Welcome to the Fall semester, and welcome to the LUP blog - a place where we share still more about the city, for those of you interested enough to subscribe, or visit regularly to read.
Take a look back through the archives for almost a years worth of suggestions and recommendations, and if you have ideas for questions that you'd like us to post about, let us know!
As you may have gathered, all of us are really enthusiastic about London, but - why?
Greg Kucich, program director: "I love London because it is the most cosmopolitan city in the world, offerings its inhabitants and visitors a vast array of cultural wonders."
Laura Holt"I love London for its idiosyncratic look and feel, and for its seemingly limitless range of music and art and interesting people. Its look -- from the wonderfully curvy Thames to the zig-zags of its streets to the zig-zags of its buildings' silhouettes against the sky to the zig-zags of people of all sorts filling the streets and squares and shops and pubs. Its feel -- from the buzz of snatches of over-heard languages to the stimulation of BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 podcasts on my Nano. And the music -- concerts of every sort, plus singular choral offerings in worship all over London; the art -- filling museums and galleries and house-museums; and the people -- from here and from everywhere else!"
Cornelius: "because London forces me to be more accepting of people who are different from me."
Kris Dahl:"London, in my mind, means everything I could imagine at my fingertips. If I can think of a type of food, I can try it in London. If I want to listen to a type of live music, I can find a venue with a great example being played. Ditto for theatre, museums (art, history, science, the list goes on), languages, world cultures, you name it. London even offers a huge number of ways to get out of London and explore other places! Trains, planes, coaches... So, if you want to explore anything, London is the place to do it!"
Ric Whaite:"As someone who spent their childhood in the countryside, I grew up around hills, lakes and English rural vistas for miles and miles. Quite different from what you will see here in London. To me, this city is a collection of visual contrasts alongside one another. Compare your initial experiences with
those of others."
Miss Alice: "To me, London means opportunity - so many places, so many people, so much history, so many futures. The richness of opportunities taken, the bitter-sweet of the ones that you couldn't grasp - there's always more going on than any one person could do, so you always have to make that choice, but you'll get to make it again and again as new opportunities keep coming."
Hal: "London has so many faces, so many personas, so many pubs. England's capital city has allowed me many advantages over the years, ranging from keeping a fair few professional balls in the air at any one time (running a record label, studying as a personal trainer, working in a university...) to simply to being able to go out for a meal in the early hours. I live in Camden Town, arguably the epicentre of alternative culture for London, and I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else.
Catherine: "I crossed oceans and time zones, braved international tuition fees and homesickness, all for London. No matter where you're from, London is home."
* Photo by AndyWilson, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.
Question of the week: Do you have any tips on getting the most out of London on a budget? 
