July 7: Arriving in England!

After a long, but restful flight (slept almost the whole way), we arrived in London's Gatwick airport. Some of the other passengers were also coming over for the British Studies program so I knew I wasn't alone.

We were warmly greeted by one of our coordinators and ushered through the airport and onto buses. We were finally heading through the streets of London! The weather cooperated in setting the mood by being overcast and grey.

My first impression was of the architecture: so many beautiful old brick building mixed in with modern structures. Also, my first experience with riding on the left side of the road!

We were assigned our rooms: simple but functional. It's been a LONG time since I experienced dorm life! I have a beautiful view out of my window, however, of a preschool across the way. This is a very busy street, with all types of British folk hurrying back and forth in the morning and evening, probably to the nearby bus stop. After hours and on weekends, there are crowds of people going over to the White Hart, a small restaurant and pub down the street.

I was thrilled to finally meet some of my professors from USM. As an online student, they have been friendly names at the other end of chats and emails, so to meet Dr. Welsh and Ms. Wright was wonderful. They took us on a brief tour of the area to help us find the essentials: ATM's, the subway station (the Underground) at nearby Waterloo, and grocery stores.

It's been an eventful day---I'm tired but can't wait to begin my British adventure!

P.S. This is definitely a work in progress--my first blog experience. I am editing and re-editing before posting, so please ignore the sequence of posting dates.