Another fantastic week in the UK! First off, I didn't set any high hopes for this Thanksgiving because I was sad that I would not be spending it at home eating my Mom's cranberry sauce. But to my surprise, the Thanksgiving that the Kenyon-Exeter program threw was much homier than I could have imagined. First of all, we held the Thanksgiving dinner in a cute little pub that had Kenyon flags hanging all around the walls because they have been throwing the Kenyon Thanksgiving there for many years in a row. And I thought it was going to be a little awkward with all of the Professors there, but it turned out to be really nice to just sit down with them and talk outside of the classroom setting. And of course, THE FOOD. It was so much better than I thought it was going to be. Although I did miss some of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes such as sweet potatoes with marsh mellows on top and peas with onion dipped in garlic sauce, the turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy held their own at this feast. Although I do have to say, the cranberry sauce tasted store bought from a can! There is no way I can go a full year without tasting the deliciousness of my very own mothers cranberry sauce, so I may have to guilt trip her into making me some more when I come home to visit during winter break. So Thanksgiving dinner turned out to be really fun, although it would have been nice if the British believed in central heating. Even though there was a fire burning in the center of the room, if you wanted your limbs to be anywhere close to above freezing, you literally had to stand right in front of the furnace (or just drink a lot of ciders). But anyway, at dinner, I was talking to what seemed to be a young guy (late twenties, early thirties). He was really nice and bought me a few ciders (which I recommend if you come to England, they taste like juice they are so good), and after talking to him for a little bit longer, one of my Kenyon friends came over to me and told me that he was her professor! I couldn't believe it! He hadn't mentioned once that he was a professor and it made me feel weird that he was buying my drinks. So after I found out, I made my way into another conversation with a different group of people, although it was very nice of that professor to purchase my ciders. Take a look at the Thanksgiving pub where we held the feast:
Later that night I skyped my parents before they headed off for our annual Thanksgiving dinners in the Palisades. It was nice seeing them and I was so grateful that I was able to skype with Lucy too!
As you can see in the picture above, one of the Kenyon girls decided to dye the bottom of her hair purple. Later in the night, I asked her where she did it, as seeing that it was only days away from my 21st birthday, I realized that I needed to do something drastic/have an early midlife crisis. She told me that she bought the purple hair dye at the local drugstore and that there was some dye still left over and that she would give me the rest. So later that night, after I had skyped my parents, I decided that 21 is starting to get really old and that I needed to rebel one last time. But rather than dye the tips of my hair or dye all of my golden locks purple, I decided to just dye one streak of my hair underneath so that if I didn't like it, it wouldn't matter because I could easily cover it up. Although it's hard to decipher the purple in pictures, in person and in the sunlight, the purple is clearly there.
Friday morning I woke up happy, (and with a purple streak of hair), because I realized that I have the best friends in the world. Two of my really good friends from Kenyon who are studying abroad in other parts of England, decided that they would come to Exeter for the weekend to celebrate my 21st birthday with me! I was ecstatic! Even though I have met a lot of cool people here, it was great to focus all of my attention on Liz and Maggie since we are all abroad and I don't get to see them everyday like I do at Kenyon. So Friday night when Maggie got in we went out for Indian food and then I took her to the famous "Harry Potter" Firehouse pub. We had a ton of fun and experienced a real British life when we stopped for chips (french fries) on our way back to my flat. Then Saturday morning, Liz arrived. And as soon as she got into the train station, we headed straight into the city center for shopping! And boy did we shop! It was so much fun to have my friends by my side while trying on and buying the high fashion of England's finest, because well, I know that Maggie and especially Liz love shopping as much as I do. And at least I had an excuse to shop, it was my birthday, but I guess the other two pretended it was their birthday too so the guilt of running their credit cards through the machines wouldn't eat away at them at night. I know that I slept soundly. But the day as a whole = SUCCESS.
Here, Maggie and I are standing next to a giant Christmas tree in the city center of Exeter. Exeter gets so pretty in the winter time because they have tons of Christmas lights and decorations.
And then, it was time to celebrate my birthday...but not just any birthday, it was my 21st!!!! So the three of us went out Saturday night (because on midnight I was 21) and hit the town of Exeter with complete celebration. I was excited from the start and thought what better than be my own birthday gift?
And we lit a candle and my friends sang Happy Birthday to me. What better than a candle shaped as a champagne bottle on your 21st?
The night was a blast, although at times, turning 21, especially in Europe, made me feel old. We told all of the bartenders, but they didn't care. But finally, when the three of us went to the bathroom, we overheard two girls talking, and one saying that at midnight she was legally allowed to drink. I got so excited because not only did I find a birthday twin, but I found someone who understood the glories that come with your 21st birthday. However, when I went up to her and started talking to her, she informed me that she was seventeen and was turning eighteen at midnight. UGH. I felt like a little, old granny. What I would give to be turning eighteen again. I gave her words of advice and told her to enjoy her young age and live each day to the fullest because once you get old like me, your back goes out and so forth. (I had a horrible back spasm right before I left for Exeter that lasted for about a month...something that never would have happened when I was seventeen.) And to prove my point, when Liz was taking a picture of me later in the night, I wanted to look cute in the picture so I decided to jerk my head toward the camera at the last minute. Bad choice. Not only did the picture come out blurry, but I snapped my neck. I was in bad shape for about five minutes until the pain ceased, but those five minutes were painful. It's three nights later and my neck is still in spasm, but if I rub it gently it feels better so I'm pretty sure that by next week the muscle will go back to normal. At least a learned a good lesson for the future: I have to be more careful when posing for pictures, although for a good, non blurry photo, I neck snap here and there may be worth it.
The new friends we made in the bathroom! The girl all the way to the right is the one who is only turning 18.
The picture that came out blurry and gave me whiplash.
The next day, was Sunday, my actual BIRTHDAY! But because Liz was leaving that afternoon, we had to do a big birthday lunch rather than dinner. And we did. We went to a cute little restaurant and after having a satisfying meal, we decided that we still needed a birthday dessert. Liz secretly snuck candles to the waiter, and out of all of the desserts on the menu, we decided to go with the most expensive one called "the heart attack". And once served to me (with candles in it and people singing Happy Birthday), I knew immediately why it was called "the heart attack". Not only was there ice cream, but there were brownies, marshmallows, M&M's, chocolate sticks, fudge, and lots of whip cream. Take a look:
And after eating half of our body weight, we decided that a birthday could not be a birthday without more shopping. So before we dropped Liz off at the train station, we decided that we all needed a pair of little ankle boots, a fashion must here in England. But after eating that massive dessert, we decided to call them "cankle boots". And guess what? We all bought a pair of them. But not different ones...we all bought the same exact pair. It's fine because we are living apart from each other now, but senior year we are all living in the same apartment and now we all have the same pair of cankle boots. But that's nothing new for me and Liz. We've been roommates at Kenyon every year and sometimes when one would leave for the morning before the other woke up, we would see each other later on in the day and be wearing the same exact outfits. So matching and buying the same clothes is nothing knew for us, but all three of us in the same boots at Kenyon may be pushing it a little far.
I had such a great Thanksgiving (though I did miss my family!) and Birthday and want to thank every who wished me a Happy 21st! It meant a lot to me and made me feel closer to home although I am half way across the world. Stay tuned because I'm sure I will have more stories after this coming weekend. I am headed off to Norwich to visit Maggie and then to London all in one weekend! I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and ate homemade cranberry sauce!
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