Greetings From Kensington!

Pictures: Elephant artwork in Leicester Square, our lovely room, market in Camden, the beige building is the place where our classes will be, bottom white building is our flat.

I'm finally here! After a long and painful 10 hour flight, 40 minute tube ride, and confusing walk me and Ryan made it to our flat.

I'm never ever going to take a red eye flight again. We left at 9:20 P.M. out of LAX and didn't sleep a wink of our 10 hour flight. When we got to London it was about 4 in the afternoon, sowe couldn't just crash like we desperately wanted to. It was ridiculously uncomfortable, and we were right in the middle of an obnoxious French family who took the liberty of talking loudly over us in French for a large portion of the flight. The food was disgusting, but the company was nice. Ryan and I had some great conversations, and pretty much kept each other sane the entire time. The tube was surprisingly easy to navigate, but when we got off we were completely disoriented and started walking in completely the wrong direction. It was hot and sunny when we got there, which is surprising for London weather. We realized we were going the wrong way and finally found a street sign.

We walked past our house twice, but the 3rd time we walked past it we saw our entire clan of Cal Poly kids out in front who flagged us down and directed us to the right place. Our flat is right next to the Dutch Consulate and across the street from Hyde Park. The other students were about to leave for a tour of the area, so me and Ryan dropped off our bags and joined in. I was so exhausted I thought I was going to fall asleep on the tour. We got our keys and I was relieved to find that I am in a 4 person room with some of my closest friends Ashleigh, Tia, and Jill. Our room is actually quite spacious and really pleasant to live in. We have 2 bunks, 4 closet units, and a bathroom to ourselves. The communal kitchen in our flat is small but fully equipped and really nice. We have great wireless internet here, which is awesome to have, so I can check my emails often.

We went to the grocery store "Sainsbury" and bought some groceries, which, by the way, is really confusing when you're delirious. I bought some basic things like fruit, bread, peanut butter, etc. and then we walked back to our flat. We took some time to get situated in our room and then went out to dinner at a restaurant called "Wagamama" which is essentially a noodle joint. I was starving and had been living off nasty plane food, so I inhaled my shrimp noodle bowl. It was delicious! We went back, hit the showers, and called it a night. What a LONG first day!

Today was really fun. We started the day with an orientation which was WAY too long, but we got some good information about the area and the culture and our classes, which unfortunately start on Monday. We start at 9 and get done at 2 everyday so our schedule shouldn't be too stressful. After our meetings we got some much needed coffee to try to fight off our jet lag and headed back to the flat to get ready for the day. We decided to take the tube (using our recently acquired Oyster cards) to Camden. Camden is unbelievably cool- there are such unique people there. There was a massive, and I mean MASSIVE outdoor market with tons of food from all over the world and clothing shops everywhere. Camden is where the punk movement in London started, so it was interesting to see this theme reflected in the local shops and the style of the area. We shopped around and ate some pretty delicious food. They had every kind of food you could imagine- Greek, Chinese, Swiss, "American" (which looked like nasty Philly cheese steaks), "Mexican" (which looked questionable)... you name it. The shops were really interesting too. They had vintage stores, and leather shops, and all sorts of little stands with tourist looking gifts and nick knacks. It was a really fun time.

After that we went to the Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus areas. Leicester Square is like the Broadway of London. There were tons of advertisements for musicals and plays, and there were move theaters on every corner. There was even a show in the park for free that we might go back and see if we have time. We didn't spend much time there, but I have no doubt that we'll go back.

We weren't in Piccadilly long either, but we walked through the streets until it started to rain and then we headed back. There were these really interesting elephant statues lining the streets to raise awareness for an endangered species in Eastern Asia that people turned into works of art. They were really interesting and creative- I took a few pictures of them.

Later tonight we're going to watch the UK Algeria game at the pub on the corner, and I'm really excited to be a part of that environment. Tomorrow we're going on sight seeing tours of London, which I'm also excited for because I haven't seen Big Ben or any of the really touristy sights yet.

I'm having a lot of fun and live in a very safe part of London, so everything should go smoothly for the rest of my stay here. I'll try to update as much as possible, but that's all for this time!

Cheerio!