Arrival

London. Finally.
Somehow by hook or by crook or by a fairly absurb amount of incredibly dumb luck I have made it here. Can't say a whole lot about the city itself yet, as I haven't really gotten a chance to explore alas. This due mainly to the fact we stumbled into London late last night due to two simaltaneous flats on our coach right off the Calais-Dover ferry. So while we did see it rain several times already within the 18 or so hours we've actually been here, noone as far as I know has actually gotten a chance to explore the city. I, myself, am hunting for a bookstore, a grocery/convience store, and a gaming place of some sort so that I can maybe get something in whilst away from GASP. I have got quite a bit of time tho so I am not massively rushed. The best thing I have to admit was to be able to unpack all the way and enjoy the view from our very spacious room, with balcony, into Regents Park. Never thought I'd get a room with a nice view of the greenery but can't complain I guess.
Classes have already started today and my first half of the week (Monday/Tuesday) are light but Wed/Thurs are packed for me. Lots of history though so I am hoping I will enjoy this semester. Speaking of history, Normandy was by far my favorite part of the trip. We stayed at a small village college Benerie s/mer (that's nowhere near correctly spelled) right on Juno beach. Literally it has the first house liberated by sea-born Canadian forces. In general I just enjoyed being in a small local place rather then the hustle and bustle of huge cities which was where we mostly were. Reality is that I think I am a small town person and the 12 million odds Frenchmen of Paris have the same big city attitudes of New Yorkers, etc to foreigners and strangers, ie they aren't usually that polite.
Visiting the sites in Normandy was very impressive. I have to say that going to the Omaha beach cemetary for Americans nearly broke me down. The little white crosses just go on and on and on. Most of those men buried there were my age or younger. A number of them had no identification, their crosses reading (this isn't an exact quote sorry) "This honored comrade's indentity rests only with God". A very sobering expierence.
I wished we could have spent more time there but alas only a day and a half on the coast. Never got to St. Lo or any of the places I would have wanted to putter about. I did get to see the Aure River which looks frustratingly hard to cross even though it appears to be 10% water 90% mud. The vertical drop is a problem tho.
So anyhow I am in London now, getting settled in and then I'll try and write a little more. Internet is fairly cheap here (£10 for 6 hours which is approx $20 US I'll admit but that is not bad for England believe it or not) so I may write with a decent regularity if time permits.