Greetings from London!

I've been here nearly a week and I thought I better make good on my promise to blog while in London. The main reason I told so many people about this blog is that I thought it would force me to actually do it. The trouble is I've never blogged before. I figured it would be easy, after all I have this voice inside my head that narrates my life like an episode of "The Wonder Years." I could just write down some of that stuff, right? I've kept a journal at various times in my life, usually while traveling, and I thought that's pretty much what I had done. When I went back and read some of those journal entries, however, I realized that what I had written was a boring chronicle of my daily activities. Nobody wants to read that. Those "Wonder Years" episodes had a point, right? So, for the last few days I've been trying to figure out what my point would be. Well, here's what I've come up with. My first few posts will be fairly descriptive, just so you get an idea of where I am and what I'm doing here. In later posts I will try to have some kind of theme: food and restaurants, beer and pubs, teaching and history (note my priorities), etc. Don't worry, I won't write history lectures, but I am an historian after all, so that's how I see the world. I'll also post some pictures and descriptions of places I visit for those of you who really just want to know what I'm up to.

Where I Live

I have one very spartan room with a private bath in a place called Vincent House, which caters to long-term visitors to London. I had received mixed reviews about Vincent House from friends and colleagues who have stayed here in the past, but so far I am very comfortable here. I have a good wired broadband connection, and there is wi-fi in the dining room and the lounge downstairs. I get breakfast and dinner every day and I have been pleasantly surprised by the food. Vincent House is located in Notting Hill. If that sounds familiar, you're probably thinking of the 1999 movie starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. I've never actually seen it. If the fact that Julia Roberts was in it didn't keep me away, the tag line probably did:  "Can the most famous film star in the world fall for just an ordinary guy?" (Yeah, Hugh Grant is pretty ordinary.) In reality, Notting Hill is a nice neighborhood to the west of central London. I'll write more about it when I get to know it better. I am less than a block from the nearest tube station, Notting Hill Gate; and I am only about a quarter mile from Hyde Park, a large park in the center of London, similar in many ways to Central Park in NYC. I've been doing my running there.

Vincent House

A room similar to mine.

Where I Work

I teach my classes at the London headquarters of CAPA International Education. CAPA, a Boston-based organization, hosts the Missouri London Program that I explained in my previous post. They also have facilities in Beijing, Buenos Aires, Florence, Istanbul, and Sydney. In addition to the courses taught by me and an English Professor from Missouri S&T, our students also take courses from CAPA faculty. This semester I will be teaching "The Grand Alliance," a variation on a WWII course I teach at MSSU, and "Roman Britain," a variation on a summer course I took at Oxford University a few years ago. These classes will meet for an hour and a half on Tuesdays and for three hours on alternate Thursdays. We'll use our Thursday meetings to visit relevant sites in London. (I'll write more about my classes and our activities another time.)  I met my students at our orientation on Thursday. I'm just getting to know them, but they seem like a good group. Anyone who has taken students abroad can tell you that the most important thing is that they have a good attitude. That seems to be the case with this group.

CAPA International Education, London. (They've painted their front doors red since this was taken.)

My MLP students in front of Buckingham Palace. (I believe that the Queen requires that all visiting students have their picture taken in front of Buckingham Palace within three days of their arrival.)

Well, I believe that is all I have a right to expect you to read in one sitting. To sum up, things are going great. The only thing I would change would be to have Angela here with me. I hope you'll continue to follow "News from London." Cheers!