They speak English here!

Cheers! 

After four cities, 3 flights, 2 train rides, kebabs, goulash, kilbasa, wurst, and lots and lots of public transportation, we have arrived in London! I'll write about my travels within the next few days once I have internet in my dorm room -- plus the stories aren't half as good without the photos to go with them.

We landed at gray, chilly London Luton Airport yesterday evening and made our way to Astor College. Our rooms are comparable to one of the singles in the high-rise quads, but we each have a sink and a mini-fridge too. I think mine is the smallest and it smells like a clogged sink right now, but I'm working on it. There is a bed, desk, chair, and closet... I have practically no clothing right now but when I get my big suitcase tomorrow, I have no idea where I'll put everything. The dorm is nothing exciting -- it's a dorm after all, but it's in a great location! We were starving last night and walked down the block to a packed pizza place (think Allegro's) where they have 11 inch pizzas for 3.50! Bottled water at a place like that is ridiculously overpriced -- 1.30 for a small bottle, when you can walk to the grocery store and get a 2L bottle for 36p! There are grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, and tons of coffee shops in the few blocks around our dorm that we've explored so far. (By the way,"we" is Andy, Sami, and me -- Michael was the 4th from our trip and he has gone off to Madrid for the semester. Formal introductions of the cast to come...). It's hard not to convert pounds to dollars, but it's really a useless endeavor because the prices are what they are. Instead, we just have think relative to other shops and restaurants in London, or else we won't want to buy anything! The dollar was doing much better against the pound but I think it's back up now because of what's going on with the banks at home (we're not completely out of touch -- Andy and Michael are in Wharton after all). It will be interesting to see the coverage of that for the next couple of weeks. 

We hit the hay early last night instead of going out -- 2 weeks of traveling is pretty exhausting and it certainly has caught up with us. This morning we begun the voyage for the necessities - hairdryers, extension cords, a few groceries, etc. There are tons of American students in our dorm - a bunch from Northwestern, and a girl from Brandeis right across the hall from me. Sami is in the room next door to me (yay!) and Andy is down the hall a bit more. Our rooms are at the very end of the hall - we counted six fire doors that we have to go through to get there. At least it should be quiet, though! Everyone seems friendly and looking to meet each other so far, just like freshman year of college. Today there is a check-in and formal welcome for international students, and tomorrow we meet with our academic departments to figure out classes. It's weird not really knowing what classes I'll be taking, let alone the type of work I'll need to do for them! 

These past 18 hours in London have been refreshing and comfortable -- everyone speaks English after all! They have everything here, and we actually understand what people are saying. What a relief. Moving from east to west for the 2 week trip was really interesting, and the cultural differences were apparent each step of the way. Now we're practically home compared to the other four cities!