Live from London!

I'd ambitiously hoped to begin this blog the day I arrived, but the past 72 hours have been a such blur of sleep and rain and travel plug adapters that this obviously did not happen.  But finally I have the time and the ethernet to report home!
After meeting Jessie and Rachel L. at Heathrow baggage claim, we set off like Hillary and Norgay except with more luggage and less idea as to how we'd get to our destination.  We decided to use the Tube, which in retrospect may not have been the best idea, as the billion staircases (± 5) proved formidable for three small girls and six 50+ lb bags.  But make it we did, with lots of help from British passerby who we found to be extremely polite and helpful.  One said we were like "little soldiers" with our system of dividing the labor to get all the suitcases up the stairs.  We weren't 100% sure what to make of this, but decided to take it as a positive remark and anyway, he helped us out, too.  We were so tired at that point, he probably could have called us a whole number of terrible things and we wouldn't have cared, so long as he lent a hand.  We're all pretty sore from the excursion (lesson learned: taxi next time), but the Miracle Ball Method and I are working out the kinks, so I look forward to assuming a position other than horizontal again soon.
My room is Lilliputian, but could be optimistically considered cozy.  I especially like the part where I can sit on the side of my bed and be working at my desk - no chair required! The edge of the bed barely misses the door, when opened.  The showers are fascinating - you push the faucet on just like you would a public sink, and it runs water for about 10 seconds, then you have to push it again.  I think this is an attempt to conserve water, perhaps to make up for the fact that they don't recycle here (a shocking revelation), but I'm not totally convinced it's working.
We met up with our Affiliate Tutor, Paola, on Wednesday and she showed us around campus.  It is really beautiful - as is the rest of Bloomsbury - with a neat juxtaposition of old Gothic and Ikea chic architecture.  At the International Students Orientation held the following day, the speaker called out countries and had people raise their hands to show nationality.  There was generally an equal spattering of folks from each country, but it was interesting to note that absolutely no one was from France (which the speaker concluded must be due to its great distance from Britain) and over half were from the U.S.  None of us expected that.
Many of the Pomona students met up at a pub for dinner (yes, Mom, just for dinner), where I had my first fish and chips (the mashed peas initially looked disconcerting, but overall, it was good) and watched "football" with a bunch of Brits.  Now, watching American football in the Course family household is a pretty exciting experience, and pretty hard to outdo.  The absence of my mom yelling at players to stop running up the middle of the field was hard to overcome, but the twenty-something-year-old Brits definitely gave it their best. It was a lot of fun.
Next time: more pictures and less writing!