I Got Older - Because the Alternative isn't that Great...

Hi all,
So yes, it is true...I may now legally drink! Oh, wait...I've been doing that for the past 9 months...However, when I now go back home I will continue to be able to. Phew. Anyhow...onwards!

In which Steph was Chided
I had decided ahead of time not to organize a party on my birthday - deciding that I didn't want to have to make my own cake. I decided to have a stress free day and do whatever I pretty much wanted. This means I had no firm plans whatsoever, but I knew it SHOULD involve lots and lots of ice cream. However, the night before my Birthday (which was the 15th), Molly cornered me and politely "bullied" me into having a dinner. Thank goodness for Facebook...
So the next morning I made a dinner reservation for 14 people at Rive Doite, going off a rough estimate. It's a smallish French restaurant with a whole menu of asparagus dishes. (Germany is actually experiencing a dearth of asparagus, especially the exotic white asparagus, but as the majority of it is grown in Bavaria - they've been simply hoarding it!) I was also told by Molly (and several other people) that I should host a party with Jake - my birthday twin.
However, he was in Prague until Friday night, so I decided to do it last night...the 17th.

The "Big" Day
My day didn't start out very differently from any other Thursday. So, I namely slept in until 10. I didn't have my English conversation class, as they're on vacation for 2 weeks before their last "semester". I went online and read the 8 (yes, 8...) e-cards my mom sent me. There was even one from the dog, which was pretty funny. Then I made the reservation (mentioned before) and embarked on my favorite pastime...shopping. Yes, I'm sure you'll have noted the sarcasm. However, I was in a buoyant mood and I really need some more summer clothes. So the saga continues...I kept a positive mood and after my second store (and WAY too many trips to the changing room...) I found a cute top and a sundress-thing. I considered this to be a great achievement, and rewarded myself with ice cream. Yay. Next I met Sara at Kevin's apartment (he and his girlfriend (French and German, respectively) are in our theater group) to help him with an English essay that had something to do with both equating humans with animals and not eating whales...However, he also had window cling paint, and so now I have a purple elephant drying at his apartment to go pick up. I then scrammed back to my apartment to change and walked to the meeting point for dinner.

Dinner went very well, about 16 people showed up and dinner conveniently coincided with happy hour. However, moderation was observed by all and it was a great dinner. Afterwards, someone made the brilliant suggestion of having ice cream (this someone's very modest as well...) and so that was also accomplished. As fate would have it, it was also the night for the Vor der Grieb dorm party, which one of my dinner guests was bar tending. The dorm is only a 3 minute walk from mine, and the Irish girls roped me into coming. They also made it their mission (along with Suvi, the bar keep and her "Suvi special") to make my birthday a proper 21 celebration. I'll let you read between the lines...

Saturday: Jake and Steph's B-day Bash!
So, after a Friday to recover and grocery shop for yesterday, I got up Saturday morning and baked a cake. Since it wasn't actually my birthday, I was ok with this. I made my ever-popular Black Forrest Cake. Sara made an absolutely amazing chocolate cake and Charlotte made "Welsh Cakes" - which are actually cookies.
While we were in the kitchen, Sara brought out a bag of miniature Reese's Peanutbutter Cups - which Charlotte had never had before. Sara offered her one, and we all had one. However, as Sara unwrapped hers...Charlotte's eyes got very wide. We had just asked her how she liked it and she had said it was ok - but apparently got better as she realized she had to take off the INNER wrapping as well...How do you eat YOUR Reeses?
Much laughter ensued, and continued as Flo (Jake's friend), a German, almost made the same mistake a few minutes later.
I helped Jake make guacamole later, and we winged the party pretty much. We hadn't reserved the room, but it all worked out in the the end. The cakes lasted, plenty of people showed up, there was white wine and beer (and only one bottle of red, which was kind of funny) and it just the perfect amount - only one of each was leftover. Probably helping to keep the mess/spill factor down (as the floor slants quite noticeably in the room), is the fact that we didn't have any hard alcohol present. As I was hostessing, I didn't actually drink, which helped me to stay up until sometime past 3, when the last guests were ushered out.
Even though it was last minute, at least 25 people showed up - so we called the joint bash a large success.

So, now I've been up for several hours and finished washing/cleaning up the kitchen (we cleaned the room last night - a rather easy task) and decided to blog about it. There should be a few pictures up.

Hope everything is well,
Steph

PS. A few night ago there were what sounded like 20 German men robustly singing out my window. I missed their loudest song, but I think I have a clip I'll download...just to give you a taste of my unintended night-life!