It's almost time....slow down!!

In less than 7 days, ill be back in the U.S.!? what?!????????????????????/

didnt i JUST get off the plane in the chilly, cloudy town of eastbourne and meet all these people? and, just when i start getting to really know the students from church, its time (again) to uproot myself from my surroundings and go back home.....blah!

im excited to go home, but this whole thing about moving away, meeting people, getting acclamated, and then having to leave it all behind really blows. makes me want to stay longer, or at least find a city/place of my own so i can finally settle down for more than 1 year and really make my own roots somewhere!!!!! but i sincerely hope to stay in touch with my flatmates (of course!) and people from my church here.

well, if you were wondering, i handed in my dissertation last thursday!! (only 3 days ago). what a relief!! so, now i wait...and worry a little. it feels strange and relaxing to not have it on my mind, and having to remind myself that i dont need to rush home to sit at my computer and type and revise alllllllllllllllllllll day. 3 weeks straight, non stop was enough!

my flatmates and i are planning to make some day trips here and there this week, so see the last bit that we can of England. Tonight, i went out with a group of church students (Alexandra came too!!) and we went bowling....i stunk, but it was really fun. then some of us went into town and hung out there for a bit. and apparently there' some kind of pool party/ chill out thing on tuesday...so i hope to make it to that and say my last goodbyes to people :'(

so, thats about it. we visited Canterbury yesterday and it was a lovely place!! weather was brilliant and i bought some clothes from H&M....always great ;)

im becoming aware of my new alias: Inevitabley Injured Ingrid....

as some of you may or may not have known, before my departure to England, i cought a weird, unexpected and explosive cough. it is still my theory that i got it from weird tree/bush germs and or/smoke molecules stuck in my room form a big bon fire that we had used to burn extra shurbbery........anyways, in my mind, i had a living plethora of shrubbery smoke particles in my lungs causing me to wildly and uncontrollably cough alllllllllllllllllll the time, as hard i could to get the junk out of my lungs.

well, after so much of this, my body said 'screw this' and my right rib popped out of place from all the flexing of my muscles used to cough (i guess they're not suppoed to get that much of a workout ;) and i was in a LOT of pain before i even knew what was wrong (bowling and running are NOT two activties i recommend for rib pain....fyi).

anyhoo, i had that before coming here, and even now i sometimes feel weird twinges around my rib muscles after vigorous workouts....and NOWWWWWWWWWWWW i have managed to sprain the tendon of my right big toe (the one that sticks up when you bend your foot back) from running or doing something. immense pain began in the morning on my way to london with a friend....and since i had no other shoes with me, i beared thru the pain all day (not an easy task). so i went to the doc yesterday and she said its just a sprain and i needed to rest it. so for the past (seems like FOREVER) week i havent swam, ran, lifted....could barely walk for most of the week....just hobbled along. but i did some foot stretches last night and it feels a bit better today..we'll see how it feels after ive walked on it some.

so, thats it. my deadline for myself is to hand in my dissertation on WEDNESDAY (lots of prayers pleaaaaaaaaaaaase so i can accomplish this!) cuz i feel i am so almost there! just revising/editing and fixing stuff up.

thats all for now. a long 2 weeks and im back home! yikes and yay.

WICKED good time ;)

yesterday (Friday) i went to London (where i havent visited in quite some time..) with my friend Alexandra. We left in the morning and spent the afternoon touring the London Tower, which was pretty cool, but not as interesting as i thought it would have been....but still ok.

then we walked around Trafalger Square, hopped over to Picadilly and searched thru Soho for a chinese place to eat. luckily, when we were almost out of hope at finding a place i had eaten at before, we turned the corner and VOILA! there it was! so we loaded up there and then walked down the street to the Haagen-Dazs......that was beautiful and delicious! i got 2 scoops: vanilla caramel brownie and chocolate midnight cookie....topped with fudge. yeah, i know. hippo crossing but it was marvelous!!!!

theeeeeeeeeeeeeen, we headed back towards Victoria station where we saw the musical WICKED!! our seats were ok, it was kind of high up and off to the side, so we had to kind of move our heads around to catch certain parts of the play depending on where they were located on the stage...but overall it was a really great experience! For those of you who dont know, Wicked was a book written by a guy who made up the background life of the Wicked witch (who's name is apparently Alphaba). she went to school with Glinda, they became friends, then she met Oz and he ended up being kind of a D-bag, and Alphaba got a spell book and had the power....but the ending will surprise you!! its not what you think (or maybe it is, but you'd have to be pretty smart to guess the end..its REALLY great!).

so, the music was good, the acting was stupendous and Alexandra and I really enjoyed our night!! especially not having to wear scarves or coats walking out in the night.....i love that london is warmer than Eastbourne..even if it is because of pollution and the dense city air ;p

OH. and i also showed Alex Bond Street (financial district of London) and we stopped in Alexander McQueen ( if you dont know him......shame on you.) and we 'shopped' around, and i drooled over his genius designs.

so anyways, that was my day in london. it was fantastic!! now, time to finish up more of my dissertation! i have a meeting with my prof on Monday, and I truly HOPE that after that, i can just finish it all up and hand it in by the very end of August...(so i get some free time to hang around england and not study before i leave!)

BA DA DA DA DUH DA DAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, its 11 at night, and about 15 min ago i was ready for bed, now i am full of excitement and energy...wanna know why? huh huh huh huh??????

because i received 3 EMAILS today with FILLED OUT QUESTIONNAIRES!!! i feel like a rock star.

i prayed a lot yesterday and today that i would receive my primary research in time (not tooooooo late) so that i wouldnt get too behind with evaluating it and whatnot. thanks CHUNK A MUNK to my brother who gave me the email addy to his friends, and thanks to them for replying so quickly!! ROCK MY FACE OFF!!!!!!!!!!! ( i havent used that expression in a long time, and it feels good to bring it back! ;)

so, i have a meeting with my prof on friday so discuss my methodology and whatnot...so im super hoping/praying that everything will go well and i wont need to redo too much of my stuff, and that i can get supa dupa crackalakin on the main body of my dissertation!! however, we havea 20k work maximum....im already at 16k without typing up my findings...yikes. it was always a weakness of mine to stay within the limits!!! my creativity cannot be contained!! :D

anyhoo, i will prolly book my ticket home soon (so sad to come to that realization that its time to leave my second....third nest!) but im preparing myself and psyching myself up for my return home and all the things i have to look forward to!

so, ill keep ya posted when i get a free minute to update you on my progress!!

thanks again for everyone who is praying for me and that i can get this thing done by the end of August!!!!!!!!