Welcome! FIRST DAY!

Hello everyone!
So here you have it: my study abroad blog! Today is my first full day in London. It's only 10:45am here, but because of my jetlag it feels like the afternoon. I don't really have much to update on because I haven't left my dorm yet today, but to get in the habit of blogging I'll fill you in on what's happened so far.

Travelling:
At the airport in San Francisco everything went smoothly except for one small detail: my bag was 11lbs overweight. Not a big deal, right? I figured I'd just pay the fee. Wrong. The fee for an overweight international bag is $350! My parents and I frantically took out about 14lbs of clothes and put them in a plastic bag to check. When I got on the plane, I was slightly disappointed to see that I was not in a window seat like I had been told, but a middle seat in the middle section. Luckily, I ended up sitting next to a girl named Anne from Sunnyvale (for you AZers, that's a city literally right next to my hometown) who had graduated from the Art Institute in San Francisco, so we got along easily and kept each other entertained for the part of the flight that we weren't attempting (and completely failing) at sleep.
The ten hours went by fairly quickly, but I was exhausted by the time we landed because I couldn't sleep on the plane. We landed around 1:30pm London time, which is about 5:30am Pacific time. Anne and I went through immigration and got our bags without a hitch. Her friend who she was visiting met us and guided us to the tube and got me an Oyster card for traveling. It was really useful to have someone who was from the area help me out with the tube, otherwise I probably would have done something wrong. We all exchanged information and are planning on meeting up at some point during Anne's stay--possibly my birthday, which is Tuesday. I got off the tube at Victoria station and realized there was no elevator, and I that I would have to carry a 61lb bag up two flights of stairs. Luckily a nice gentleman helped me out with that. I then took a taxi to my dorm (called Wigram) which was only a few blocks away from the station. I checked in and immediately laid on my bed and was determined to stay awake until my parents called me. They finally called around 4pm. Despite what everyone told me to do, I couldn't help but fall asleep. I kept falling asleep and waking up about every hour for 4 hours or so. Around 9pm it seemed reasonable to go to bed for the night. I woke up at 1am and have been awake ever since (if you scroll up you'll remember it's now almost 11am, but feels like 5pm to me). I am definitely going to be feeling the jetlag for a few days.

My dorm:
As I mentioned before, my dorm is called Wigram and it's located in the Victoria area, which is very central and close to a lot of wonderful things which I will describe later as I encounter them. It reminds me of my dorm from freshman year at the UA because of its tiny quarters and incredibly uncomfortable bed, although compared to Coronado it is MUCH less eventful. The rooms are situated in a way that makes it hard to socialize. I can't even tell if anyone else is here right now and it's very quiet. Regardless, I doubt I'll have a problem making friends. The social programme I'm signed up for has its first meet and greet event in a few hours so I'll be sure to meet everyone there. I'm especially looking forward to meeting the other UA kids.

Observations:
In my limited time here, I have noticed a few things. The weather is similar to San Francisco in that it is chilly and overcast, but not "bad". On a nice day (like yesterday when I landed) it was cool and sunny with partial clouds, but I hear it can rain at the drop of a hat. People dress in a much more trendy fashion here. I already miss t-shirts and flip flops. I am surprised at the difficulty I have understanding some of the locals. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like we're speaking the same language! People here don't talk to strangers in public as much as Americans seem to. My cab driver was silent the entire drive, even when I weakly attempted to strike up conversation. However, once the conversation is actually engaged they are INCREDIBLY nice. And my cabby called me "love"--so cute. So British.

I might be a bit delusional right now from the lack of sleep I keep mentioning, so forgive me if this post is boring or repetitive. I'm sure the rest of my posts won't be as detailed as this one, because once I start going on real adventures the little (boring) things won't be worth posting. As my first day begins, I look forward to what's next! Wish me luck; I'll try and update again soon with something exciting (as if that will be hard).

Love, the little girl in the big city,
Lisa