LOOK LEFT, LOOK RIGHT... The cars might as well be coming from the sky

Hello all! I've finally begun this to catch you all up on what I'm doing here across the pond. So far things have been going very well over here. I live on Lexham Gardens in South Kensington; it's a beautiful street, full of families and young people.

Although I really like the city so far, there are a few things that I haven't adjusted to yet. Number one amongst these things would have to be the cars driving on the wrong side of the road... I can't get used to it. I have to second guess myself every time I cross the street, so I don't get run over. Fortunately, the English do realize that most people aren't used to this, and have painted LOOK LEFT, and LOOK RIGHT on most curbs before you step into the street. I also haven't gotten accustomed to knowing that I am being filmed all the time. During orientation one of our lecturers told us that we are, on average, filmed about 300 times a day and that there is roughly one camera for every nine people, whereas in the US there is one camera for about every 100 people. There are cameras everywhere and while it definitely is a great thing for safety, it is also a little bit too Big Brother for me.

The people here have been very friendly. BU has an affiliation of some sort with a local science and engineering college, Imperial College, similar to MIT. Imperial invites BU students to its on-campus pub and to many of their student nights. It's a fun place, and it's nice to get to meet British students. Also the beer is cheap, only a pound sixty for a pint of Blackthorn cider (Sorry, JD. It's delicious, boys; don't judge me!), so we like to stop by there for a pint or two.

London is absolutely beautiful! The architecture here is a great mix between modern and classic. Today I went to the Tower of London with my friend Darah, and from the Tower Bridge you could see the tower and many other old buildings set against the modern backdrop of London. Unfortunately I have no pictures to show you right now, because I brilliantly left my camera at home. Hopefully it will be here soon, so I can share with all of you.

The Tower of London was amazing. The Beefeaters give tours of the grounds every 3o minutes, and it was really an entertaining afternoon. The Beefeaters actually live on the premises, which would seem very cool, except the Tower Gates are locked at 10 pm every night. As our Beefeater told us, this is very convenient for raising a teenage daughter (I'm glad you never got that idea, Dad). The crown jewels were stunning-- almost too much to take in at once. When you're looking at them it is so hard to believe that all that bling is real, but then you see the enormous vault doors at the entrance and exit, and it starts to sink in how precious the collection is.

After Darah and I visited the Tower of London, we walked across the Tower Bridge and explored around the other side of the Thames. We had a traditional English dinner of fish and chips and real English ale, which was actually delicious! I hope that everyone back home is doing well and surviving the cold... it was a sunny, warm day with temperatures in the 50s over here!