Finally Here!

I made it! After a four and a half hour drive to Chicago and an eight hour flight, I finally landed in London! Initially, I was most nervous about finding my way with all of my luggage to where I was staying.  I'm sure I looked like a fool while pulling a huge, green suitcase and trying to heave it up and down multiple flights of stairs in the middle of Paddington Station and then again as I pulled them along on the streets of London to try and find Nido as it started to rain.  But I didn't care. As soon as I go off at the Liverpool Street station and could see the city it didn't even matter that I was wet or going in the complete opposite direction of where I needed to be. I was surrounded by red double decker buses, british accents and went by a telephone booth or two.  All my nerves were gone and I was just happy to be back in the city I love. 
When I finally got to Nido, I was greeted by Adam, someone who works at EUSA and who has been helping us get settled.  He's so nice and polite and his accent is precious.  He said 'Cheers!' about three times in 5 minutes when talking to me and I about died. 
Nido is pretty similar to a residence hall, but we each have our own room and bathroom and I share a kitchen area with another student from Iowa.  The windows in all of the rooms are from floor to ceiling so you can see the whole city! Here are a few pics:

I went grocery shopping today and I'm going to have to get used to the fact that they don't have peanut butter, wheat thins or ranch here. Devastating.  But I managed to pick up a few things, including pasta for only 32 pence! Crazy deal. 
I'm definitely going to like Spitalfields (which is in the eastern part of central London) and I can't wait to go exploring in the rest of the city.

Cheers!