First Day!

Hello all! I figured that since so many people might be interested in the goings-on of my trip, I would start a blog to keep family and friends updated! No promises on the entertainment value, but I'll do what I can, so here goes...

So, today was the first full day of my semester in London, and it's definitely surreal to be here! It's very strange to be talking to someone in the states at 11:30 local time and have them talking about going somewhere later in the night, so that will take some getting used to. It's odd that what makes up my morning will take place before most of the people back home are even awake! For anyone who doesn't know, London is 5 hours ahead of the east coast, but also, Great Britain doesn't use daylight savings time, so after the clocks in the use "fall back," we will be 6 hours ahead of everyone back home!

Today was just some basic orientation, but for the majority of us, it was also our first taste of getting around the city, and I have to say that I've personally found it to be a lot simpler than expected. Though it's not the NYC grid, there are maps all over the place telling you where you are and showing you what is in the immediate vicinity. Bus stops are also very helpful, as they not only have signs telling you the lines that service that particular station, but also tell you how to get to places you might want to go to. I think that the infrastructure that was put in place for the 2012 Olympics has made things a lot easier for foreigners to get around.

We don't have any plans for the rest of the week during the daytime, so we should have plenty of time to explore, and I'm hoping to hit some of the big touristy places this week to get them out of the way and start digging deeper into actually learning to live here! Hopefully, I will be able to update this regularly, and keep everyone in the loop about what I'm doing here!