Howdy Fellow York & A&M Enthusiasts,
The morning began gracefully around 7:30 for the group as we scrambled around rooms attempting to get everyone ready for the day. After a hearty breakfast, we headed for the famous university classroom for some heartfelt discussions about imposter syndrome, a common problem it seems for the average college student.
From it, many of us learned we have at least a few symptoms of it in our lives, but thankfully we were educated on healthy ways of validating ourselves! There were certainly many imposters among us, but we were able to weed out some subtle feelings that resided within us, allowing to reveal our true, beautiful personalities. In a confusing yet educationally orchestrated game of blackout bingo, Arjun stood above the rest as the valiant winner. With his story cards and dice in hand, it seems that he may never be short of good story ever again. Although possible feelings of resentment arose from falling short in the great bingo race, we headed to the buses and were immediately greeted by Sarah, our passionate Yorkshire tour guide. As we silently shuffled between seats, the comfortable, padded material stood out as a pleasant contrast to the hard, vinyl seats of the past. Some of us drifted in and out of sleep as our passionate tour guide explained the golden fields we saw past our windows, while others listened intently with their phones readily in hand to snag the next quick pic.
As soon as we entered the garden there, beautiful, well-kept vegetation met our eyes, along with several bugs buzzing around us. It was almost as if we had entered another planet. Green fields stretched across the horizon of view and the isolated mansion seemed larger-than-life.
However, as a small group of adventurers traveled to the outer walls, they found something that made the mansion falter in comparison. In fact, a statue with an incredibly interesting and incongruous figure certainly “took the cake.”
A short while later, after taking pictures with the rival mascot of a school that shall not be named, we boarded the bus and headed towards Malton, the self proclaimed “food capital of Yorkshire.” Employees of the deli took a particular interest in our group that ventured all the way from Texas. After speaking about whether they planned to visit the states one day, we bought a 3 for $2 potato deal to experiment with cooking in the dorm.
A few of the others also went on a challenging 2-mile run in order to get our steps in during our time away from home. Thankfully, the temperatures were only in the 60s unlike the 100+ degree weather many of us are accustomed to back home in Texas. Some people took a journey to the National Railway Museum and observed several trains ranging from the 18th center to the most modern high-speed bulling ones, including the Eurostar, which allows travelers to seamlessly move between 6 countries in Europe. They also saw a miniature train exhibit with several little motorized trains that could go into tunnels and come out the other end. You could even change their path which was very interesting to visualize. In addition, the whole exhibit was located in a warehouse and was very easy to navigate. The museum did close at 5, but they saw enough and took enough pictures to have a jolly good time!
To cap off the day, a dramatic stage was set at the Rowntree Park tennis courts. With Gavin’s tweeners holding parallels to the graceful lobs of Alcaraz and Tejas’ consistent play showing similarities to Djokovic, a clash of rivals began like nothing else. In a tightly contested, Wimbledon-esque match, Tejas managed to closely edge out the lead. However, they both fell into the trap of being late to dinner, running through the streets and taking a few wrong turns.
Greetings from Yorkshire 🫡,
Tejas & Dylan 
