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02/25/2007: "The Wild West End"

Greetings from London. I am in between visits to Cologne and came to London for a week of theater and politics. Been busy convincing Tony Blair to pull more troups out of Iraq. Yesterday, I got a chance to watch thousands of others do the same thing.

The theater here is amazing! I would probably be happy watching most of the actors read the phone book. I have seen a total of 5 plays/musicals and enjoyed them all. I have also done a fair share of walking and touring through town. Yesterday was a museum visit where I wandered for hours through the British Museum and the National Library. The Library has original manuscripts and a Gutenberg Bible. They also have a collection of original Beatles song lyrics written out on scratch paper and napkins. Very cool.

Two days ago I had the great fortune to have lunch at Claridges where world famous chef Gordon Ramsay puts on a meal that is out of this world. The atmosphere, service and food were all amazing.

This trip had me spending time with a couple of teachers that I worked with back when I taught in Vienna. One has since come down with Leukemia. His treatments in Austria, different than what the U.S. would do, includes Interferon injections every other day. This has been holding his condition at bay. According to Wikipedia, "Interferons (IFNs) are natural proteins produced by the cells of the immune system of most vertebrates in response to challenges by foreign agents such as viruses, bacteria, parasites and tumor cells." I was interested because, in addition to receiving my own Dendritic Cells, they also inject me with two types of Interferon. This is what causes me to go through flu symptoms for about 12 hours.

Tomorrow I fly back to Cologne so I can get those injections on Tuesday. Flight home is Wednesday and I am ready. Spending time in foreign countries is wonderful, but I sure miss the family and my home.