London!

I'm here! London is cool. Kew is way cute. Things are good.

My transatlantic flight was uneventful. I sat beside and chatting with a Canadian PhD student in engineering at Cambridge University. So that was nice. But we didn't get to sleep much on the plane because we kept getting fed! Seriously, people: big sandwich at midnight and then enormous breakfast at 4:30am (Toronto time). With drinks a few times. I was so stuffed when I got off the plane that I didn't eat anything until I had a snack at 7:30pm London time. (So, 9 hours later.)

Heathrow was not a problem, especially after I changed out of my winter gear. It is MUCH warmer here than in Toronto. I got bad advice from the information counter at the airport, but no biggie. I ended up walking around part of downtown London for a few hours, taking in the sights, etc. Oh, and taking the underground, so I'm totally ok with that now. My adventures ended at the American Express office on Kensington High Street, after which I headed out to Kew to check out the archives before I could go to my new (temporary) home.

After settling in and taking a shower (which felt really good!), I walked to the village to get provisions (read: food). This is a really nice little area. I went to sleep at 8pm figuring I might sleep through the night, but no such luck. Six hours later I was awake again, but that's ok. And . . . I have internet here! Now all I have to do is get over this jetlag.

In the morning (once the sun comes up) I have an appointment at the British Red Cross archives, which is in downtown London. Wish me luck! And let's hope the snow stops in Toronto and the rain stops here. Best to everyone back in North America.

P.S. At the suggestion of TC I added a counter. He seems to think that the site get a lot of hits . . . but he will soon find out the truth! Also, the counter is ugly . . . hmm. Whatev.