Day 2 in London!

Hello from the Ace Hotel in West Kensington, where I paid one pound to use the internet for half an hour.

Yesterday morning I got into Heathrow around 7, after a pretty uneventful flight. My favorite part was when they served the vegetarian meal first, and the poor omnivores around me looked on enviously. After landing, I then had to wait in line to "cross the border" for about an hour before I was free to hop on the tube and head to the hostel.

After dropping off my stuff, I spent a good part of the day just walking around through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park before meeting up with Allison (my friend who is studying at BADA here this semester). I realized how difficult it is to not have a cell phone here when she got caught up in class and couldn't make it on time, but we eventually got everything straightened out.

Last night we went to see a production of a couple scenes from the Beijing Opera's version of The Merchant of Venice. It was fascinating but hard to follow, and I'm ashamed to say that I was so tired at that point I dozed off through part of it. But I got a good night's sleep and am slowly overcoming jetlag.

This morning I had breakfast with my friend Toni from USC and her mom, and we are meeting for dinner tonight. Also, I'm going to go see some museums with Allison today.

Until next time, cheers!