Birthday Weekend

      Last Sunday was my 21st birthday and I had a wonderful time celebrating with my friends here in London. There are six of us who are turning 21 this semester and, determined not to miss out on the American experience, we all made a pact that we would go out and pretend that turning 21 actually meant something here as well. So I invited the whole group to meet me Saturday evening at my favorite local pub (called The Builders Arms) and have a few drinks, and then head back to our flat.
      During the day I made a cake, bought some alcohol and mixers, and took a delightful pre-party nap. I woke up excited and feeling good, put on a dress and some make-up, and went downstairs to see if my friends were ready to go. When I walked in to the room, Erika exclaimed to me "Happy birthday! I talked to the weather gods and got some snow for you!" ..... Huh? That's when I looked out the window and realized that, while I was napping, it had been snowing like mad outside and everything was covered in two inches of snow! Then I got REALLY excited.

Part of the group at The Builders Arms

      We walked over to the pub, totally enchanted by the snow. Everything was so quiet and still - a rare occurrence in London - and beautiful. There were a few people already at the pub, claiming tables as they opened up. More and more people arrived until the entire Lewis and Clark group was there, taking up almost the entire upstairs section of the pub. We even absorbed a couple guys from Norway who were having a quiet drink, but seemed very happy to help me celebrate my birthday! They bought me a rum and coke, apparently mistaking me for a classy lady who actually drinks alcohol. My friends knew me better - they bought me vodka cranberries. :)
      We spent a couple hours having a wonderful time hanging out at The Builders, and then we decided to head home and continue the celebration there. (By "we decided" I actually I got a sudden craving for chocolate cake and demanded everyone go home with me to eat it.) However, the chocolate cake craving was immediately suspended when we walked outside and found several inches of beautiful dry snow covering everything. MASS SNOWBALL FIGHT BEGINS.
      And continues. And absorbs innocent people walking by. And continues. And eventually starts migrating towards home, never slowing down. Two hours later, we all collapsed on our doorstep completely exhausted. And then, of course, we remembered the cake again! In the flat I heated up some apple cider with spiced rum to warm everybody up and served it with my cake (chocolate with caramel frosting). I got to skype with Nik for a few minutes and pretend that he was there at the party too. A few people grabbed instruments and starting playing music, and we all sang/danced/clapped along for the rest of the night. Having everyone there together was really amazing and I don't believe I've ever laughed so hard for so long (and for me, that's saying something). I was one of the first to go to bed (good thing - apparently I slept through a flooded bathroom leaking gallons of water into the bedroom below it and all of the drama that came with that little issue) and didn't even have too bad of a headache the next morning. It was a very very wonderful birthday party.
      The next day, Sunday, was my actual birthday! The group went to Hampton Court (home of the royal Tudor family and others) which was very cool. Unfortunately it was too cold of a day to spend time a lot of time there though. We looked around, walked through the royal apartments, and then caught the train back home. That night I got to attend a dinner party at Sue and Albert's (our crazy awesome program leaders) flat! They are having us all over in small groups, and it happened to be my turn on my birthday.
      They served us an amazing four course tradition British meal with different wine pairings: Cucumber slices with creme freche and smoked salmon, baked portobello mushrooms stuffed with shrimp and rosemary sauce and champagne. Then lamb stew with prunes and eggplant, garlic mash, broccoli, and cabernet sauvignon. A cheese and fruit course with six different kinds of British cheese, pears, apples, and blueberries. I brought a bottle of chardonnay-viogner and it went very nicely with this course. And then sticky toffee pudding with double cream for dessert. We all had a really great time and it was so nice of Sue and Albert to have us over! What a lovely end to an awesome birthday weekend.