December 14, 1999
London, England to London, England

I have to begin this journal by saying happy birthday to my friend Chris Hauk. Happy Birthday!

Since the Rovers had been dropped off the day before, and were assumed to be on their way across the Atlantic, we began to adjust to our new vehicle-less lifestyle. London is a great place for this transition to take place as it has a great underground subway system and taxis on nearly every corner.

We began the day with a bountiful English breakfast served at the hotel. Eggs, ham, toast and tomatoes silenced our appetites for the morning and gave us the energy necessary to make final travel plans that would take us to Amsterdam and eventually New York. Jeff, Doug and Nick spent three hours finding the best deal for our desired travel plans, plans were finalized, and we expressed our gratitude by taking our travel agent out for lunch. Thank you for all your patient work and your great American impersonation (she made us all turn the other way as she imitated an American accent). Meanwhile, while travel plans were in the makes, I was entertaining our newest member of the group, Severine, who we met in Southampton. In the course of the day I was trying to convince her that Christmas was not as bad as she thought. I told her she had to come up with five things she actually liked about Christmas. I think her final total was four so I accepted that as success: lights, decorations, Christmas cookies and, maybe it was only three???

After finalizing our travel plans with an English pub lunch and a pint of beer, half the group made their way to Coventry Gardens in hopes of shopping for the holidays. Initially we thought we would walk, however, after receiving the leadership torch, I proceeded to walk in the opposite way in which we were bound, thus eliminating a great navigating record, and exposing all my subsequent judgments to countless questions. After we figured out where we were, we took two English taxicabs to our destination. Unfortunately only five people can fit into one cab, and we were six. We separated into two cabs, and after a fairly circuitous and more expensive ride than Russ and Gina's, Jeff, Doug, Severine and I arrived somewhere in the area of Coventry Gardens. With the aid of a red jacket and a miracle we were somehow reunited. Coventry Gardens is a large shopping area, which was filled with street performers: singers, comedians and anything else that would draw a crowd. After shopping for a couple hours at Coventry Gardens we strolled to Piccadilly Circus, Soho and Trafalgar Square. We missed a Prince Andrew sighting because of bladder problems, but were able to entertain ourselves as well as run the clock down while we waited for another new friend, Delphine.

After meeting Delphine, at Victoria Station we had one last person left to meet, Jason, a former Colleague of Jeff's who now lived in London. He took us to a Pizza place for dinner and finally to a nightclub which was called "The O club". We had a wonderful time talking and drinking beer until about 3:30am. Hey Jason, I think I owe you a few. After leaving the club Jeff and Doug's appetites and manners got the best of them. They cordially invited our new members to Jeff's favorite eatery, McDonalds, where they indulged in this fine American cuisine. Although everyone had something, I had to voice my opinion silently by refusing to buy anything.

It was amazing how many people were out at 4:00 am - London does not sleep! After satisfying their appetites we left the delightful cafe and looked for a taxi to take us home. The taxi queue was lined with drivers from West Africa, so I decided to look for one who spoke Mandinka, a language spoken in my former home, The Gambia. Although there was someone in the area from The Gambia, we could not locate him before we were whisked away to our hotel stop at King's cross.

The evening concluded as we stuffed ourselves into a small hotel room, and acted like we were kids at camp, laughing and telling stories. This is Todd signing off. Talk to you all in Amsterdam!