London.

This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea...

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

- Shakespeare, Richard III

London is truly an incredible city. I've been here only a week, and I already know that three months is about ten years too short a time to stay here. But I'm trying to make the most of every single moment I have! When I arrived last Saturday and met with Tessa, my friend from Whitman, the first thing we did (after sleeping, of course) was get to know the Tube system and explore the city. We visited St. James' Park, Buckingham Palace, the Spencer Museum (a beautiful old house full of gilt and fine artwork and rich upholstery), Westminster, and Parliament. The next day the agenda included Hyde Park and a tour of the neighborhood. All of it was almost unreal: there really are double decker buses, red telephone booths actually exist, and some people really do always speak with a British accent. I've been to London before, so it wasn't quite as magical, but Tessa was like a kid at Christmas.

Not all of this past week has been touristy, though. After an epic journey via the Tube from our hostel in North London to Tessa's residence in South Kensington, we got to meet the other students on the IES London program. There are four students at UCL and eight at City University who came through IES. The four of us at UCL live in the same residence hall (though not in the same flat), about a twenty minute walk to school. Even though classes don't start until Monday 5 Oct, we go to campus almost every day for orientation activities.

They are so good to us international students! There are 6000 of us - study abroad students and masters/PhD together. The school and the Union host social events; give talks on living in London, studying at UCL, and adapting to life in a new place; and have about five trillion faculty and student tutors assigned to assist us in anything we might need.

I will have no trouble being happy here.