Birthday time

A few days ago that annual event came round again for the twentieth time. Turning 20 seemed a dull affair, I am able to do no more things than I was able to previously, the only positive (besides having an excuse to party) was that I am no longer a teenager, I haven't felt like one for over four years, so its about time I turned 20. My birthday started well - at the stroke of midnight I was studying really hard on a subject that I don't like, and for a while the next morning it continued in the same vein.

Once I'd woken up my day started properly it got off to a bad start with a big dose of homesickness, opening presents from my family highlighted how far from home I am and how little we know about each other at the moment. I went to an exceptionally dull lecture quite emotional, barely not crying and whilst being unable to concentrate on the lecture I decided to renounce my birthday. Unfortunately thanks to facebook announcing my birthday to all my friends it was impossible to pretend it wasn't, in fact one of my friends told my Arabic teacher and she got everyone to sing me happy birthday in Arabic. So my birthday forced itself upon me.

I almost did not open the rest of my presents, I wasn't sure I could face it without breaking down again, but I braved it and was very glad to have done so. My best friends had sent me a wonderful package of lots of little presents, they were not at all expensive, but they were so well thought through, they had put so much effort into making it. It made me cry for all the right reasons, it really made my birthday.

After opening the presents I went shopping for drinks for my party, well I didn't actually buy them, being too young, but I went with my English friend from next door and she physically brought them. I spent almost $200 on alcohol, but I got probably 8 litres of high-quality spirits (no cheap crap for my guests!), 4 bottles of sparkling wine and a case of Newcastle Brown, alcohol is much cheaper in America. I know that it may sound like I've spent a lot of money on alcohol, but I'd easily spend that much on alcohol within a month in England and I've hardly spent any money on alcohol since being here. Anyway, it was my birthday!

It had been quite a tiring day what with loads of studying, shopping and being homesick and so when I eventually got to see Oz I basically collapsed on his sofa. He was very sweet with me though and gave me a cuddle. For my birthday he got me a head torch (a torch on a headband, a bit like a caving torch - to any American reading this I mean a flashlight, I'm not in the habit of holding flaming torches to my head), he was really excited about just how useful it would be for our camping trip next weekend and how I should wear it whilst walking around IV, which I point blank refused to do, I don't try to be cool, but that is taking my geeky side too far. I had my apartment to myself and so we decided to get a take-away and have a romantic meal by ourselves. I sent Oz off to go and buy the food and tidied up and set the table, although having said that I couldn't use the lighter and so had to get Oz to light the candle. We had a lovely Vietnamese meal with a bottle of sparkling wine.

After dinner we cuddled on the sofa and watched an Indiana Jones film (Oz loves those films and I've been promising to watch those with him for weeks). We also drank a fair few cocktails (we had to test them out for my party) and got quite squiffy. All in all my birthday was pretty good.

This Friday I had my party and held a cocktail one, I love cocktails but cannot go and have them in bars, so I decided to bring them to me. It was also a good excuse to wear one of my nice dresses that I haven't had the chance to yet.

Typically I wasn't ready for the party it started despite having spent the afternoon cleaning and getting ready, when my first guests arrived I was in the bathroom getting dressed. Thankfully Oz had helped me set up and played the role of host. Soon enough I had drinks in all my guests hands and was playing the role of good hostess. I quickly discovered a real advantage to having a bloke at a cocktail party - you can steal their drinks with no feelings of guilt, and so get to try far more. I did try a few of my female friends ones, but it was more fun to nick Oz's, I got to cuddle up to him in the process.

Despite inviting plenty of Americans very few turned up and I had loads of international students in my apartment. This meant that when I lit the candles on my birthday cake I had happy birthday sung in not just English but Japanese, French and Dutch. I was dunk enough to really appreciate the variety. My party quickly got very busy and popular, and just as quickly people got very drunk. I am forever indebted to my English next door neighbour for getting far more pissed than me, apparently she was falling over so her boyfriend took her home. The last few hours of the party seemed to disappear, and before I knew it there was only 6 of us left, but for some reason the bathroom door was locked and no one knew who was inside. Five minutes later a very drunk Dutch guy stumbled out leaving vomit in the sink, lovely.

The next morning I awoke late to a messy apartment and a slight hangover. I had to be in Santa Barbara a few hours later so quickly got dressed and tried to tidy up. I discovered that a had no vodka or Bacardi left and very, very little Bombay sapphire, which is the only alcohol I really cared for. Ahh well, I'll just have to get Oz to buy me some. It had been a great party.