And then there was internet....

January 7, 2011 I stepped onto the airport in Newark for my spring semester abroad. One month later, here I am, sitting in my London flat in Marble Arch on the West End. A month ago you could have asked me where abouts London I was going to be studying and I would have had no idea. Two weeks ago you could have asked me where I would be living, and again I would have had no idea. Now, a month after leaving the US and three weeks after arriving in London I feel like I've been here forever. I know which side of the street the cars drive on (left), which way to look first when crossing the street (right), and how to use tube without staring at the map like an obnoxious tourist (glad that stage is over...).

But before I start describing my time in London, let me rewind to 30 days ago when I stepped off the plane in Heathrow airport to my professor, Forbes Morlock. "Please, call me Forbes."

There are 25 of us gathered with our luggage eying each other suspiciously. Who's alone? Who knows someone else on the trip? Who else still needs roommates for London? Who will I be spending the next ten days with? Who wants to be my new best friend?

Fast forward to 3:30 in the afternoon when we arrive at the Nelson Monument on the top of Calton Hill. Although we arrived in London early in the morning it is only now, after running through the airport to catch the flight to Glasgow and taking a long bus ride, that we arrive in Edinburgh. Making a bunch of sleep deprived, dehydrated college students climb a steep and icy hill is probably not the best idea. But as we pull ourselves up the slippery path and then climb the winding stairs to the top of the Nelson Monument it's clearly worth it. If nothing else this first excursion enables us to break the ice with one another as we laugh at each other trying to dizzily climb the stairs and then later, going back to the bus, sliding down the frozen hill on our bottoms.

Nelson Monument from the bottom

Just one of the many gorgeous views from the top