I'm finally in London!

...though my arrival wasn't as pleasant as I expected it to be.

Our plane was delayed for 2 hours last night, so we arrived in London later than expected and were in quite a bit of a rush once we got here. The tube ride from Heathrow to Regent's College was pretty miserable with all of our luggage - the treck took more than an hour on a hot and crowded underground system.

Regent's College is in a good location, but I'm rather disappointed with the facilities. When I moved into my dorm room it clearly had not been cleaned - there was hair and dirt all in the crumpled sheets, as if a dirty shedding person had just rolled out of the bed, and the trash cans had not been emptied from the previous tenants. The showers are missing shower curtains and I'm afraid to even touch the walls in the bathroom. It was pretty disgusting. I complained about the sheets at the front desk and got them changed, but the comforter is still stained and the bathrooms are still nasty. In addition to it all, my swipe card (that I need to get in and out of ALL the College's buildings) is tempermental and often leaves me locked out (or in!). Needless to say, I am less than pleased with my living space here.

Fortunately, it's not all bad across the pond. I've been meeting the people in my program, and they all seem very friendly. The whole group had a picinic for dinner in Regent's Park which was pleasant. Afterwards Whitney and Janet and I went on an aimless stroll around the block to check out our surroundings. We came across a couple of big red phone booths and took advantage of a photo op. I think we're going to do well in our future travels together, since we are all shameless tourists who love taking pictures and hitting all the "must see" spots, without being afraid to get a little lost and roll with what comes along.

On our way back to the college from our walk, we ran into some other people from our group and were talked into joining them at a pub up the street called The Volunteer. I had a delicious strawberry flavored beer that I've never seen in the US. In the words of Jon Readey: "It's like a strawberry daquiri in beer format."

I'm super-excited about our plans for tomorrow! We'll be going to an orientation in the morning and then doing a bunch of sight-seeing around the city. I might even get to go see Les Miserables tomorrow night!