My half birthday party!!!!!

I love my friends here. It is official, I do!!!!!!! We've already known that but lately they've done a supremely amazing job at making me feel at home, loved, appreciated, and giggly.

Janna threw me a half-birthday party on Tuesday because my actual 20th birthday was so crappy. Yes, Julio and I went out to dinner, but it was still kind of early in our relationship and we barely talked! It was a good silence, but not what I was expecting or hoping for on my GOLDEN BIRTHDAY, of all things. Janna and friends in the fall figured that Julio would take care of me for my birthday but his passport that he got over christmas break ended up being my birthday present. Which is great, but I decided that could be my present so he didn't feel bad about making me anything, like I did for his in early October.

Janna felt pretty bad about the whole thing, and even worse when she found out about the package I opened on my birthday that had some extremely emotionally intense contents. My parents did send me an AWESOME fabric mobile of gingko leaves, one of my favorite trees, which hung on my closet rod until the end of the semester. It was a rainy, rainy day, and my host family almost forgot about my birthday, as admitted by my host mom. They did write me a really sweet card and gave me some yummy coconut macaroons...but when I tried one, it was literally chemical-testing and truly awful. I have no idea if something in them went wrong or who knows what but I had to spit it out. Bad news.

So all in all, this half birthday was going to be better than my real birthday because it was going to have cake, for starters, but it really did end up being FABULOUS!!!


Janna got me a Mickey and Minnie cake (hilarious) with a question mark candle because how old was I really?! There was tiramisu ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, SPRINKLES (!!!!!!!!), and even Champagne!! There were adorable cards from Kendra and Janna (THANK YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) that made me glad I'd stayed the whole year all over again so I could stay friends with them. I got a RAINBOW KITE that is missing one important part but will soon be fixed (and I can bring it home!!) and STICKERS. Does Janna know me, or what?!?!

Cameron, Miles, Simonne, Kendra, Saúl, Janna and Julio came and SURPRISED ME!!!! Such tricky kids. We laughed, we told stories about IES professors that are crazy, and all in all relaxed and enjoyed our sugar highs. It was amazing.
I'm off to Bilbao with Julio and will be back on Saturday. You can expect 6 billion photos to be posted ASAP!!!

Much love,
-Casey