Stress + Crazy Dreams

I have been really feeling the effects of stress lately! I have not felt mentally stressed, but have really seen the physical effects of cultural stress on my body. I have just been not feeling so great for no apparent reason besides that. Well on Wednesday I must have eaten something that upset my stomach because I was sick all night, and then two nights later I started feeling like I was gonna be sick like Wednesday night, and didn't think I'd be able to handle that, which made me feel really homesick. So I finally broke down - it had been awhile and I've done really well so far but now I am starting to feel homesick. But I think now whenever my stomach starts to hurt I get nervous that I'm going to get really sick again, and I worry and the stress of that creates other physical problems affecting breathing and such. I woke up this morning after having lots of bad dreams and was feeling the effects of stress from the dreams and over-exerting myself running last night so I didn't feel too well. If you have ever heard one of my dreams, you know they are crazy! I think that my dreams are really funny when I share them, but in the middle of the night they are not fun. Anyways I typed last night's adventures to Whit over skype and figured I could share them here to be humorous to all. But please pray for my health and adjustment - that I can relax and feel comfortable here and that stress won't take a toll on my body physically. I hope you laugh at the dreams! :)

ok here's what i remember:

I was at whit's old house which made me feel really bad b/c it was crazy colors and made out of this squishy foam stuff, and i was trying to make the connection of how whit's parents would own that weird of a place, but there was something about magazines and dogs and my dad trying to tell me i couldn't do something and michael scott, and it was pretty scary.

Then i was in some kind of beach hut and me and these teenagers were trying to figure out some plan, and this was one of those dreams where we were like outside of time so that's always weird, and there were a bunch of sketchy people, and there was a huge encyclopedia library that i wanted to look at instead of being sketchy, and the book i picked up was this awesome old huge book that was the book of john, which was the ESV study bible.

And then my friend pointed to some person and said "they are making it very obvious that they are talking on the phone" b/c they were trying to distract us from this other person who was setting off a bomb, so we noticed and had time to crawl out under this tunnel (there were 2 tunnels, one of each side of the hut, and i went through them quickly a few times).

So then i was running through this room full of middle eastern people who all had guns and i was dodging their bullets.

Then i was the bad middle eastern ruler and to dodge the gunshots i went down this big slide holding my body tightly as if i was on a waterslide.

Then i tried to hide behind a couch.

and then i ran to this mostly deserted apt building where only one guy had a gun, and he gave me 4 coins

So then i was in china and as i came out of the building there was a child guard trying to beat me so i threw the 4 coins at him and escaped.

So then the china part of my dream happened, which was AWFUL b/c i was living there for a year but every time we went outside, every street that we took had 3-4 child guards (sometimes as young as 4 years old) who had weapons that they tried to stop us with, so you would have to battle them in order to get by (and sometimes the 4 year old put up a good fight).

So it was really exhausting to ever go anywhere, but i went to the city (where there was a bunch of arcade games or casino slots) and found a bunch of people i knew in high school and they were all living and working in china, but the only jobs they could find were working in the streets guarding, and i felt really bad for them that they were stuck in China doing such a dirty job.