I survived the adventure of the Guildford, London Big Balloon Build, and boy was it a time warp ride! After a 7.5-hour direct flight to United Kingdom airport, I was totally jet-lagged and zombie-like from losing 5 hours of my life. Sadly, I was too sleepy to even ask for request my U.K. stamp on my passport at customs. After the travel from terminal 3 riding on the tram to meet up with the some of the other American balloon artists who traveled in on the same day.

Even though the journey was long, which consist of 1-hour bus ride from London to Guildford and a taxi ride to the Charterhouse, the end results were totally worth it! After fueling up with a typical U.K. breakfast, including baked beans (which took some getting used to), we kicked off the official start of our first day on Monday at 8:00AM until 5:00PM. This continued for the next 3 days but the end results were amazing. I made bonds with old friends and new friends. I fellowship in the form of Karaoke . A group of us decided to pretend to be the Motown Temptations singing Silent Night. I laughed so hard because we were the Temptation without the practice.

I was part of the Eastside Elf Ensemble, which was way more fun than I thought it would be. Although I wasn’t thrilled about dressing up as a little elf, once I put on the full costume, including elf ears, stockings, hat, apron, and elf boots, I was Hippopotamus Happy! (as my pastor states) Special thanks to my Team Lead Khadine, who bought our costumes. We even sang a song, which you can watch in the epic time-lapse video of the Guildford, London Big Balloon Build. Trust me; it’s worth a watch!

So, are you ready to see the magic unfold? Click the video below to enjoy the epic time-lapse video capturing over 26 hours of hard labor and the transformation from an empty canvas space of the first day thru the end of the 4th day to a colorful wonderland!