forget about the pigs...

So my day started at the normal 7.45 rushing to get ready and out the door for my morning commute to school. I was greeted first by Matthew as we met to go to school in the courtyard outside our buildings. I then received a beautiful pair of earrings- green (my favorite) wrapped up in a little box with pretty red string. It still didn't feel like my birthday though. We continued our travels and arrived at school with enough time to get another cup of coffee. Class was painful living with the theory of "but it's my BIRTHDAY!!" so I don't have to do anything I don't want to do. I sat through two hours of classes, and then we had a break at which to my surprise received another little box from Matt. It was a matching necklace to the earrings. It made it even more difficult to sit through another hour of class.
The sky was blue and not a cloud in the sky. We enjoyed a lovely lunch outside, taking in some sun. I received many wonderful birthday greetings, but for some reason it still really didn't feel like my birthday. I had one more class to go to after which we rushed home to make sure we made it to church and be good Catholics and get ashes. Matt had commented early in the day that he was rather surprised that for a predominantly Catholic country, no one had a cross on their forehead. I agreed that this was very strange, but we just assumed that it was because we were on a college campus. We lated found out that they sprinkle the ashes in your hair instead. I thought it was a very interesting change. Mass was a challenge in a different language, but we understood the most of it. We hurried back because I was expecting to have a birthday dinner with my family. Alas, no. Grandma had come again and made tons of absolutely delicious food; however, seeing I was going out with my friends, I had to eat earlier and wound up eating alone. I didn't even see my senora yesterday. And no birthday cake. I was beginning to get very, very homesick.
I got ready and dressed up to celebrate in style. I had my tiara and was ready to party. Matt and I met Sara and headed over to the bar where everyone was supposed to meet. We started the celebration without everyone. Sara bought me my first drink, the bar tender offered us a free round of birthday shots, and the night slowly started to roll.


About an hour or so later, several others started to show up. We made a friend who was trying to promote the club. Thomas from Finland. He bought all the ladies in our group a shot and got the atmosphere in the room going.




A little later Meghan, Justine and Kate showed up. Kate had bought a bottle of Champagne to celebrate with.



Meghan Elizabeth 's :

And I got some birthday kissies:


It was a very fun night, but it really didn't feel like my birthday. No cake, no one sang me "happy birthday." I missed everyone so much.
I felt a little better today, I got my birthday cards from my mom, grandma and dad. . .

Seeing I got to bed around 4.30 this morning, today was interesting. I woke up at 8.30 and got out by 9.00 to make it to my 10.00 class with my hot professor, Domingo. I had met our friend Diego on the bus this morning. It was funny because he recognized me immediately and he was afraid that I had no idea who he was, and I had expected him not to remember me at all. We talked on the bus ride to school and then Sara and I met up with him for lunch again after class. I had one more class and then met up with Sara again and we went shopping at Alcampo again.
Considering I got 4 hours of sleep, I'm pretty exhausted now and I think I am going to either take a nap or tough it out a few more hours and go to bed ridiculously early. I am officially on my weekend, so I'll actually get to sleep in tomorrow. YAY! Hopefully it will be nice tomorrow and I can get some reading done in the park. Then Saturday we're off to Extremadura.


Word of the day:
VAPID: lacking liveliness or significance or spirit or zest