Cheers from LONDON!!

The travel part was tiring, but fine- it's so nice to be here! Most of our group (there are 23 of us) lives in the second floor apartment of a house just across the street from Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, and just down the street from the Royal Albert Hall. It's a very old, narrow house, but it's got what seems to be a great kitchen, although I hear the stove top doesn't work at all. I share a large room and bathroom with three other girls.

Went to the grocery store today - Sainsbury's - which is sort of like a Fred Meyer, and the prices weren't too bad on most items. They even sell peanut butter, so I figure we're going to be okay food-wise.

Tom and I wandered around to find dinner tonight and settled on this cute Italian place where you could feel the tube rattling the floor and see the double-decker buses zooming around the street corner. We found two conveyor belt sushi restaurants that aren't that much more than what we pay in Portland, so Tom was thrilled. There are so many cute bakeries and restaurants- I can't wait to try them all! Most of them are foreign foods of some sort, especially Indian.

We have "Oyster" passes to the tube and bus system, and we used that for the first time tonight after dinner and took the tube one stop down to Harrods, the ultimate department store selling "anything legal." Unfortunately, it was closed, but it was beautifully lit up with lights. We walked back to our flat (we're doing SO much walking, it's crazy) which took us past the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, Imperial College and the Royal College of Music.

We picked up a brochure from the foyer of the Royal College of Music- there are some wonderful performances going on the next few months. Masterclasses on every instrument you can think of (except flute, go figure), instrumental competitions, and their orchestra is playing Beethoven's 7th, Shostakovitch's 4th, and Holst's The Planets. We're lucky to have this amazing institution literally right next door.

Well, that's all for now. We're headed out to the Imperial College pub to find the rest of the group.

Cheers!