Sincere apologies for the incoherent, rambling nature of this blog post, which I fully recognize. However, if I were to take the time to fully revise it, I’d get severely behind on blogging, and probably wouldn’t catch up for weeks, so here it is, in all it’s gory unintelligibility. Please do not read if you would like to maintain any respect at all for my command of the English language.
Wow! These last several two weeks have just blurred past, and it defies me meagre capabilities as a writer to fully express the whirlwind that’s been the Marshall Scholars orientation and then settling in to Goodenough College in London. But as is the case with all good bloggers, here’s my ultimately futile attempt:
I arrived in Washington D.C. on Sunday, September 13 for an orientation program put on by the British Council for. For the next three days, the lot of us were whisked around from meetings to minglings, and everything in between. Following, we took a group flight on Virgin Atlantic (with a couple of minor luggage debacles) to London, and had another two days of the same. Unfortunately, despite the many interesting speakers, due to the Chatham House Rule, I am unable to really say much beyond that about them.
However, what I can comment on are my fellow Scholars, without whom the entire experience wouldn’t have been nearly so enjoyable. Naturally, everyone was uniformly “intellectually distinguished” in their respective fields, but much more importantly than that, it appears the selection committee was quite good at picking out really interesting and affable people. Though their biographies on the website were in most cases rather intimidating, in person they were, well, personable. Of course, the five days of forced interaction certainly helped in getting to know people 
In any event, for about a week now I’ve now been living at Goodenough College, a charitable trust postgraduate residence hall in London. Classes don’t start at Imperial for another 1.5 weeks, and I’m not allowed into the labs without safety training (also in 1.5 weeks), so that means I’ve had a lot of time on my hands, which I’ve mostly spent exploring London. My feet aren’t particularly happy about it, but walking probably close to 50km since Monday has really helped me get a sense of the city (check out my facebook photos), though I expect that even after spending the year here, they’ll still be places I won’t have ventured. It’s definitely a change from good ol’ Southern Indiana. Well, that’s about it for now; wish me luck!
~William~
