Okay, so after the Icelandic economy did some serious tanking this morning (we've now lost about 40% of our currency's value with regards to the dollar, even more for the Euro--there goes almost half of our savings, woo-hoo!! And I'm not joking... try to imagine how you would feel if almost half of your money was gone, within a few months!)... I just downed some coffee with a shot of Bailey's included, and picked up the phone and started calling. I got two very nice people in a row, and each of them had an additional person living in their household, so that's 4 surveys committed within about 15 minutes of talking on the phone. ROCK ON. THIS feels good.

Both of them were very congenial, one was a man and the other was a woman, and the latter was extremely chatty and did the usual inquiring about my entire personal life (parents, husband, her opinion of Arab men, all within the first 5 minutes) and even expressed regret and discovering that I was already married. She...

I've probably mentioned this before, but I hate making cold calls. Especially in a language that I am not fluent in--far from it. I would make a HORRIBLE telemarketer... would probably get fired on my first day! haha. I just wouldn't be able to pick up the phone and harass people. I'd sit there, staring at the script on my screen, finger poised above the buttons... unable to do it. Which is what I feel like I'm doing every time I make one of these cold calls in Thai. But I'm not a telemarketer, I'm an anthropologist.

I have to make these calls to get my surveys out, so that I can get at least 200 of them back before we leave Iceland... this is the crux of my PhD dissertation, right here. I should be making like 5-10 calls a day, seriously. I am not getting that far, whatsoever. I just made another one and the person hung up on me, which is very rare... usually they tolerate me bothering them, and most of them even agree to let me drop off a survey at their house...

So we've reached the point of no return regarding our stay in Iceland. We mailed our last documents for ktsp's green card application (it's a loooong process--and a HUGE packet of all kinds of legal documents and financial information), and from this point on, it's basically out of our hands. Up until now, we had this thing going pretty much on our own timeline, and that was what we wanted. But in deciding to submit these final documents, it means that as soon as we get the embassy interview (most likely in a few months) and his subsequent immigrant visa, then we must enter the US and stay there, basically permanently... or for at least 3 years, to get his US passport.

So goodbye Iceland. We already bought tickets to Seattle for Christmas. We most likely will not be using the return ticket to Iceland. My parents still have no idea--they're just excited that we'll be home for "a whole 3 weeks!" (little do they know, we'll be there permanently!)--I don't...

I just love a good fight. Just to get in the ring and get all muddy, take some shots, get smacked around, and feel empowered by it all. Because I can take it... and I like it. Gets my heart rate up, wakes me up, makes me think... and even when I make mistakes, I learn from them quickly and get ready for my next shot. I love being kept on my toes and tested. The hardest part is to walk away. That's my biggest challenge.

Why don't more women like to fight? (I'm not talking about Sarah Palin, btw.) I wish they did. This forum would benefit from their contributions.

I'm feeling pretty damn good right now. The Reykjavík marathon took place today, and while I didn't feel ready to do the marathon itself, I did sign up a few months ago for the 10k that was going on at the same time. It was further than I had ever run before in a race situation (I did cross-country and track in high school, long long ago, though I was never very fast--mostly did it for fun--and those were 3 mile races).

And I ran the 10k today, in an excellent time for myself! My goal was to be under 70 minutes, and I did it in 64 minutes, 12 seconds! I was overjoyed!!! My splits were way faster than I expected (from gym training), which was the best thing about it for me.

This feels all the better as a result of ktsp and I sticking to our gym commitment starting in January this year--this makes it feel real, like it all paid off. I ran 2 shorter 5k's in June, which helped me get into the race mode, and then had to take a break during some summer...