So, I'm in London.

You'll have to forgive me if this post rambles a bit or seems a little disjointed... I'm still a little jet-lagged (note to self: alcohol is not a cure for jet lag, in fact it makes it worse). I have a lot of impressions about London and they're all mixed up and jumbled in my head, so I'll try and make things make as much sense as possible.

First of all, I want to reassure all of you that both my flights (Cleveland-Boston and Boston-London) were completely uneventful and even managed to depart on time. I also want to state for the record that in the future, when flying back and forth to the UK, I will always, always fly Virgin Atlantic. That is the nicest flight experience I have ever had, by far... there are little screens in each seat back where you can play video games, watch TV, watch movies, and listen to music, and the seats are comfy. I had three seats to myself so I even managed to stretch out and sleep a little. Also, when did airline food become not even edible, but good? Virgin's food service beats the pants off everything I've ever had before (helped along by the fact that they hire lots of adorable British boys to be their flight attendants).

I got into Heathrow about 7 AM London time, waited around till 9:30 for the rest of the West Hampstead group (British customs surprised me... they gave me less hassle there than they do at the Canadian border, and those of you who have traveled cross-border with me know that's saying quite a lot), and arrived at the West Hampstead flat around 10-something. Here's where things get mixed up, because at that point I was about ready to collapse and/or eat, but I had to unpack and go grocery shopping with the rest of the group.

The flat is two floors above a newsagent's shop, and from my window I have a lovely scene of London street life, double-decker buses and all. There are tons of little shops and cafes on our street, it's a short walk to the tube station, and everything I could possibly want is right nearby. The downsides are that the flat is kind of a dump (the girls next door not only have to share a room, they have to share a bed, but we're working on fixing that), and that the travel time to anywhere in London takes longer than you think. I've walked more in the last three days than I probably ever have in my life. On the plus side, the trip coordinators said that people always lose weight from all the walking around. This is a good thing, in my opinion.

All the people I'm living with are great. There are three other girls (Emma, Julie, and Kirsti), and four guys (Jeff, Geoff, Derek, and Cam). They're all fun, and they all like to have a good time. Most if not all of us are probably heading to Amsterdam two weekends from now, and tonight we're going to a Canadian bar near Trafalgar Square to watch Canada play in the quarterfinals of the hockey World Cup. Should be fun.

We had our introductory lecture today, met most of the teachers, went over our course schedule, and learned a bit about Hoxton Hall, the oldest music hall in Britain. Tomorrow we have a concert at the Purcell Room on the South Bank for our music course, then next week the normal class schedule starts up. I'm not sure how much work it's going to be just yet, but it's going to be a fun semester.

I don't have a lot to report about the touristy sights of London yet, because Monday I got settled in, Tuesday I was jet-lagged and hung over and only managed to stumble down the street to the library to use the Internet, and today I didn't hear my alarm clock and woke up ten minutes before we had to leave for class. I think Emma and Julie and I are going out to do touristy things in a little while, though, so I'm excited to get my first sights of London beyond our neighbourhood and where we had our class today.

I'm still working on getting a phone hooked up in our flat, so as soon as I have a number I'll let you know what it is.