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We left Nuevo Laredo at almost 10 a.m. on sunday february 9th, it was a 3 hour roadtrip to Monterrey, Nuevo León to the airport. Our first stop was to grab a bite while we waited for some time to pass, since we got there too early. From here we flew 1 hour to Mexico City, and from there, 9 hrs and 45 mins to London. It was such a long journey, I had never travelled as far nor this many hours, so it was definetely challenging, but sleeping got me through.

At the Heathrow airport we met with Anette and Tom, Rising Stars personnel, and they drove us to Oxford in a bus, in the meantime they gave us our name tags with the Rising Stars logo, and our bus passes. We arrived at a parking lot in Oxford and taxis were already waiting to take us to our respective homestays.

When we arrived, we introduced ourselves and almost immediately got into the shower, then dinner, then went to bed to rest for the next day.

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After almost ten hours of flight, we finally got to London from Mexico City. This was the very first time I've ever got to fly on a plane, so, being able to take both an international flight like this and a national flight earlier that day (from Monterrey to Mexico City) was such a great double experience.

In the airport, we met with two assistants of the Rising Stars program and, interesting enough, another group from Mexico (Jalisco) from a Escuela Normal as well. They all were so kind.

After two hours of road trip on a bus, we got to Oxford city, where my classmate Gael and I took a taxi to our home-stay and met with our host-family: Mr. & Mrs. Shah. They received us "con los brazos abiertos" (with open arms), as we say in Mexico. After Mr. Shah showed us our room, we all had dinner together and chatted a little about us, the program, and our home country. It was great.

This was both a long and short day at the same time. I'm still getting used to the difference in U.K's time zone, but, I'm sure this is going to be such a great experience.

-Aurelio:)

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After a long journey of over 12 hours, we finally arrived to

the United Kingdom. Staff from Oxford International and coordinators of the Raising Stars program welcomed us at Heathrow International Airport and took us to Oxford, where we took a taxi to our homestays, where we would be living during our stay in this beautiful country.

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Waking up in Oxford felt unreal, I could not believe I was in Europe, eating cereal was amazing cause it was in Oxford. We had to be there at 9:45 so we left at around 8:30 so we wouldn´t be late. Our meeting spot was the Carfax Tower, which is one of the oldest buildings in Oxford and for a while, it was the tallest. Tom met us at the estimated time and we started following him around the city. He took us to historical buildings and shared their history with us, for example: to get into Oxford University you must take a test wearing a gown like the ones we use in graduations, otherwise you are not allowed and have to retake it wearing the proper fit.

We had an hour for lunch and some extra free time, so we went to the Covered Market, which later on would become one of our favorite and most frequent places.

After, we went to Chaplaincy, to have our welcome ceremony and to receive a notepad and a pen. Our fist class took place in Pembroke College, just 5 mins away from here, walking.

So far, what I love most about Oxford is that this is a very walkable city.

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My classmate Gael and I started our day quite early. Althought the plan was waking up at 6:00am, because of the time difference between Mexico and the U.K's time zones, we could only sleep until 4:00am. Still, we had a good rest.

We got out of our home-stay at around 8:00am after giving our host-family a beautiful "camino de mesa" (table runner) I brought them from León, Guanajuato, Mexico. They seemed to like it a lot, so I'm happy about that.

We took a bus to Carfax Tower in order to take our very first activity of the Rising Stars program: a tour through Oxford University. Although we were able to see other parts of the town as well and learn a little bit of Oxford's history.

During both our free time and lunch time, all my classmates and I gave ourselves the opportunity of visiting Westgate, which is pretty much like Oxford's main mall. This place was enormous and had a lot of great stores.

After lunch time, we had the opening ceremony for the Rising Stars program. In this ceremony, there was an introduction to every invited group/ school to this program -all of them from Mexico, by the way- and I had the opportunity of giving a little improvised speech introducing my own. That was amazing, though a bit hesitant.

After this ceremony, the organizers separated all the invited groups into two main groups and assigned both of these groups a group commander in order to take the first workshop. This first workshop, for me, played as an opportunity to meet both my classmates and group commander.

Interesting enough: most of my classmates are either normalistas (studying to become a teacher) or teachers; including my group commander who is an ESL teacher. We all got along pretty quickly, and I'm actually looking forward to learn a lot from all of them. I'm very excited for tomorrow's workshops.

