Day One: Finally Here!

After months and months of planning and plotting, researching, whining and generally driving everyone nuts I am finally here in London! It’s hard to believe it, even though I am sitting here, looking out my window at the backwards traffic. It might be the fact that I haven’t slept in something like 32 hours but everything seems a bit surreal.
Took a redeye out of Dulles Monday night (I am still confused about what happens to those five hours I lost over the Atlantic) and arrived at Heathrow bright and early, 6:30 am. From the plane I could see the sun rising over London to illuminate Tower Bridge and Big Ben. This was a sharp contrast with the next six hours which were spent hanging around Heathrow waiting for the rest of my minicab group to arrive. Finally made it to my dorm around 1. Langton Close is in this quant little neighborhood within walking distance of King’s Cross Station and UCL. The best part is the lush little park that serves as it’s backyard.
That is the view from the kitchen of my hall. If you look in the center you can see these strange stones structures which sort of resemble graves. I went down to check it out but the writing had long been rubbed away so I couldn’t determine their purpose. I suspect they are graves and that my backyard is actually a cemetery. I’m already convinced my hall is haunted. All night I’ve been hearing this strange singing. It is almost certainly the wind but it makes me wish I wasn’t the only person to have already moved in! Oh and my room is on the fifth floor (which is actually the sixth floor). The elevators are out of service today so I got to lug my heavy, heavy suitcases up all these stairs ------>

Because after that my feet weren’t feeling nearly as sore as my arms were I went out exploring the neighborhood. Wandered around several cute parks, by Kings Cross Station and down to Russel Square. Stumbled upon an organic supermarket which would put Whole Foods to shame. Decided to stalk up on delicious British snack food. For some reason this won't let me post the picture of snack food. But I bought something called a “Meaty 6 pack” of crisps. It has bacon, chicken and lamb flavored potato chips! I can not for the life of my fathom why that does not exist in the United States. I also bought chocolate digestives (biscuits, not nearly as medicinal as they sound). I have already consumed an unhealthy amount of those. For breakfast tomorrow I’ve got something called Crunchy Nut Bars. Haven’t had one yet but the package claims that they are “ludicrously tasty” so I look forward to it!
On the agenda for tomorrow: Scoping out the UCL campus, possibly spending some time at the British Library which is high on my list of places to go. Also important is finding some way to get connected to the internet so I can post this!