Birthday Recap

What a fun two days. If the past 48 hours are any indication of how the rest of my 23rd year of living will be then there are definitely good times ahead.

So after Tuesdays Genetics, I did go downtown for some shop therapy instead of my philosophy lecture (seriously, who would want to learn about Heidegger's theories of angst and dread on ones birthday? exactly.) So I headed straight for Zara down by City Hall because there was a dress there that I had my eye on for the black tie holiday ball next week. It fortunately fit great and ended up being way cheaper than i expected. an easy sell. then i spent another hour or so just browsing stores until I spent the birthday budget I ended up with a new top that was on clearance and a sexy headband from urban outfitters. Their headbands are one of my favorite guilty pleasures. love em.

So yep, after that I headed back home and instead of working on one of my 4 papers due next week, I watched a few episodes of Weeds online. Kyle raves about that show and we have pretty much the same taste in TV, so I decided to check it out. What a great show. I can't wait until I'm done with the semester and I can dedicate lots of lazy hours to getting through some seasons. At around 3, the Annas were out of their classes so we headed to the bus station to catch our ride to dublin fort he Lily Allen concert. wooooo

The bus ride seemed a lot longer than usual. AND the bus was actually stopped at the Irish border for a passport check. I have made that trip 5 times in the past 3 months and never have the checked passports. Of course I didn't have mine with me, and after a brief scolding they let me into the country. haha gotta love that border security.

We arrived at the bus station just in time for the concert. The doors for the concert opened at 6:30 and we didn't end up getting there until about 7:45. The show started at 8, so TG we didn't get there an hour and a half early. I only had time to order one 7 euro beer before the opener came on, so if we had waited any longer I probably wouldnt be able to afford this week's groceries. ha.



So Lily Allen was amazing. I haven't been to a big showy concert in a long time, and the vibe was great. Lots of lights and effects and energy. The O2 Arena in Dublin was also a very cool concert venue. It was enormous and there really wasn't a bad spot to watch from in the whole place. Lily was really cute and rocked it. She had a keg of Guinness on stage and was pouring pints for the people in the front row who couldn't get out for a drink during the show.



The show got out a little after 10 and we caught the 11 oclock bus back to Belfast. 2.5 hours later I was happy sleepy 22 year old ready for bed.

The next day (yesterday) was pretty typical during the day and I got a lot done on my Genetics paper, but then the nighttime was more fun and games. A bunch of Belfast friends joined me for a birthday sushi dinner at Sakura, a Japanese place near campus. The food was great. I got an order of Red Dragon rolls ( i kinda forget what was in them: salmon, sweet potato, avocado, cucumber?) and a bowl of seafood hot and sour soup. mmmmmmmmm. Then for dessert the whole table got sake bombbssss. That's when the real fun started. One sake bomb each turned into 3 or 4 pretty quickly. At that point one of the little waitresses had to come over and tell us to stop because we were "scaring the other guests". hahaha oops.


I got great things from the Belfast friends :) Anna and Anna got me a super warm comfy scarf and a box of dark chocolate ferrero roche chocolates. do they know me or what. Jenn made me a hilarious card full of lots of memories from the past 3 months, and Laura got me a cool candle holder thing from the Xmas market. Thanks again everybody :) I couldn't ask for better abroad friends.


Following sushi, Anna Anna Sean and I headed to Modest Mouse!!!!! at the student union. The student union on campus has a couple of bars and clubs inside, hosting a few concerts a week. Modest Mouse was great, playing about half old and half new stuff. They have TWO drumsets on stage which was ridiculous. We all shared buying rounds for each other and danced away. After the concert, the party headed over to the Bot for a few more drinks before calling it a night. They were playing live irish music so there was more dancing and and good convo. :)


Today i was on top of things. I headed to the library around 10 and just banged out my entire genetics paper. This puppy is worth 85% of my grade, and I think it turned out pretty good...at least for a first draft. It feels so good to have that one out of the way. Tomorrow I'm gonna start my immunology paper (worth all 100% of the grade), but it's the shortest paper so hopefully I'll have that one finished by Sunday. I am a paper writing robot. beep boop.

It's very weird to be leaving here in 10 days. I had been looking forward to going home so much when I had a ton of schoolwork left to do, but now that I'm getting it out of the way I'm starting to get sad. I have had some of the best times in my life in the past 3 months. Last night reminded me of all the awesome people that I met and really will miss when I go back to Boston/Merrimack life.

OH and tonight anna invited me over because she found out that they sell B&J PHISH FOOD FROYO IN BELFAST. where has that been for the past 3 months? not in my life obviously. but yes, oh so good. I think with that treat my birthday is now officially over. bring on 23.