-Aurelio:)

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I really enjoyed everyday that we went to the different university buildings, the difference between them and between the universities in my city. I was impressed by opening all doors with a code, felt very technological. My favorite building was the Oxford International School, it was close to everything, from the walk to Westgate, to various restarants, from local to popular chains.

We had these lessons everyday, even Saturday and Sunday, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and by this time it was already dark out and many stores were closing. Discovered that everything here operates on this schedule as well.

You might be thinking how hard the days seem, and I gotta admit they were awesome, every day we had fun, we learned, gave constructive feedback and felt so safe that no one was fearful of performing in front of the class.

I really care for my new friends from all over the country, the 9 days spent with them were some of the best of my life and I will forever treasure that.

Another thing I enjoyed was that everyday was something different, wether it was a diferent lesson, different exercise, different lunch place we went to or who we have lunch with. My favorite places were Sainsbury, the Covered Market and KFC.

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Every time we finished a workshop meant having to do/perform a challenge that allowed to demonstrate what you learned and how to use it in real life. Personally loved doing these, it was at this time were we would laugh the most and really brainstorm random ideas that were hilarious but also incredible.

Seeing our mentor´s reactions to our performances was also memorable, she was always rooting for everyone but you could see it in her face how she would cringe, as us, with some performances. We all felt it and we all did the same cause seriously, some of them went overboard.

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This is it, the day finally came, I got this.

This was going through my mind as I woke up on Sunday. The final challenge consist of doing an elaborate exercise of all you have learned with the workshops, you have to put to the test your numerous skills. And had only three hours to prepare the whole thing.

My final challenge was a court room scenario, in which I had to defend AI, and Aurelio had to prosecute it. We prepared three hours from this, I did and extra 30 mins cause I was so nervous I didnt even have lunch.

The firsts to perform were the other team, Protostars. They did a sales pitch, but they were selling a message of change and hope, not necessarily a product. They all did really well, gave compelling arguments and stood their ground.

I was reherseing my arguments all this time, I figured if I really knew my topic, I could improvise some arguments to better my case. I was trying to memorize my arguments, but by the time I went on that trial, it flew away from my mind.

I had to improvise and, turns out I did not do half bad. It just looked a little like nervousness but I sure look conviced, and I think I made the public believe everything I said. I am very proud of myself for doing this.

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We went for the first time in Valentine´s day, which I thought would be more romantic, but here it did not look like a big deal like back home. I think there was more people in the street because of this, although our tour guide told us that this is just regular London.

We travelled by train, so it was faster to get to London, and it was awesome cause we socialized for the whole ride, and have a nice time.

At the tour we went to all the famous historical places like the Buckingham palace, Big Ben, Westminster cathedral, Scott Street, and many more. Here we toured around the whole day, and you really cannot cover it all, time slips away easily.

Going back home, I was so tired that I slept our the way back. After this we got home and showered immediately, had dinner afterwards and went to sleep right after. We were exhausted.

The second day we went was on Monday, and we had free time to do what we pleased or go to another tour. Both options were fantastic, I chose to have free time and go with our teacher and 4 other mates to Camden Market. We ate at KFC, walked a little, bought souvenirs and go at our own pace, it was relaxing even, but so cold.

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Our last day together in Oxford we went to several museums, travelled separetely, some left at noon and we left at 5 p.m. and really just try to cover some more of the city while you still can.

By this time I was enjoying it still, but I really wanted to go home too. When it finally was the time I felt ready, my purpose was fulfilled and I was ready to go back home.

I really had a lovely time here, loved everyone, and everything. I was living for it. Everything was worth it and would do it over and over again. It blew my expectations like 3 times, was much more amazing than I imagined.

I was eager to go home, but also wanted to stay here forever, in this moment, happiness overflowing. But all good things come to an end, we treasure this moment for now and forever, the time we were Oxford University students for 9 days.

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In order to take the first workshops and activities of the day, we had to be in the Oxford International Study Centre (OISC) at 9:00am. Before starting our activities, I chatted a bit with my classmates and got to know them a litte bit better, which was nice.

In yesterday's session at pembroke, we talked a little bit about Creative Thinking, so, activities during this first part of the day were about that.

Something I like about my relationship with both my classmates and the group commander -our, should I say, OUR relationship as a group- is the fact that we're allowed to bring a bit of our culture during the activities. The fact that our group leader isn't mexican and doesn't undertands spanish really pushes me to seek other ways of explaining things that, for me, are common or just don't need explanation. I think this is great for getting out of my comfort zone.

