With love from London

Hello all! So I'm here. In London. And I'm loving it. It is absolutely lovely. The weather is gorgeous, the area is beautiful, and the people are....well they are friendly to say the very least. When I flew in I stayed at my mom's friend's brother's place. yah I know...take a second to make the connection. I haven't seen them in years but they were so sweet and took such good care of me. Their two sons also tried to make sure I was completely comfortable. They are trying to make plans to take me and my friends out to show us the town...and the Indian scene...in London soon. So after staying with them the night, I moved into my dorm.

The crofton. My home for the next 12 weeks. It is absolutely lovely. It is a 2 second walk from hyde park, where I can go run when I find the time, and I intend to. It is a very near walk to shopping (which I am trying to stay as far away from as possible) and groceries, which is nice. We can walk into central london, and we are a quick bus stop from picadilly circuis, which I'm not sure what it is, but I was told to go there. So thus far, I have hung out with my roomate, the two girls who live directly above us, the girls I share a kitchen with, and my RA, who is this tiny sweet girl who seems to just want to make us all happy. Funny side note: Tom is in london... he lived in my freshman year house at Boston University and I had NO idea he was going to be in london for the program. As i was moving in I saw him and went up to say hi. It was a very nice surprise to have someone I know pretty well be here.

After moving in we did a walking tour of the area after which we met with our kitchen mates to set some groundrules down. Then we went grocery and dorm shopping :) I am so excited to have a kitchen where we can cook our own food and just relax. Should be a very nice experience. After grocery shopping and such, we all went out for dinner at the "building arms pub," which was fun. We ate, relaxed, got to meet other people in the program. I'm pretty happy with the people I have met thus far but definitely excited to meet more and I can't WAIT until pratik and the rest of the group gets here...haven't found trish or antoinette yet...keeping an eye out.

So far thats it...pretty tired now so gnite.

Radhi