Unidentified Network

Hi everyone!
I AM HERE! and safe. and moved in. Man it has been a crazy crazy first week here. We have hit the ground running 90 miles a minute and haven't stopped yet. This first week has been orientation so I'm sure once we start classes and have a set schedule, things will calm down alot.
Here is a brief recap of the highlights so far: (sorry this blog is probably going to be long, but i will try to be better about blogging more often!)
We arrived at 12:30 London time after flying all night (and trying to sleep although that was pretty much a fail). We lugged our suitcases up to our rooms, luckily I'm on the 3rd floor unlike many people who are on the 4th, 5th, and 6th floors! One of the main reasons I have had little internet contact is that my computer will not hook up to the wireless in the house! I have literally spent the last 3 days troubleshooting every possibility and nothing has succeeded thus far. I quickly found out how much i relied on my computer and (due partly to exhaustion) i was so frustrated and made everything seem worse and all i wanted to do was go home. How silly is that? But i did get some sleep and everything has seemed brighter since! Who cares about an unidentified network? We'll get it figured out. For now i will communicate through the ethernet cord in the office. My room is plenty big and i have a big window that overlooks the street and i can see the trees watch the people of Kensington walk by. It's great.
Our first full day here in London was busy from the start! I wont bore you with all the details but one of the best parts of the day was getting a walking tour with our neighbor Roger who took us around Kensington (which is much bigger than i thought!) Kensington is a gorgeous area. We went to Lord Leighton's house (he's a painter) and his entire foyer was covered in breathe-taking deep teal blue tiles from the far east. I wanted to jump into the wall and swim around. This man had collected thousands of tiles and when he renovated his house, the architect put them everywhere. It was a bit over the top but definitely created the wow factor. Mom you would have loved it! I almost got you a postcard, but there weren't any good ones. Interesting fact: they're painting all the phone booths black. This is a serious tragedy. What will London be without their red booths? Glad we're here to still see them their proper color. :)
Day 2: We had the special privilege of touring Buckingham Palace! They only allow outside guests to tour during August and September so we were very lucky! There are no words for how magnificent the inside of the palace was. Unfortunately we were not able to take pictures inside or i would show you! There was a original Rembrant painting in one of the rooms Mom, you would have liked it I'm sure! It is incredible the amount of detail, time, and money was spent on the royalty's home. They were all about making a good impression. ;) We then broke into teams and had a scavenger hunt! It was so much fun and a great way to get to know the city. For ours, we went to the British Museum, Covent Gardens, Leicester Square, and Trafalgar Square. One of the highlights was climbing the lions in Trafalgar. Let me tell you, it's harder to get up there than you think!

We also went on Drury lane. But sadly, there was no Muffin Man. Believe me, we looked! All the groups came back from their hunts and presented their pictures and the best group got a prize and we won! Yay for going to extra places, remembering what we learned at each place, and having good pics. It was great to see everyone's presentations because we got to see alot of other places that we wouldn't have seen that day otherwise.
Day 3 (today): we had a London Pass where a bunch of different attractions around London were free so again, running around crazy busy! We started off the day at the Tower of London with a hilarious tour guide, seeing the crown jewels, and seeing the Tower of London Bridge Exhibition. We also went to All Hallows, the oldest church in London! We then took a break for our first fish n' chips of the trip, which was of course great! We then traveled on to St. Pauls. And it doesn't matter how many times you've seen it before, it is just as fantastic each time. We then proceeded up the 600 odd steps to the top of the dome despite the protest of my legs and the view was worth the sore muscles. One of the men who works there humorously commented that "Only a man would build a building this tall and not put in an elevator." And again, we couldn't take pictures, but whoah. I could have spent the entire day just in there. Christopher Wren was a phenomenal architect and artist who deserves all the praise he receives. Do you know that he is actually buried inside St. Paul's, but only  with a simple plaque? Humility in the midst of his grand creation. The rest of the day was busy with lots of little stops. I love Covent Garden with the open air market, fresh food, live music, street performers, everything. One of the girls on our trip, Mary Evelyn dislocated her shoulder walking up the stairs at the Daniel House and was taken to the emergency room so it's been an eventful night as well. She is doing fine now and will be in a sling for a week or so.
And that about gets you up to speed on my time so far! I am so sorry for how long this is (and i didn't event tell you about everything!) I am definitely going to have to blog more often to get more details in! But yes. London is wonderful. I am going to love living here. It's still hard to wrap my brain around. I keep thinking i will be going home next week after a great vacation, but no, i'll be here! Tomorrow we are headed to Portabello Market  and who knows after that. Please continue to keep our group in your prayers.
If you had made it this far, thanks for reading all this! You're a trooper. I am so blessed by my great friends and family. I can feel the love from across the pond.
I'm headed to bed. I definitely need the sleep! I cannot wait for tomorrow, each new day is so full of amazing and new experiences. I don't think i will ever run out of things to do in this city...