my 21st birthday

I've been 21 for two days now. It's still a little surreal. I can still remember my 13th birthday. My 16th. My 18th. It's my second year of non-teenagedom. And my first year as a legal adult. It's crazy. Turning 21 in England was great. It wasn't anti-climactic, as most people had suggested. I had an awesome day.

Okay. So going to my tutorials in the morning wasn't fun. But class never is when it's your birthday and the last thing you want to do is go. I had lunch at the dining hall with the usual lunch crew, then went into city centre to shop for a birthday dress. It took hours. Seriously. I went in every posh shop on High Street, places like Primark and Top Shop, before finally going to Debenham's.

And that's where I found it. A floaty blue v-neck dress that I loved. I almost bought one similar to it at LK Bennett, but realized that it was too similar to the bridesmaid dress I'm wearing to my cousin Michelle's wedding. Plus the LK Bennett dress was £199, while the one at Debenham's was £35. And both dresses were the same cut. Then I found some fabulous dark grey metallic snakeskin pumps at Faith, this shoe store in the Westgate Shopping Centre. I went to several shops before finding candles for the awesome cakes that Kelli baked me. Turns out, there's a cake shop in the Covered Market. I definitely want to go back to the Covered Market and just wander around.

Once I got back to the house, Kelli and I got ready. Trish and Kate were in class. When they got back, poor Trish was sick. Kelli and David accompanied Trish to the pharmacy, then met up with Kate, Erika, Ann, Ann's friend, and me at Saffron. The food was fantastic. We had popadoms and the different sauces & chutneys for appetizers. I ordered my first drink as a 21-year-old...a Long Island, of course. There was definitely coconut Malibu in it. Which was strange. But it was still really good. I got one of the chef's specialties, except extra spicy. It was amazing. And naan. Most people had naan instead of rice. The waiters also brought me a huge piece of chocolate cake with that mango ice cream in the raspberry drizzle. So much delicious food! I was ridiculously full, though, and I also wanted to enjoy the cakes Kel made.

After we all walked back to the house, I put on the tiara that Kel got me and the "kiss me it's my birthday" pin that Ames gave me. Then I blew out the candles on my cakes in the dining room. The Coven, Katie, Drew, Cam, Adam, Joel, and Robbie went to Kukui. We got our dance on. And everyone bought me drinks. My dress was fun to spin in. We had lots of fun dancing. Half of the clubbing group went home early, then Kel, Adam, Drew, and I tried to sketch at the Turtle. Sadly, the manager or the owner or whoever some dude was recognised Drew and said that Drew was barred. Drew tried to order us drinks, but a security guard escorted him out. It was insane. We just left, since we didn't want Drew to be alone.

In order to make Drew feel better & because I had the drunchies, we got kebaps at Hussain's. I'd never had one before. And, of course, I wanted drunchie food. We took a taxi home & all of us chilled in the kitchen. I ate the chips first and couldn't even eat my kebap, since I was so full. It was sort of a waste. But whatevs.

I thought I was going to just pass out, but I ended up watching Charlie's Angels with Drew, Joel, and Robbie in the TV room. It was just as bad as it was the first million times I'd seen it. Haha.

Still. I had an awesome birthday. I spent the majority of yesterday sleeping off my hangover. Haha. I didn't get up until 3:30PM. I didn't venture out of the Coven's room until a couple hours after that to be Adam's sous chef while he was making a penne pasta bake. Kate, Erika, Ashley, and I went to dinner at the dining hall, which was unimpressive. I ate it anyway, as it was the first thing I'd eaten all day. Haha. Then I nicked some of Adam's pasta bake. And Kate & I tidied up the kitchen.

In spite of having a great birthday, I miss everyone back home. But we're going to celebrate, Athens-style when I get back. And I'm excited because my parents are going to visit at the end of the term. Yay!