I’ve made it to London in one piece and with no complications, no sleep, and a wonderfully fortuitous upgrade to business class on my flight. It’s been five days and I am already completely enamored by this city.

My flight was quiet and comfortable, and I was even lucky enough to be seated next to an intriguing British man who resembled Chris Martin and drank lots of gin and tonics. And they gave us such fancy food!

When I landed in London at 7am on the 5th, Ariel and I (a girl from PSU who was on my flight) found the man who was driving us to the hotel pretty easily, and from there we were out on the streets of the city we were to be spending the next five months exploring. Thank goodness for the driver, because my overweight suitcases and massive duffle bag were NOT easy to maneuver, and I don’t think I would have been able to pull them through the underground stations alone. As soon as we reached the hotel, we dropped our ridiculously heavy bags down and passed out… for 6 hours. Not the best idea, because jetlag is a REAL thing and since then and it’s been hard falling asleep at night. I’m sure that’ll go away soon, though.

I’ve been spending the last few days getting to know the people on my program- they’re from all across America and I’m living with lots of them in my “flat”! We’re all getting along so well so far, I’m so happy!! There are 16 people total- 4 boys and 12 girls, and all of the boys have significant others. How coincidental is that?! PLUS, two of the boys on the program are dating two of the girls on the program! So much love.

We’ve been slammed with lots of information about transportation, classes, and other cultural stuff for the past few days of orientation, and now it feels like we’re actually settling into our own spaces in London. Since Thursday, we’ve eaten at lots of great restaurants (paid for by our study abroad program ), ridden on a tourist-y bus tour around the city and boat cruise down the River Thames, shopped at the British version of Walmart, laughed at an improv-style comedy club, drank cider and beer at pubs, and discovered a lot in general about London and how things work over here.

Today was a big independent day for me: I took the tube into central London alone! The tube is a lot easier than the map makes it look, and I was able to get on, transfer trains, and get to where I needed to be for an advising appointment on time. My classes for the semester are so wonderfully British and interesting that now I’m even kind of excited for school to start next week! One class I’m taking, called “Art and Society”, is all about the art and history of London, and each Thursday we’ll go out on little excursions to see secret parts of the city that many people miss out on. AND my classes only meet once a week and I don’t have any class on Wednesday or Friday! Life is good.

I feel so fortunate to be able to study and live in this amazing city. This post was just a general catch up entry, and hopefully I’ll be writing a lot more in the next few weeks. Cheers!

Location: London