Jolly Old England

I'm finally in England!! Traveling went well overall. In typical Ithaca fashion, the lounge that we were supposed to have at the airport was never actually reserved for us, so there were Ithaca students all over the concourse. The flight was very smooth- around 6 1/2 hours. I sat next to a very nice Italian couple. The husband helped me get my clarinet in the overhead bin because I was a bit too short and the woman didn't speak English but she always smiled when she caught my eye. I got to use my elementary Italian skills from the trip to Italy when I had to get up in the middle of the night and both of them were sleeping (scuzi, mi dispiaci, prego, grazie, etc).
We got to the hotel and stopped at our rooms. Meghan and I are on the 16th floor and have a spectacular view of south London, including the London Eye. The day was filled with orientation and working on finding some flats. We had no meetings yesterday but we have two appointments to see four flats today. Three are south of the river and one is up by Hyde Park. The printed warnings on the road to look left or look right depending on the traffic pattern are invaluable. There are tons of roundabouts here and it is sometimes hard to tell which way the cars are coming from.
Breakfast at the hotel was a full English breakfast, which was quite an experience: fried eggs over-easy, roasted tomatoes, hash browns, two types of sausage, black pudding, porridge, and fruit. This morning will be full of sightseeing- Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace.