Birthday!!!

          Last week here in Spain I celebrated my 21st birthday! I woke up and had a delicious lemon cake for breakfast that my house mother made me and then I headed out to class where my classmates and professor surprised me with a beautiful rendition of Felix Cumplianos! During the previous class, my classmates and I had begged our professor to let us have a party in class for my birthday and he eagerly said yes! "We can have a party starting at exactly six o'clock!" he spouted in his lovely Andalusian Spanish...FYI six o'clock is the time our class ends. Obviously, sarcasm has no cultural boundaries.

          After class, I had a picnic lunch of chorizo, fresh baked bread, and strawberries by the Guadalquivir river. I got really lucky because my birthday was the first day of sunshine in 2 weeks of straight rain! Later on, I ended the day with a dinner of Tapas and Tinto Verano with a bunch of great friends.

         Compared to a 21st birthday in the United States, my Spanish celebrations were pretty darn tame. But hey, that's what happens when you're in a country where the drinking age is 18. And plus, I wasn't disappointed, the next day I had to be up early to visit Vienna Austria and Budapest Hungary for my Samana Santa vacation! I'll fill you in on those trips next time!