Summer Project Secured!

What a whirlwind of a week!  If I wasn't in the library working on my two assessments, I was having some sort of meeting.  It felt like Alma, Part II.  Although my eyes hurt from staring at the computer screen all week trying to transcribe my arguments and thoughts regarding Primary Health Care and epidemiological study design and analysis, I was able to make substantial progress in defining my summer project.  I met with my project supervisor, who was in town, and tutor.  It went well.  We were able to discuss ideas and set some deadlines (the first of which is this Tuesday!).  My research topic will probably be the influence of clinical setting, policy guidelines and patient experiences on acyclovir access and use in treating herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) genital ulcer disease (GUD) and controlling HIV type 1 (HIV-1) infections.  Exciting, right?!  I'm pumped.  Nothing is 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure that I'm GOING BACK to SOUTH AFRICA!  It's great!  As with everything, though, there are a few aspects of the project on which I'm being a "Debbie Downer": 

1) The research would take me to Johannesburg, not Cape Town.  Cape Town is where my South African host family lives and I am familiar with the area.  Plus, the city and Western Cape is gorgeous.  There's no way that I could visit because of time and distance.  I only have about 6 weeks to do my in-country research and the cities are 1400km (~870mi) apart.

2) FIFA World Cup.  This 'Merican doesn't care for soccer.  The entire world (minus the States) will be watching or attending the matches that are taking place all over SA this summer.  Prices are going to be higher for plane tickets and necessities, tourists will be present en masse, etc.  Ugh.  I just need to be smart about how I go about my daily life.

Everything else should be fine.  I should be gone from mid-June to the end of July/beginning of August.  Med school starts the second or third week of the month, so I may just come home right from SA.  It may be too much of a bother to come back to London.  I wouldn't have a place to stay!  Only time will tell.

That's this summer, though.  Let's live in the day.  In keeping with that mentality, I went back to Stonehenge yesterday with some friends.  I basically went for the company; the awe of Stonehenge is a first-time-only-affair.  Once is enough.  The wind was bitterly cold, too.  That sucked.  I did see something new.  We were dropped off at Old Sarum, another ancient site (an old fort).  It was more stones and excavated earth.  Wow, I'm becoming quite spoiled...!