During lunch, my group and I visited the Covered Market, which is such an iconic place in Oxford. It can be compared to what we call "mercaditos" in Mexico; but, way better. In this place, there is a good variety of stores, restaurants, cafés, etc. Even thought I didn't have lunch in here, I'm looking forward to try that place called "Pie Minister" in the Covered Market.

After lunch, and back to the OISC, we talked about the art of Persuassion. During this workshop, we had the opportunity of walking on the streets of Oxford one more time in order the explore the different things this city has to offer to international students and, in overall, to tourist and people interested to invest in this city. This was, of course, a part of our activities.

I don't have a lot to add here, just one more thing: a couldn't help but notice how well equiped the classrooms are. As a normalista (studying to become a teacher), I really love that.

-Aurelio:)

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This day, we went to the Oxford University Catholic Chaplaincy in order to take a masterclass on Motivation. The crowd, being made of both students and teachers, help the presentator took on motivation in the classroom, which was pretty interesting since I'm practically both. During this masterclass and the rest of the morning, we had the opportunity of working alongside the other main group, which was interesting.

For some reason, during this morning, I was feeling really shy and left behind and, in overall, just socially anxious. We all know it's not the same trying to joke around with strangers than actually trying to contribute to a class, and the fact all of these program requires us to use our second language added another lyer of difficulty; but, fortunately, I took it as a challenge and did my best the left that anxiety behind.

Particularly, the activities related to the art of improvisation helped me a lot, since the point behind this exercises was actually building self-confidence. They were so fun too.

After lunch, we went back to the OISC in oder to take other activities related to improvisation. During this activities, my classmates and I visited the Ashmolean Museum, a really beautiful museam located in Oxford. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time in order to see all expositions; but, it still was such a great experience.

Fun fact: the fire alarm actually went off while we were inside the museum. It was most-likely just a drill, but, still really scary. One way or another, it made the whole experience unforgettable.

-Aurelio:)

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Since the first moment, I was so excited and nervous. It was such a tiring trip, but the staff of Rising Stars were there to welcome us and take us to Oxford on february 10 where our adventure started.

Once there, we met our host family and we shared with them a bit of our culture.

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Honestly, I suffered a bit being on a plane for 9 hours, it was something that kept me very anxious and it was my first time flying for so long, something that gave me a bit of fear was that there was an area of turbulence that lifted me up just when I could fall asleep a bit.

Arriving in London it was all very different, they gathered us together with other students and took us to Oxford, a journey that lasted about 2 hours, when we arrived at the new meeting point, they separated us into groups and sent us to our host family. I could see how at night, it is very difficult to see as there are not many light poles concentrated in the street, I was a bit scared but I knew I was about to arrive at my temporary home.

They welcomed us warmly, let us settle in and gave us dinner while we chatted a bit about everything. Being the first day, I didn't feel very comfortable so I could hardly close my eyes, I think it's difficult to adapt to sleeping in a bed that isn't mine, but I hoped that the other days wouldn't be like that!

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Who are they? Will I be able to do it right?

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Who are they? Will I be able to do it right?

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The day before we were asked to meet at CarFax Tower at 9:45, as I mentioned before, I could hardly sleep so at 4 a.m. I was already getting ready and preparing everything to leave. I waited for my roomies and at 8:30 we left the house, took the bus and arrived just before the time they asked us to arrive. We met the other groups and were taken on a small tour of Oxford, it was quite interesting to learn more about the city, what great people come from it and what it has inspired. Soon after, we went to the opening ceremony and from there we split into two "big" groups, while Protostars were the younger ones, we were Supernova. In my first class I was scared, we got to know each other a bit, chatted a bit and laughed a lot, I was very excited to be able to work with everyone and get along.

At dinner, we were given the food from the previous day again but I didn't want to be rude and ate it all, I thought nothing bad would happen.

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I really thought it would be all right, but again I couldn't sleep and when I got up everything was worse, my body ached, I couldn't stand my head, every moment I felt like I was going to throw up and I couldn't keep it up anymore. I couldn't just leave everything, so I put it aside and left the house at 7:30, as soon as I arrived at school, the teacher Name was waiting for us to ask me about my health, after a while they attended to me and gave me medicine.

In the classes, everything was going well, it was a focus on creativity, we had to invent products and find a way to sell them, we were able to form teams but we also had the opportunity to participate individually, I was very sad but I gave my all to do well!

