day one

This is 27 Palace Court, where I'll be living for the next few months.

I wasn't completely convinced up until today, but it turns out that jet lag is a completely real phenomenon.  I know because right now I feel like a zombie.  But I'm finally in London!  After several delays and a lost passport (luckily not mine, and the owner will be joining us here in London soon) we finally arrived at Heathrow this morning.  Customs wasn't as bad as I was expecting and we only had to wait two and a half hours for the bus that was supposed to pick us up right when we got there (we were instructed to find the “coach marshall” but since none of us knew what that actually meant and apparently neither did the airport officials, it took a while).

It's really nice except that it has a million floors. Actually there's only six, but for some reason there's like two flights of stairs between each floor so by the time you reach floor number four (where my room is), it feels like you probably climbed the equivalent of the Eiffel Tower. At least I'll be in good shape here.  Here are a few pictures of the Centre.

The entry way

The dining room

The sitting room

The classroom

My bedroom

The view from the window. You probably can't tell in this picture, but all those cars are parked, not moving.  I guess people just park in the middle of the road around here.

To keep us awake, my professor took us on a walking tour of our new neighborhood. I took plenty of pictures, but the internet in the Centre isn't great so I'm only posting a few.

This is Embassy Row.  It's across the street from us and it's where lots of ambassadors live.

In The Da Vinci Code, this is the headquarters of the London chapter of Opus Dei.  I hope no weird monks actually live there because it's right around the corner.

The epitome of British-ness.

Portobello Road

And of course our street, Palace Court.

Tonight we're heading off to see a question and answer type session from Ralph Fiennes. Apparently he's a Shakespearian actor, but you might know him better for this role.  I hope he doesn't get offended if forty people in the audience sleep through his entire forum.  

Update: our professor still said we were bobbing like drunk sailors.  Poor Ralph.