It is Tuesday. Although it's very cold outside, and I hate being cold, I still have to go to school. So after eating a quick breakfast, I get my backpack and leave. The thing that I am very excited about is that this is the last week until we get the winter break for Christmas, and that means going to Leo's party and then Janin's one. Getting to school, I talk with Leo and then it is time for the English class to start.

"Hello Miss." the students say.

"Hello guys. How are you?" asks the English teacher.

"I am fine thank you. How are you?" we all answer.

"I am also fine. A bit cold but I have some exciting news. You might know that not long ago the Americans celebrated Thanksgiving and I was thinking about going on a trip on Friday and Saturday, December the 17th and the 18th. Friday was going to be a day when you would have talked to your homeroom teacher, maybe watch some movies, so you wouldn't miss any class. So, what do you think about the trip?"

"We like the idea."

"Amazing. Here I have some papers that I will share. You have to take them home and your parents have to fill them up, to grant you permission to go on the trip. There is also more information on the trip, what hour do we leave the school, where we will go and the teachers that will be joining you on this trip. I am one of them. Oh and Mr. B's class will also be joining us on this trip."

"Mr. B's class. That's Diana's class." I think. "I am now more excited about this trip."

"We will be sleeping at a hostel so make sure to pack some clothes. Please try to bring me back these papers by tomorrow but if you forget them or your parents didn't manage to fill them, you can also bring them on Thursday. Also, we will go to places to eat, to the zoo, and also to an amusement park so the class president will also have to collect some money from every student. We haven't yet calculated how much the sum is, but I think you will know by today. And don't forget to take some money with you if you will want to buy something from the souvenir shops."

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Friday quickly came and it was time to go on the trip. We got up a bit earlier than usual to make it in time for when the bus was going to leave. We eat a light breakfast, take our bags and leave the house together with our parents: my dad driving the car and mom explaining where she put the medicines and that we have for headaches, stomach-aches, anti-vomiting and some plasters, in case we get a scratch.

Arriving to the meeting place, we get out of the car, take our luggage, helped by our parents and go where we see Diana and Leo.

"Hey Diana." Sarah says.

"Oh hey."

"So, how did you sleep last night?" Sarah asks Diana.

"I slept good. What about you?" she says.

"I slept good as well even though I was so excited for this trip. We'll sit together on the bus, right?"

"Of course."

After some time, the teachers also arrive and we start getting on the bus. Sarah sits with Diana and across from them I sit with Leo. Janin sits with another classmate in front of Diana and Matt went to the back of the bus with others.

After all the students and teachers were on board, the bus starts to move towards the location of our trip. As we all start getting bored, Sarah asks us if we want to play Uno.

"Yeah sure. I am bored anyway so why not." I say.

"I'm in too." Leo says.

"Same here." says Janin, showing towards her and her classmate.

"Awesome. Then, let's start." Sarah says.

While I am shuffling the cards, Sarah and Diana choose the music that will play in the background, which mostly consists of music from the 90's and 00's. Afterwards, I give each of us 8 cards, and we start playing. There are some very lucky people like Leo and Sarah who won most of the rounds, while I was on the other side, always getting the 'get two cards' or losing because I failed to say 'Uno'.

Being so emerged into Uno, we don't even realize when we get to the zoo.

"Please pay attention to me for a bit." the English teacher says. "We will now go visit the zoo. Take with you your backpack with some food that you have or snacks. If you don't have or think you might need more, there is also a small store from where you can buy. The rest of the luggage will stay on the bus. Don't worry about it, as we will go with the same bus later to the hostel where we will stay. So, after taking your backpack, go down and wait near the bus until everybody gets down and we make sure that everybody is there."

Getting off the bus, I feel how good it is to stretch my legs. After sitting for that long, I didn't even realize how stiff my legs were. After confirming that we all got down, the teacher told us that we could go to the store there to buy some things that we needed and to also go to the bathroom as we were going to walk a lot, before going at a restaurant for lunch. As soon as we heard that, everybody ran towards the toilets. Even though there were two buildings with three small bathrooms each, there was still a line that formed. Well, that's what happens when almost 60 students plus teachers need to go at the same time.

Some people also visited the store and then we slowly move to visit one part of the zoo, as the second was going to be visited in the afternoon.

Firstly, we see some lynx, two elephants that were brought from Asia, some otters and capybaras, and a cheetah that is sitting in the sun, waiting for its lunch. We also pass by some lions and red pandas. But the cutest animals were the ring-tailed lemurs and the hedgehogs.

Passing by the giraffes, we see a vending machine from where you can take food to feed them. We take some food and stay by the fence, with our hands hold as high as possible. It is so funny seeing the giraffes coming to us and bending their necks to take the food from our hands.

After seeing all those animals, we get hungry, just in time for lunch. As the restaurant where we were going to eat wasn't that far, we start our short on-foot trip. Arriving, we enter and I notice how beautifully it is decorated. As we are about 60 people, the teachers had to book the restaurant in advance so that we would all have where to sit. They also asked us if we had any allergies, so that they could decide on the menu.

Not long after we sit down, the waiters come with the cabbage soup. We all say to each other 'Enjoy your meal!' and then we dig in, each taking a small piece of bread off the basket on the table. After finishing, the waiters come take the empty dishes away.

As the restaurant is very big, it has some long tables and I sit between Leo and Matt, while on the other side of the table, opposite of us are Diana, with Sarah and Janin on each side. Until the second dish comes, we start having some small talk.