At the end of the classes, unfortunately, I got sick and I was absent to get better, my parents allowed me to eat something different or something that my stomach would recognise, so I sacrificed myself and bought a ramen🤓.

I hoped that feeling and pain would pass and that day would be the only one like that.

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Walk around Oxford’s streets felt like a dream or being in a movie, everything was so different from our hometown and I was curious about places and transportation, I can say that even the convenience store was amazing to me.

When I started spending more time with my group, I was feeling more and more comfortable. The tour through the city on february 11 were very interesting and there we met the Carfax Tower, that were our meeting spot for almost everything.

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I worked with the Supernova group from february 11 to 15, it was amazing and it helped me to get out of my comfort. Our teacher, Sharabe was so kind and she was there to help us anytime.

The lessons were so interesting, our schedule was from 8 am to 6 pm but it wasn't tiring at all, it was so funny.

All our challenges were surprise, and some of them were in teams. Work with other people that I didn't knew was an opportunity to socialize, and it helped me to learn how to listen to others and being able to have an open mind.

After every lesson and challenge we put a star in every spot to complete the constellation at the end of the program.

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On february 16, we had our final challenge, we had 4 hours to prepare ourselves, and there we applied everything we have learned: improvisation, persuation, creative thinking, etc.

I was so nervous and I thought I wouldn't going to do it well.

I was the second one of my group to present, and surprisingly to me, I did it great, my teacher was supporting me and also my classmates.

I'm glad that I presented something like that because I feel more confident after all.

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We went to London on february 14 and 17, that's something that excites me a lot to say.

London, to me, was a dream, no matter where I went, at any place I was happy.

We visited lots of places, but my favorite was Buckingham Palace.

I bought lots of things there, we walked a lot but it was amazing, as I said ay any place I was more than happy to be there.

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Day 2: Walking around Oxford and our first class :]

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Day 2: Walking around Oxford and our first class :]

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On our second day, we had an amazing tour around Oxford city center. We visited several iconic places and learned a bit about the citys history. We also had some free time to explore further and visit some of the most popular shopping areas.

In addition, we had our first class, which was about creative thinking and how to use it more effectively in English :].

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Day 3: Classes, classes and more classes :c

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Day 3: Classes, classes and more classes :c

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On our third day, we had several dynamic classes, including one titled “The Art of Persuasion” where we used English to “sell” an idea or deliver a speech.

We also had our first challenges, which are small tasks that require us to put everything we’ve learned into practice.

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Today, we had the opportunity to visit the Ashmolean Museum, and it was my first time in a “real” museum. It was truly impressive to see all the art and sculptures inside, and reading about them was fascinating. However, we also had a small moment of panic inside the museum.

Besides that, we had several improvisation classes where I had to overcome my fear and be spontaneous in front of a large audience. Fortunately, everything went well!

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Today, we had our first day in the great city of London, a beautiful place filled with museums and royalty. One of my biggest dreams finally came true.

We visited several iconic landmarks, such as Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, and the British Museum, among others. It was truly impressive to see how grand and majestic the city is.

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Today, we had a different kind of challenge: create a video about Oxford. There were several options, but my team and I chose to do a culinary journey, where we interviewed locals about food, prices, and the different types of cuisine available in Oxford. At first, I thought it would be a big challenge for me due to my confidence, but fortunately, everything turned out great.

We also attended a conference on how to navigate life in Oxford and build a successful career. It was really interesting, and I was able to take away some key lessons that I will keep with me.

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Today, we had our final challenge, where we took on the role of a lawyer and defended a topic in front of an audience. I think I did well, all things considered.

It was also our last day of classes, a day filled with both happiness and sadness. We had to say goodbye to our teacher, who was an incredible help throughout these days. I truly believe she embodies what it means to be a great teacher, and I owe everything I learned in Oxford to her.

We also had a small farewell ceremony, where we received certificates and a medal as founding members of this program.

As a final activity, we went on a tour around Oxford, exploring its urban legends about ghosts and more. It was a fascinating way to end this incredible experience.

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Today, we went to London once again and explored even more iconic sites in this amazing city. I had the opportunity to see Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, The Shard, Piccadilly Circus, and many other impressive places.

We also had some free time, during which we got to explore (and get lost in) the city freely.

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Today is, unfortunately, my last day in this beautiful country. We visited the Oxford Natural History Museum and even got a little lost in the streets, but it was a peaceful and memorable moment shared with my classmates, people I will always carry with me.

This has truly been one of the best experiences of my life, one that I will cherish forever.