London stopover

We are now in London, preparing to head out tonight for a four day stopover back home. The weather has been, well, very wet. Our clothes have an interesting mix of red-african dirt smell that is now layered with a soft hint of mildew. It is a romantic life we lead.

On the advice of a honeymooning couple we met in Botswana we yesterday went to Cambridge for the day. It is really a lovely little town, exactly what you would expect an English village that is 4 million years old to look like. It houses Cambridge University, which is one of the premiere Universities in the UK. The colleges that make up the University (it's a different system than in the U.S.) date back as far as the 14th century. The buildings are really beautiful, as was the train ride up there. Of course, being Americans, Jen and I found ourselves completely underdressed just walking around the town, and we had to leave as we were afraid someone was going to try to offer us money or a warm meal.

Things are altogether going well, though we are both excited to head home and see friends for a few days. I wasn't getting homesick until Jen slipped up the other day and said the M word...no not marraige (already jumped off that bridge). Worse. Mexican food. We have spent the last two days in London scouring the streets in search of a green sign and a sumbraro. Walking through the London neighborhoods we say, 'this looks like a GREAT place for a Mexican restaurant, let's search around every corner.' We have been fooled a few times by Spanish tapas joints, but it wasn't until yesterday that we found an authentic place offering chips, guacamole, burritos, etc. Actually, it wasn't very good, but it was a well won victory. Since then we have been planning out our 12 odd meals while in Chicago to make sure we have room for all our favorite mexican food joints. Our new taboo conversation topic is how on earth we are going to survive in Asia for six weeks without chips and salsa. I don't think I could handle wasabi flavored guacamole.

Overall we are enjoying our short time in London. The prices seem very reasonable, until you realize that our dollar is only worth 1/2 of a pound. Then you get this sick tightening in your chest and realize that the beer you just drank cost more than all the internal travel you did in Botswana and Zimbabewe combined.

We land late tonight (Wednesday) and leave again for part B (Asia) Monday afternoon. For those of you in Chicago, we look forward to connecting this weekend.