I had planned my Monday (January 6^th) several days in advance to make sure I would be well rest for the 4:30am kickoff. I initially planned to be sleep by 8pm. However, the hotel I am staying in – the Villa Rosa Kempinski has turned down service and I was not sure how to decline the turndown service as there is no hang tag for the door. So I waited until the housekeeping staff knocked on the door at 8:45pm. I later discovered that there is a button you push in your room that declines housekeeping…

As I was cheering for one of Auburn’s four touchdowns, there was a knock on the door-actually she rang the doorbell (yes, the hotel has a doorbell system for all the hotel rooms). I initially tried to ignore it and hoped that the visitor would go away. I assumed it was hotel security telling me that I was distributing the other guests. Turns out, she was there to deliver tea that I didn’t order. I guess the hotel knew I needed a pick me up.

My internet connection could not keep up with Auburn’s no-huddle offense. I only saw about 60 percent of Auburn’s plays because the connection often stalled. The connection would buffer and then start again. I also missed an Auburn touchdown. While the hotel did not have the Super Sports channel I needed to watch the game live, it did have the channel that was replaying the game Tuesday afternoon. While sadly I knew the outcome of the game, it was nice to catch the plays that I had missed because of the internet connection.

At the end of the third quarter, my computer froze and a blue screen appeared. I was concern that my computer was on the verge of crashing. It was a false alarm. I had trouble getting the video feed again so I decided to listened to the ESPN radio feed after that blue screen incident.

I was also able to experience an amazing sunrise over the Nairobi skyline. The few times I have experienced an African sunrise was because I was up watching an Auburn game.

As I was watching the replay of the game in the hotel bar, my waiter (James) asked me to explain the rules to American football. I told him it would be difficult for me to explain American football in the limit time we had but I would do my best. After about ten minutes, he told me that the game looked violent, which he said made sense because Americans are very violent. I chuckled and told him that he needed to stop watching American movies because it is not as violent as they portray us in the movies.

It was a great game and Auburn had every opportunity to win the game. It was a typical Auburn game but didn’t end in typical Auburn fashion. Now I await the start of the 2014 season and the introduction of the college football playoff.

To wash away my game day blues, I decided to take a dip in the pool. It was a beautiful day in Nairobi and a great day for a swim.