Turning 21... in Freaking Northern Ireland!

So, I had my 21st birthday on Wednesday. :D Here's how it went:

It all started Tuesday night. Jen, Hannes (our new German roommate), and I were all hanging out in our kitchen when someone realized it was past midnight. Yay! Birthday hugs for me!

Jen slept in my room (on the Nest) that night. I woke up the next morning, and she was on her way downstairs to make me breakfast in bed!! How sweet is she! I ordered a peanut butter and banana sandwich with some apples and tea. It was superb!

We finally got around to going downtown to the City Centre. We had discussed the night before about having a steak dinner with Hannes, so we had to go grocery shopping. Plus, Jen and I are both incredibly fair-skinned and will assuredly fry when we go to Barcelona next week if we do not have some sort of base tan, so we went to a tanning salon first. It wasn't the best experience of my life, as the lady only gave me a minute to undress and put the sun lotion on and all the rest. By the time I finally set foot in the little tanning compartment (it was a stand-up one as opposed to a bed), I was in there for literally 8-10 seconds before it shut off. I felt like such an idiot. I was so angry with myself for being so foolish, not knowing how to quickly prepare at a simple tanning salon. Let's just say I was not the happiest of campers. I wasn't at all mad at the worker, just myself, for being so unable to adapt to a situation where I'm so out of my element. Ugh! I told Jen about it afterwards, and she kept telling me to go back in; she was sure they'd give me my 3 minutes back. I felt like too much of a fool and was way too embarrassed to go back in there, at least for the time being.

Anywho, we went shoe shopping after that because Jen needed some good walking shoes for our trip. She found these really cute Puma's at this place called Schuh. This is really unimportant and probably uninteresting tidbits, so I will move on... ahem...

We stopped at a grocery store on our way back in search of some steak. Neither of us have any idea what we're doing when it comes to anything beyond lunch meat, really, so I texted Hannes and asked if he knew how to purchase and/or cook steak. He responded in the negative for the buying part but said he'd figure out how to cook it. Haha! So, we just picked out a package of 6 sirloin steaks and thought, "What the hey?"

I got home to a wonderful surprise: Sydney was there to wish me a happy birthday!!! Man, I love that girl! She came up to my room and we talked for quite a while. She told me about her trip around Ireland last weekend (which I was supposed to go on, as well, but had to back out in the end). It sounded phenomenal! I can't wait to see pictures!

She ended up staying for dinner, as well, and Siqi came over, too. We all pitched in to make a wondrous meal of steak, potatoes, and candied carrots - yummm!!!! What a great birthday dinner! (Happy, Mom? I ate well on my b-day!)

Then it was time to watch P.S. I Love You, which I had invited several people to. We girls in Mt. Charles had been talking for a while about how we needed to watch it together, and so I figured why not on my birthday? I had to first run down to the movie store, though, to rent it, and Sydney went with me.

When I got back, I was coming up the stairs and saw that Linda (a German friend of mine) was standing outside my door, talking with people in my room. I was happy to see her and cried out, "Linda!" whilst running up the stairs to tackle her in a hug. She quickly turned around and said, "NO! Wait!!" So, I had to turn around and stand on the stairs alone for a bit until I was allowed to turn back around. I bet you'll never guess what I turned around to! ;) Yeah, it was a birthday cake (of sorts - it was actually this banana-chocolate concoction that Linda had made once before for a common meal, and I had raved over it so much, she made it again for my birthday!! How sweet!!). Everyone came out of the room and sang to me in the stairway, and I made a wish and blew out the candles.

Then, I walked in my room and noticed a present sitting on my shelf. I real, bona-fide, wrapped birthday present! I was told that there were more hidden around the room and then ventured into a frenzy of searching for parcels (with "hot" and "cold" hints from my friends) and opening them. I can't believe how many presents and cards I got! I so wasn't expecting any! These people are so sweet. Even Hannes got me a present!! (He gave me a book to take on vacation with me, so I would have something to read on the plane rides and such. How thoughtful is that!!!! What a great guy!)

After the opening of presents and gushing of thanks, the movie-viewing commenced. It turns out there were a couple of guys who came, even though I said in the invite that I realized it was a rather girly movie and would not be offended if they didn't want to come until later when we went out. Herve (Belgian friend) said he really enjoyed the film. He even put it as his facebook status for a while - haha!

Once the film finished, we went to meet up with some others at a local pub/club called Lavery's. The club scene is really not my thing, but it was alright because that's what people wanted to do. :) We sang happy birthday to Hannes at midnight, which was cool. Daniela (Italian friend) bought me a Magner's Irish Cider, which was very sweet of her. I tried to pay her for it, but she said, "No, it's your birthday!" :) It turns out Linda doesn't really like clubs/dancing-to-techno-music, either, so she and I had a seat together in the back. I got tired pretty soon, tho, so Linda, Baptiste (French friend whom I was not expecting to see for my birthday but who thrilled me by coming), and I left "early," as in, before the others. I think it was around 1 or 2 in the morning.

I came home and had been almost sleeping for nearly a half-hour when my skype phone started ringing on my laptop. It was my family!! I picked up for them to wish me happy birthday. :D (To the three of you: I hope you didn't think I was drunk. I don't think I looked or sounded very lucid, but it was only because I had been sleeping, I promise! I didn't know if you were wondering, it being my 21st birthday and all, but rest assured, you needn't worry in that department! ;)) It was nice to see and hear from them. After that, I went to sleep for real, and so ended my 21st birthday in Northern Ireland. I'm so glad I got to celebrate it here. It made it so much more special, I think. :D

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was that I went to concert on Tuesday night - some band called Maximo Park. I had never heard of them, but Clarissa (German friend) had invited me to it a couple of months ago. I saw one of their songs on youtube, liked it, and thought, "Why not?" and bought the ticket. We unintentionally arrived three and a half hours early to the concert, but other than that, it was actually quite good. Maximo Park is very much a punk rock sort of band, so it was a fun concert. The lead singer is a really funny performer! He doesn't play any other instrument but has no trouble finding things to do. He dances and runs around and jumps up on these boxes. It was cool. Plus, he kept making these really weird faces at certain points. It was so funny! I think I have been converted to being a Maximo Park fan, now. I should really look into getting some of their music...

Well, that is all for now. Melissa arrives back from Japan tomorrow afternoon; I'm really looking forward to seeing her, again! Sunday, I have plans to go to church with Sydney at Fisherwick, then make another steak meal with some people from Mt. Charles. (Hannes decided he didn't do quite a good enough job on the other steaks and said we should make it our goal for the rest of the semester to keep trying until we get them perfect. A-okay by me! I'm good with steaks anytime!!) Then, early Monday morning, we fly to Brussels to meet Nicolas and start our European excursion. Woo hoo!!

I hope you all are well! Lots of love! :)