London melting pot

By Sara Al Tamimi - Public Speaking Award 2005 winner

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Monday 9 May was the day I was going to London. Because I had won the BBC public speaking awards 2005 I was allowed to represent the Netherlands. It was kind of difficult to say goodbye to my dear family at the airport but filled with good hope I entered the plane with my companions Mr. Krawinkel and Krijn Dijkstra.

Once we arrived I fell in love with London, because London was beautiful, really beautiful. Everything you expect from a perfect city was there in London. You get this strange feeling that all day you can walk through the streets of London without ever feeling bored. We visited the British Museum, awesome place that was. After that we joined the others. From 37 countries 64 ambassadors all looked eagerly forward to meet everyone. Some people immediately said 'Hi, where are you from' and I looked startled and said 'ehm the Netherlands' and I would think: Do we know each other? There was this cosy atmosphere, nobody was excluded. Since we were all sleeping in the same hotel it's obvious that we never went to bed early that week ;-) That day I felt like I had travelled around the world in one day.

Tuesday we had a workshop: Debating. It was a perfect way to get to know each other. The final debate was a fiasco, but we had fun. And that was what it was all about. We also went to Shakespeare's Globe, honestly I loved everything I saw over there. As you can see our schedule was filled with activities but we did get some free time, so we decided to go to Buckingham Palace. However our friend Tada from Thailand made a confession after a very long walk when we saw that we had walked in a circle 'I am sorry guys but I have been keeping the map upside down. I didn't realise that the Thames was on the other side'. We considered strangling him.

We also went to a very good play 'Woman in Black', that was really scary.

Wednesday the BBC Public Writing winners 2005 came to London. Together we went to 'The Phantom of the Opera' imagine two girls put together watching that of course you hear nothing but giggles and that is exactly what happened. I will be so kind as to remind the reader that again I had a wonderful time. The lobby was the 'place to be'. So every night we were sitting there and we played stupid games, we talked and of course laughed out loud. As a result everyone was really looking fishy on the day of the finals. Everyone was looking nervous of course but we had a deal, since we all had won in our own countries, you could not possibly lose anymore. In the end Peng Xia from China won, he was amazingly good and he definitely deserved to win. Each one of us knew that he was the one who had to win and when they announced that he was indeed the winner, we all stood up and gave him a loud applause. That was our moment, nothing can take away that glorious moment of connection between us all. We decided to make that night unforgettable. We had an amazing time together. We also decided not to sleep, but unfortunately we had to change plans when we saw some dudes falling asleep on the couches of the lobby.

Friday we went to the BBC Television Centre. The last day......it all went too quick. Time flies when you are having fun, I never realised how true that was. It was a strange day, of course I was extremely happy because I knew that I would be seeing my dearest family. But then again I couldn't stop thinking about how great it would be if I were able to spend 'one more week' with these amazing people in that great town.

It is not only about being good in English or being able to talk in front of a public. It is about wanting to win. It is about confronting yourself with your dreams and from there on doing everything you can to achieve that aim. I am nearly not as good in English as I would want to be. Nor do I always say the right thing in public and also my knees seem to be keen on collapsing when I see everybody looking at me and expecting me to give a 'I have a dream' speech. But all of this is certainly no excuse for not joining this great competition. The whole competition in Holland is great and when you go to London.........I never expected that to be as much fun as it was. I can tell you about Valentina from Italy, Romana with her high heels and Dishant who saw the light, but there is no space. What I want to say is that I made friends that I never would have wanted to miss. In London you could only lose if you did not make a friend, that's what it was all about. Also I got convinced of one thing in London, there certainly can be peace between different countries, religions, cultures and nationalities. I saw an entire world and I kept a bunch of friends. So it is all over now? That is what I thought too. However a website proved that I was wrong. There you can find how very much alive our connection still is. The theme of this year was 'Differences and Diversities' but in spite of all our 'differences' and diversity we had a great time. Through showing respect we became and stayed friends.

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