Hello London!

As I expected, today was extremely long but SO exciting.  I can't believe I am sitting here in a different country across the ocean from where I was only earlier today.  It was wonderful spending the weekend with my parents and my grandparents in New Jersey.  We took the bus from Princeton into the city and then got off at Port Authority (what a beautiful day in New York it was, today, by the way!) and hopped on a bus to JFK airport where I waited several hours and boarded my plane on time, waited a little on the runway, and actually arrived a few minutes early to Heathrow in London!  Don't ask me how that is possible but it was great!  I met up with two other girls from PSU who were on my flight and are doing the same program as me (in different areas of interest for their internships) and found the sign for Arcadia after getting all our luggage when we landed in London.  The day seemed to work like clockwork...amazing.  Even the bus driver who seemed to fit through posts and cars just by inches got us safely to our house, where I am with about 30 others in my program.  I'm not sure if this is because of my level of driving skill (...) but it is not as odd as I expected to see cars driving on the "wrong" side of the road.  The craziest part is when you see a car coming with no one sitting in the "driver's seat!"  

I've grown to like where I'm living.  There are two other residential areas for people taking classes or doing the internship program through Arcadia.  At first I was disappointed that our housing seems to be in a quiet area, and that my first floor room looks straight out onto a Texaco station and a McDonald's, but after walking with my roommate Jamie from Maryland, we found that our area has a lot of character and it only takes a couple blocks to find the hustle and bustle of London...and we are the only housing group who can walk to our class at City University.  My roommate is an engineering major and it's great-- we both share a love of shopping and singing and the TV show "Greek," which we watched online while we set up our new electronics.  We were able to explore the area, called Angel (the name of the tube stop), buy cell phones, sheets, internet cables, and we even found some free hairdryers and straighteners in a tub in the hallway of our building to use!  And it turns out that the Texaco station has the most fabulous Lite Strawberry yogurt...and I'm not usually a yogurt person.  

After an orientation meeting with pizza and soda in the basement lounge of our house and some more errands on a walk guided by our "RA" Jose, me and five of my new friends decided to go to a nearby pub called the Eagle later on.  It was very chill inside and not too crowded.  We thought it was a good sign that it seemed to be all locals there.  The ironic and rather funny thing was that techno music occasionally played, despite the casual and quiet atmosphere.  Did I mention that what I love about London pubs is that they are all non-smoking?!  Anyway, we shared appetizers and I had the most fabulous Americano.  The bartender was surprised to hear someone ordering coffee at 9:30 at night, though!  It was a great way to spend my first night and I'm so glad I've made some great new fast friends.  It's funny how people are already splitting off into smaller groups even though we have barely been here a day!  The weather here is not gorgeous yet, but not bad...just kind of cloudy and in the fifties.  I'm a little tired, but I slept well on the plane after watching "27 Dresses," but I don't feel too jet-lagged.  I can't wait for orientation this week...I dont start my internship until next week, but have a meeting with whoever will be in charge of me at the Shaftesbury this week!  And we will be having introductory lectures and meetings, going to see a show called "39 steps" (supposed to be very good!) paid for by the program, and tomorrow we have a free night, so me and a couple of my new girlfriends including my roommate are going to try to go see Sex and the City the movie...hopefully at the Orion where it premiered!  I'm excited to see what the week has in store as I learn more and more about my newest city home!  More later!

~Sam~