted at school by the sons and daughters of our host families. Yes, they are still going to school in July! Another interesting twist is that their middle schools and high schools are lumped into one campus called "college." University follows that, and we had a chance to stay at university dorms in St. Andrews and the University of Wales.

To show that they have no hard feelings toward us colonists, our English school threw a Fourth of July party for our group. We slam-danced and played games.

In the spirit of the Olympics, we organized a game of basketball, which the Americans won handily. Then we headed to the soccer field. Well, I guess you can figure how that turned out.

Above all, meeting people was what this trip was all about. We met scores of people from all walks of life. We have discovered that we share many interests and concerns. The day after I returned home I received a phone call from one of my new British friends. It is this kind of friendship that I hope to keep for a lifetime.

If you have a chance to go overseas at a young age, go for it. It might be your only chance.

RYAN WARD is an eighth-grader at Hyde Park Middle School. He is the son of former SUN Assistant Managing Editor Ken Ward.

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