so THIS is london...

jet lag is a new flavor of tired for me. it's somewhere between post-middleschool-sleepover tired and dazed-after-busy-day tired, popping up and fading away like weather patterns at entirely irrational times. it's an unbalanced sort of tired. usually when i feel this mentally dead, i run until i'm at the same physical level, to gradually and evenly turn up the volume later on. and so, today i embarked on the ambitious journey of walking from my dorm in hampstead to around oxford street, pickadilly, soho, and i found the king's college strand campus at which i'll be studying, ending up being maybe 15 miles. as for london? wow. oh wow. wowow. i'm sure this is the "honeymoon" stage of culture shock that was described to me, but either way, this city is beautiful. but beautiful isn't even enough of a word. love at first sight? i'll work on that.

but i am terrifed. why, you ask? first time out of the country? weird, new academic system? don't know anybody yet? meh. it dawned upon me today walking down the bustling materialistic mecca of oxford street: somehow, my sense of fashion is european. or at least not quite american. i have been fruitlessly searching for an unidentified something in fashion ever since i reluctantly gave up my tomboyhood in high school, and that something is here. i must stay away. i mean, if i'm relegating myself to a diet of rice and soup for a semester, i probably shouldn't be buying £20 boots and skirts and hats and legwarmers left and right, right? i used to hate shopping, and now this. of course. oh bother.

well, i had intended on checking in to say i now have my single room complete with a working internet connection and a sink, waiting for classes to start on the 12th, but all this came out instead. despite that, happy new year. so far, i'm having a blast having time to myself and getting lost in this big city...