I'm here. Look right. Don't tip. (Don't tip?!) Quid. Bollocks. Wanker. Pint. Cheers. Knob. Cheeky. Brilliant. Lit-rally. Just a brief summary of what I've learned so far. What has proved true? Yes, this place is ridiculously expensive. No matter how many people told me that and how many times I said, "I know!" it's true. Four pounds for a latte. Two pounds for the bus! And that does not include any kind of transfer. (For those not up for quick mental math, lets says 8 dollars for the latte and 4 for the bus.) Also everything is to the left. Not only do we drive on the left, we take escalators on the left and walk on the left. Crazy. I've already almost knocked heads with a number of other pedestrians.

Kingston upon Thames is a beautiful town right on the river. I learned today that it gets its name from "king's town" because it was once the place where the kings would come to be crowned. I live in an area called Hampton Wick in the Kingston Bridge House, which is situated right next to the river and is absolutely gorgeous. From my window I look out onto Bushy Park with a royal cricket field, a skate park, tennis court and loads of trees, in fact, I can't see where the green ends. And, equally marvelous, if I look to the left I see the English equivalent to a San Francisco coffee shop, The Old Kings Head. This pub is open all day, has wireless internet as well as live music on weekends. Translation, I pretty much have moved in there. Oh and the cute bartenders, barkeeps..whatever..don't hurt either. Just on the other side of the bridge is the central town, much like Union Square. Four story shopping mall, the Bentall's Center surrounded by more shops. Everything is laid out on pretty windy cobblestone streets with lots of fountains and green areas and an open-air market in the center that balances out the commercial feel of it all. So far my pub experience has been fantastic, friendly bartenders, cheap pints and loud British boys who love me for being from SF and want to talk about hippie hill. Okay then..cheers to haight!

Today we had some orientation and registration work to do for school. Let me illustrate how the system here is a wee bit different than back home. We meet for our official enrolment at The Space, the Penrhyn Road on-campus pub. As the councilor walks around signing us in she hands us each two drink tickets. Redeemable for anything; suggestions from the bar? Double vodka tonic, or a snakebite and black (cider+lager+blackberry syrup=cough syrup that gets you drunk fast). Anyway, after the first pint they corralled us over to a building where we had to drunkenly fill out a bunch of important documents on computers and deal with passports, fantastic plan... We then all made our way back to the pub to redeem our leftover tickets and then drag ourselves home. I thought it would be a great idea to take a picture at this time and NO! dropped my camera. My new beautiful baby. It's just a beauty mark though, she'll be fine. Phew.

So that's it. Small town. British accents. Loads of swans and loads of beer, ales, lager.. I think I'll like it here, tomorrow is the big trip into central London which will be fantastic.

I miss you all terribly and am loving the emails..so keep them up.