London: Week One

I've been in London for five days now. The first couple days were beautiful - sunny and in the mid-high-60's. The last three days, we have experienced what I consider to be typical London weather - high 50's, with a wind and really damp accompanied by occasional rain. I passed up a day to Cambridge today as my lungs are not responding well to the damp conditions, along with the adjustment of jet lag and a busy week of solving problems and getting settled into a routine... It's difficult to be "under the weather" when one is away from home - it has given me lots of space to sleep and as I write this, I am listening to WGN radio (the prominent talk-radio station in Chicago). It's amazing - I just heard the local news, Cubs news, traffic and weather - via live streaming - all of this possible because my host family has wireless technology in their home! It really helps me to keep in touch, though on a daily basis, I am pretty focused on teaching and traveling into central London (we are living in Northwood - a suburb northwest of London - about a 45 minute to an hour train trip via the tube into central London). This week I went to Evensong at St. Paul's and saw Lord of the RIngs - the musical. It was amazing! I also saw a fascinating concert on the "hang" by Manu Delago (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ojj7tgrqw to see the performer that I saw and heard). It was a wonderful concert and I had a great conversation with him - he's a percussionist from Innsbruck, Austria who found this unique instrument (which is made on a limited basis in Switzerland) and now focuses most of his attention on the hang. The concert was a fascinating experience as he also played with a bass clarinetist and the combination really worked. So it's been a pretty good first week!