In The Land Of Anna

I hate the US embassy. It seems they do everything to make your life complicated, and they make you pay £1.20 per minute of that service. They have made me growl more than once in frustration today. I called and after about 2 minutes (£2.40), they said that they don't take many types of credit or debit cards. Which means they don't take mine, and probably not yours either. So I called dad and he gave me his debit card details, as well as the gossip and news of the church, ie who's going out, who's engaged, who's having a baby, how so and so is. Good chat. Then I called the embassy back and they took all my personal details and then said that they need to be able to speak to the person who owns the card. So I said, well, you can't, he's in Paris right now. (this call must have cost me about £10) So they've asked me to email the consulate in Belfast who will tell what to do next and arrange an interview where I can pay by cashier (wouldn't the world be a simpler and cheaper place if everyone just paid by cashier???). This had better work. Apart from that, all is good. Work has been good this week, after all that fuss, it feels like not much has changed at all. God is faithful. I've started my revision for the wonderful course that is Oceanography. I'll be glad when that one's over!! I made a pavlova and a lasagna last night, quite the domestic goddess. I really enjoy cooking and baking, and sometimes go overboard, cook too much and then it goes off before anyone gets the chance to eat it. But I restrained myself this time, and didn't make the fudge and wholemeal bread that I was going to make as well as the rest of it. :o) Tonight I'm having dinner at Dave's with Jonah and Miriam which should be fun. I feel like I haven't seen them in ages, though I did go to the cinema with Miriam last night, but never got to speak to her, seeing as there was about 7 people between her and I!! And they were on holiday last week. I saw Dave on Sunday but that was a long time ago, especially as I'm used to seeing him more than I have this week. I bought a pair of jeans today and a beautiful dress/top. This is my birthday present from mum and dad. I'm going to get my hair cut next week as well. Best present ever!!!! Eeeee! And I watched Coach Carter a couple of nights ago. Arpita got scared cause she's never seen me so excited. Nathan and Joe have this fictional character called Karl Baxter. If you've seen Napoleon Dynamite, he's like Rex who teaches Rex Kwon Do. And one of the things he says is "I don't think so" in the same way Coach Carter does. Each time I go home dad asks me if I've seen it and when I say no he says I must because it's such a good film. And now I've seen it. It's awesome! I need to take a shower before going out tonight, so I shall leave it at that, suffice it to say I'm doing a lot better than this time last week :o)