This is my first blog entry that I'm writing from London, get excited. I'm writing it from the sitting area in my dorm which is quite empty right now but it is the only room that I have wireless in!

I arrived in London yesterday morning around 6 am from New York, and all of the Northeastern kids got to the airport about an hour after me, so I waited by baggage claim for them so I didn't have to venture to school alone. We took the tube to Holborn from the airport which turned out to be a lot faster and easier than we were told it would be. It did take us a while to figure out the ticket situation and how to buy them though, which must have been annoying for everyone else in the station that there were 20 college students in the way because we were lost and confused. We also took up an entire train car to ourselves because of the luggage we had which I'm positive pissed off a few locals.

We arrived at our dorm around 10 am but couldnt check in until 2, so we ditched our bags and went on our first walk around London and got some food. London is beautiful so far, but since I haven't seen any major landmarks or palaces or anything of the sort, it kind of just feels like I'm walking around an American city. It's a little disappointing but I'm SURE it will get better.

One of the biggest hassles of the day was trying to get a UK cell phone so that we can all contact each other while we're here. About 5 Northeastern kids and I went to this pharmacy because we saw prepaid phones in the front of the store, but for some reason it took us an hour to actually buy the phones. The people who worked there barely knew how the phones even work and it was frustrating, but I was desperate and bought the phone anyway. I "topped it up" with 20 pounds and received 300 free texts for doing so!

The rest of the day consisted of registration, orientation, and a walking tour of campus. The campus is small but I still can't remember how to get around. The buildings are all modern and really nice.

We finally were able to check in at 2 pm, which I did at 3 pm. The flats are much nicer than I pictured. There are 5 separate bedrooms in mine, then a room for the "WC" (loo!), shower, and kitchen. Our kitchen is huge and has new appliances, although I can't picture myself doing much cooking. I'm on the 10th floor so my view is awesome, I'll post the pictures later.

Afterwards, about 10 Northeasterners and I walked around the city and then got pasties for dinner. Apparently, they are a popular british food. It's kind of like a chicken pot pie in a to-go form, and there are dozens of varieties. It was cheap and yummy.

At night, there was a "welcome party" in the bar, which is conveniently located in the basement of our dorm. Everyone that was staying at my dorm went to it, so it was packed! I only drank one beer and called it a night though, because at that point I had been awake for about 32 hours and I just wanted to crash, which I did.

I had my first class in 6 months today, such a big change from co-op. I'm taking intro to marketing. It's a huge lecture class for 3 hours every day, and then a smaller class for 1 hour every day to discuss case studies from the lecture. I would say there are well over 100 students in my lecture, which is weird for me because at Northeastern my classes have never been over 40 students. Although I'm not a big fan of marketing, I enjoyed my class today because my professor is entertaining and makes the material more fun to learn. I haven't really noticed any differences between classes in the UK or US yet though, except for the size.

The transition to London from the US has been extremely easy. The only change thats affected me is the currency and using pounds instead of my debit card. There is no language barrier, obviously, and the culture is quite similar to that of the US'.

Now that I've finished writing this blog entry, I have no more excuses to avoiding starting my homework. I wish I was at the pub instead. Booo.

That is all,

Nicole