Soon after, the second dish also comes, which is fish and chips. Fish-and-chips is my favourite meal, so I can't wait to dig in. Knickerbocker glory is also called for after the second dish. Feeling the ice cream melt into my mouth gives me a feeling of well-being.

After lunch, we go back to the zoo to visit the animals that are inside a building, such as reptiles, different types of parrots and a specially arranged place for butterflies. We could see both alive ones but also some which were in a box, with their wings wide open so that you can see their different colours.

After looking at the butterflies, we head towards the souvenir shop. We get what we want and head towards the bus as instructed previously, which was going to take us to the hostel we will be staying in. As everybody was a bit tired and the drive was going to take an hour, we each try to get some sleep because we weren't going to go to bed too early and waste a night when we were all together.

Arriving at the hostel, the teacher explains to us that the boys will stay on the first floor, while the girls will be on the second floor, so we have to protect them. The teachers will have the rooms at the end of the hallways, so we know where to find them if we have any problem. After taking our luggage, we enter the hostel where we get the key from our English teacher. We already told them at school how we wanted to be paired in room, so Leo and I head to our room, after getting the key.

Entering, we see two beds, a bathroom on the left and a small TV, although we weren't really going to watch TV. Putting the luggage on the ground, after taking turns going to the toilet, we go back downstairs towards where the eating place is.

Entering, we see a huge table in the middle with all kinds of food, from pasta and nuggets to fresh fruits and sandwiches. We each take what we want to eat, a glass of fresh orange juice and head towards the table where we spot Sarah sitting with Janin and Diana.

"Hey. So we will still meet today, right?" I ask.

"Yes. We'll come to your room." Sarah tells me.

"Awesome. I will tell Matt too." I say.

"You don't mind if I also bring a friend, right?" Janin asks.

"Of course not. The more the merrier." I say.

After deciding where we meet, we eat and say our goodbyes.

"See you in an hour." Leo and I say.

Getting in the room, we decided that Leo will go wash-up first, and I'll be next. We agreed before that we will just be wearing our pyjamas, to be more comfortable, and because we were going to sleep afterwards, so less changing.

After we were both in our pyjamas, we open some snack bags in case we were going to get hungry and wait for the others, that soon arrive: first arrive Janin and her classmate, then Matt and afterwards Diana, Sarah and Brian.

"I hope you don't mind that I invited him too. You said the more the merrier." says Sarah.

"No, I don't mind at all." I say while thinking why did she have to invite him.

"Here are some snacks if you guys want." says Leo towards the others, as we sit down on the beds, making ourselves comfortable.

"So what should we do?" asks Matt.

"Oh, I know. Let's play truth or dare." Sarah suggests.

Loud groans can be heard from half of the people.

"What. It'll be fun." Sarah says, trying to defend her idea.

"Okay, fine." I say. "Janin. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Did you ever fake illness to get out of school?"

"Well, of course. Raise your hands anyone that did the same." At which we all raise our hands.

"Okay, next... Matt. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"What five things would you bring to a deserted island?"

"Well my phone, food, chocolate, tent and a knife. Now, Leo. Truth or dare?"

"Dare. I live dangerously." he says.

"I dare you to eat a mouthful of crackers and try to whistle."

"Ok, accepted." Leo says confidently, although I think that as soon as he gets those crackers in his mouth he regrets accepting. After a few tries he succeeds. Emptying his mouth, he turns towards Sarah. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"If you could be invisible, what's the first thing you would do?"

"Go to Target at night when no one is there and pretend to fish."

"Haha lol, that'd be funny to see." I say.

"Oh this is a truth for everybody. Take your phones out and in a new note write the answer to the question: 'Do you like, in a romantic way, someone in this room?'. Go." Sarah says, while we do what she said. Half of us answer with no while the others say yes. Among the people with yes is Leo, Janin, Diana and I. Does Diana like him? I wonder, looking at the not-so-welcomed guest.

After the question that got us all on edge, we played a bit more and then everybody went to sleep.

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(The next day)

It's morning again. After waking up, we take turns for washing up and then we go downstairs to eat a quick breakfast before going to the amusement park, which has me very excited.

Arriving there, the teacher tells us that we can split up so that we can each have fun on our own, not with the entire class, just not to forget to meet up back at the entrance in 3 hours. We all say 'Yes', looking forward to the rides. We split from the large group, our smaller group consisting of Sarah, Diana, Janin, Leo and I.

As Sarah wanted to go on the merry-go-round, we head that way. The girls all get on excitedly and I say to Leo "Ah, let's get on too.", so we also get on. It's really relaxing going round and round and I can see that everybody enjoys it too, especially Diana.

Afterwards, we head to a faster ride, a roller-coaster. When the ride starts, I can already feel the adrenaline level going up. At the time the ride is high up in the sky, starting to go down, I raise my hands and shout in sync with all the other people. Something is telling me that I will have no voice tomorrow. Ah well, we'll worry about that then.

Getting off, I notice that only Sarah and I can still walk normally, everyone else being a bit dizzy from the roller-coaster, so I suggest they take a rest on a bench while Sarah and I go to buy some churros and some water.

After buying, we go back to them and start eating to have something in our stomachs. When we see that we have one hour left, we decide to head towards the Viking ship. We all get in one row and the ride begins. Although it is slower than the roller-coaster, it is still very fun.

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After those three hours were up, we went to the bus and on the ride home we also stopped at a fast-food to get some food as lunch.

Ah, it's so good to be home, especially when you know tomorrow is the winter break and that you will go to an amazing party for Christmas.