The Big 23

This weekend I celebrated my birthday...the first birthday that I’ve ever celebrated away from my family and certainly the first birthday that I’ve celebrated in a foreign country. For about a month now, I’ve been thinking about what I wanted to do for my birthday. I considered travelling to another country like Malta or Portugal (the tickets were really cheap) and then I thought about the fact that it would be just as great if I celebrated my birthday in Spain, or even better.

At the beginning of last week I spoke to my friends in Alicante and asked them what they were doing on the weekend. I told them that it was my birthday weekend and that I really didn’t want to be alone or in Jávea and they told me that they would love for me to come there. One of my friends even asked me what I wanted her to cook me for my birthday dinner. I definitely wasn't expecting that but I was so excited!

Someone Really Likes Gelato

Early Saturday afternoon I took a bus to Alicante and got in at around 3:30pm. After arriving I immediately went to my friend’s piso and chatted with her for a while. She told me that she had baked a chocolate cake for my dinner that night and that they were also going to make me fried chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, and garlic bread. They had also invited some of their friends to partake in the festivities. Since we still had a lot of time until dinner, we then decided to walk around outside. So we met my other friend and then decided to get some gelato. I absolutely love the gelato shop in Alicante, the gelato is so good! While eating our gelato we went to a small garden outside of a cathedral that was so beautiful and smelled of fresh jasmine flowers and so we sat and ate our gelato there. After that, we went to the beach and walked around the sand for a while and then we went to a coffee shop that had great international coffee. We had a cup of coffee and enjoyed the weather that day.

Dinner

Later, we went to my other friend’s piso and they began to cook.  They wanted me to be involved in the cooking as little as possible, but I did chop up some carrots for the salad because I wanted to do something. Eventually, my other friend came to help cook and the four of us in the kitchen reminded me of the Thanksgiving that we had there, when we had no idea how to work most of the stuff in the kitchen but we still had a lot of fun. While the dinner was cooking, we sipped on some wine. One of my friend’s French roommates and her boyfriend were staying for the dinner so I talked to them while they kept pouring me more wine while saying, “es tu cumpleaños” (It’s your birthday)!

When the dinner was ready (it didn’t take long at all) we all dove in. there were about 8 of us in all, my three American friends, one of the girl’s Italian friends, another one of the girls German and French roommates, and the French roommate’s Peruvian boyfriend. It was such a great mix of people and we all had a really good time. The food was so delicious and all that I could have asked for.  After eating, drinking and chatting for a while, my friends brought out a chocolate cake topped with strawberries and mandarins and filled with lit candles. Everyone sang happy birthday to me (I can’t remember whether it was in English or Spanish) and I made my wish and blew out the candles… or at least I thought that I did. It turns out that my friend had bought trick candles, so I needed a lot of help blowing them out.  I cut the cake and it was so moist, chocolaty and delicious! I am now a huge fan of my friend’s chocolate cake.

Birthday Cake

After hours of eating, drinking, chatting and attempting to tidy up, some of us then began to get ready to go out. I normally have mixed feelings about going out. I’ve never been much of a going out person but since I’ve been to Spain (and because I’ve been living in boring Jávea) I have had much more of a desire to go out at night. I was especially anxious to go out on Saturday night because I was celebrating my birthday. Unfortunately, some of my good friends didn’t go, one was very tired and the other had an allergic reaction to the wine. But I did go out with one of my friends, her Italian friend and we met up with one of the American guys living in Alicante.

We went out close to 2:00 that night (which is a normal Spanish going out time) and we returned at almost 7:00am. We bar hopped, met different people, danced and I had the time of my life.  I am also very happy to say that I can now check off  #32 on my Bucket List, “Party like a Spainard.”

On Sunday morning I woke up a little late (but surprisingly early considering the night I had), got dressed, and walked around the beach area with my friend.  The weather was also beautiful that day so we sat down and enjoyed the ambience. We had planned to meet my other friends for lunch at an Indian restaurant that they wouldn’t stop talking about so we met up at about 3:00pm and began to eat. I love Indian food so I was so excited to try it out and the food was great. I had some kind of rice and onion dish for my first plate, curry chicken and rice for my second plate, and also some Indian bread. At the end of the meal, the waitress brought us out some homemade mango ice-cream that was so good, and I also had coffee. I definitely understood all of the fuss that my friends were making,

Alicante Beach

I had to hurry up and grab my bags from my friend’s piso when we finished because I had a bus to catch and I was running late. After grabbing my bags they walked with me to the bus station and once we got there I realized that It was too late to buy my ticket and so I missed that bus(my second time missing a bus in Alicante). Afterwards I went back to my other friend’s piso because I then had time to get the rest of the chocolate cake from the night before, and we chatted for a while until it was time for me to head back.

I wanted to catch the earlier bus back to Jávea because I had planned to bake some brownies to take to school the next day (Apparently in Spain, everyone bakes their own dessert for their birthday and brings it to their job to share with their co-workers) and I also had to prepare a presentation for the niños. However, once I got back to Jávea it was around 9:30pm and I was tired. I talked to my family members (they wished me a happy birthday), took a shower, ate dinner and finished about half of my presentation.

My birthday in Spain was everything I hoped for and more. I never imagined that I would have such a good time and feel as special as I did. I am so grateful to have such great friends in Spain to share my experiences with (even though they live kind of far). And I am especially grateful to be able to see another year (thank you God). This was honestly one of the best birthdays that I’ve ever had, not only because I celebrated it well, but because celebrating my birthday in Spain has really made me realize how far I have come and how much I have grown as a person. Just imagining where I was ten years ago (a young girl so shy and not so confident but with big dreams) and comparing it to where I am now (a young confident women so eager to explore the world, meet new people and accomplish my goals) really puts things in perspective for me. Living abroad is not easy to do, but I am doing and I am loving it and I am so grateful for this opportunity.

Cheers…. To me turning 23!