The first day

(Journal paraphrase from last night)

I’m in my cozy (meaning very small) room at the Highbury Centre (http://www.thehighburycenter.org/ ). It's like a maze in here—twisting corridors, several flights of steps spread throughout—and it’s huge. I haven’t gotten lost yet, although I haven’t fully explored yet either.

Back to the plane ride—we had to circle over the airport several times because of a delay. We descended very slowly. Once on the ground, we had to wait for an available gate. Finally off the plane, we waited in line at customs. After getting through we met the two professors and then waited for no-one-knew-what. It seemed we were destined to be continually waiting. At last, though, we boarded the bus and were off through London.
It was so cool—the old buildings, the green grass, the double-decker red buses, the telephone booths, the British phrases on signs. The drive did last a while, though, so it was nice to finally make it to the Highbury Centre.

I unpacked somewhat, then we all met for a trip to the ATM and to get some lunch. We walked, and although it was warm compared to PA and Houghton right now, it was windy and felt pretty cold. I got some money and a sausage roll, pastry crust with sausage inside. I was really hungry, and it was really good. After a little wandering into stores, we walked back to the HC through a light English drizzle.

Wireless doesn’t work in my room, so I ended up in the lounge, trying to make it work there on my laptop. That took a while, but finally it did. Those of us who were there played Spoons to keep ourselves awake, and it helped.

For dinner we had some sort of soup, shepherd’s pie, and an apple pie-custard dessert. It was good.

My head's been feeling weird all day, and now I feel like I'm wilting. Time for bed.