“Good afternoon job seekers!” from Mr Perry, began the 20-hour coach journey to sunny Barcelona where we would spend the next seven days. Clearly his wit was too far fetched for us girls on the trip, as all he received back was, “What is he on about?!” from the 40 Townley students.

We left our parents at dear old Townley Grammar at 4.00 pm and enjoyed the peaceful and relaxing ride to Spain…yeah…right. We sang all of the Disney songs and took as many pictures as is humanly possible, until lights out, where the Year 11’s continued to make as much noise as we could.

We arrived at the Platja D’Aro resort looking awful and feeling even worse when the keys were handed out and everybody hauled their luggage to the room they were in, settling into their new homes. Within about 10 minutes, everybody had worked out where their friends were staying and had planned entering those rooms undetected. These plans however, failed.

After the orientation we were left to our own devices until our first evening meal which was lovely, and continued to be the same standard and actually, consisting of the same seven choices every night. For the rest of the evening, we got to know the other people in the resort making new friends and generally having a laugh. Then we were told to go to bed and to have lights out by 11.00pm. Again, the plan to stay up failed.

Then began our first day of workshops. Both dance and drama were great fun and sometimes hilarious, and we had two more of each to enjoy throughout the week. (The week ended with a performance of our end product). We then went back to the hotel and were told to be ready within an hour to then be whisked off to Magic Park, “the place of dreams”. Mr Perry and Mr Suranyi found their competitive side on the dodgems, and the fantastic evening finished with a game of Death Dodgems.

The Barcelona day was amazing, we shopped for ages and were able to visit the sites of La Rambla and Sagrada Familia, the extraordinary Cathedral designed by Gaudi and still under construction. Some of us explored the medieval old city. An additional mission for the day was to find the most useless object possible for under two euros, and Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner is… “Man On Rock” found by Team Farag (applause).

On another day, we visited the Dali Theatre Museum in Figueres, which was incredibly interesting and a lovely way to spend the afternoon. The entire theatre has been transformed by Dali into a surreal experience. That night was the disco, above Magic Park. The evening was fantastic and everybody enjoyed themselves, getting the chance to practise their workshop moves to “SOS-Rhianna” and “ Paris to Berlin-Inferno”. The next night’s Karaoke was just as much fun, seeing Mr Perry and Mr Suranyi perform “Que Sera Sera” was just one of the highlights.

Overall, the trip was absolutely amazing, and on behalf of everybody that went, I would like to thank Mr Perry, Mrs Carroll, Mrs Garratt and Mr Suranyi for a great time and hilarious experience.

Judi Ellard Y11