There - All the new students have arrived on campus. it's a big deal. Many of them are living away from home for the first time. There's a new dorm opened, so housing has massively increased on campus. This is a big deal here. Housing has perhaps doubled now. Yet, even with the dorm expansions, those coming to live on campus are a minority. Only 600 out of the university's 12,000 students live here. Not all students will even need to come into campus, if all their courses happen to be online. It's mostly a commuter campus. It's an easy drive from the city center, and the buses seem to run fairly frequently. It's hot today - over 90 degrees. But this is a part of the world where being civilized usually includes being air-conditioned as well. It's a good thing too, given how humid it can get. Orientation activities run all week, online and off. Classes start tomorrow.

Here - After a run of lovely weather, today dawned grey, cool, and raining. The forecast was so adamant that it would rain all day that we canceled out proposed expedition with J. to Wakehurst gardens, Kew's Sussex adjunct. We were foiled a second time in trying to go to a movie - our local movie multiplex was unexpected closed for unspecified techical problems, and the Jubilee line wasn't running east of Canary Wharf, so going to the O2 for movies was more daunting than expected. The three of us gave up, stocked up on treats from Paul, and went home again for a game of Robo Rally.

UK academics have weeks left in their summer holidays, but here, online on a server in another country, I've been tweaking my course shells. Classes start tomorrow.