I'M 21!!! Yeah, I had my 21st birthday (January 17th, for those of you not in the know) in Montpellier! Totally meaningless in significance to the US, but who cares! It fell at just the right time to ensure that old friends were back from their respective breaks, and that the city has officially come back to life. My mother left the day before (the 16th), and while I was sad to see her go, I was beyond giddy and ecstatic to see my friends again and start the approach back to normal life, as it has been the past 4 months or so. As full of cheese as it may sound, this really does feel like home now - as much as for the people as the location.
I couldn't have spent a happier birthday. It was nothing huge, really. I invited a couple lady friends over to enjoy some good bottles of wine (yippee!) and have some girl talk as we tried on clothes and makeup, and one of these lovely girls volunteered her services to make dinner. Beef burritos and chips with salsa, cheese, and guacamole...with wine? Oh, yeah! This was followed by me providing dessert, the exceptionally high-class fare of sliced apples with Nutella to dip.
A few hours and a couple outfits later, dressed to kill and sufficiently make-upped, out we went for a night on the town, joined by a couple other friends! Danced our behinds off, and I generally felt pretty darn good all day/night. That, combined with all the birthday wishes from back home (people haven't forgotten about me!!) and from other friends we ran into on the tram and in town made for one happy birthday. I feel like quite the lucky girl. It wasn't the big, stereotypical go wild 21st birthday bash, but then again that's not really me, is it? No hijinks or trouble, just good tunes, good friends, and good times. Can't ask for much more than that.
So, now that the party's over (aww, say it ain't so!) after the first Latin night of the semester on Tuesday and another night of fun on Wednesday, I'm finally getting a breather and looking forward to just starting classes again. I feel like such a little go-getter, having arranged to take my integrated biology courses over at the science campus, talking to various people and getting all the right papers to make it work. The nerd in me felt right at home in the research wing of the biology department when I went to meet with an advisor; nothing like good ol' science (beakers, 'scopes, and that slightly sterile smell) to lighten the mood!
Okay, geek moment over. Moving on, classes start next week - finally! The French are quite lah-dee-dah when it comes to schedules and stuff, so it's pretty much just going to whichever schedule I want and signing up for real after. Right now I'm looking at Histoire de la Terre, Bases de la physiologie animale, and Developpement des organismes to which I've forgotten the rest of the title (involving embryology and such). I'm not taking all of them, though. I'll haunt the classes the first couple weeks until I see which I'd prefer and how they may work with my schedule at UM3.
In other news, I've bought a new bike and even got an impressive, intimidating metal chain straight out of an action movie as a free gift from a stranger who helped me break the old one after someone apparently tried to force it but failed (seriously)! Once again, French people for the win. You've just got to have a little cultural savoir faire and be in the right situation, I s'pose!
And last but not least, I'm going to try my hand tomorrow at making homemade chocolate truffles. Until next time, here's to hoping my kitchen doesn't turn into a war zone!
And, hey look - me on a camel, with some triangular things in the background.
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