Turning Twenty-One

Original date of post: 19 January 2009 ;)

Wow, twenty-one. I cannot believe it in some way and in another, I'm exuberant about it. This entire day has been filled with excitement, wonder, and new experiences. I must say that God always has a way of putting us at the right place at the right moment for the right purpose and tonight, while I'm sure some would argue one way or another, was the perfect 21st birthday celebration for me.

It started off routine as the last couple of days have, the days tend to merge together as I've spent most of my time reading either at the Bodleian library, at home, or at my friends' place. (For those eager to find out about just the birthday celebration part, skip to the next paragraph.) I had a quiet time in the morning after my shower and breakfast, and then a meeting with my secondary tutor about my course with him, which was good discussion about the particulars of reading strictly Virginia Woolf's works but also putting some of James Joyce's works in one of the sessions to help compare different writing styles from the period. Afterwards, I had lunch in my college dining hall at Hertford College, where I've tried to eat most days because it charges my meal card that gets billed to me later and later is better since at this point I still hadn't gotten my debit card and I was running on 21 GBP (Pounds) for survival but I got it later tonight... I sat down to eat and got to talk to Daryn, also part of OPUS, and met a first-year named Charles from the US, then said hello to the study abroad students from Japan I met the other night when I went to a club with my friends Maggie and Yvonne. (Long story short, for 4 GBP I went to a club called Kukui and got to see the British social scene in action). They were sitting with a British student, Sebastian, whom I was happy to meet. Once lunch finished, I went to the Bodleian to do some readings from the books I got from the book stack. For those who do not know, the Bodleian library is Oxford's main library and it does not allow anyone, including the king, to borrow its books but rather you must read your readings on the floor you have them at, and the stack is where they keep copies of millions of books, so some books must be "ordered" from the stacks to be read. Needless to say, photocopying has become a favorite hobby of mine so that I do not have to spend my entire life at the library. I stayed at the library until about 4:30 p.m. then went to my college library basement to type up some of my quotes I needed for my paper due Friday until about 5:45 p.m. because I arranged to meet the girls at George and Cornmarket St., approximately four or five blocks from where I was, at 6 p.m. to celebrate my birthday!

Now, let me introduce the girls to those of you in the States. All of the girls are from APU, Aruza Pacific University, a Christian university in Southern California, though not all of them are from Cali. They are Joelle (my roomie), Kristin, Jaclyn, and Emily. All of them except for my roomie live in the same house and that has been the house about 2-3 blocks down from me that I've been going to often to study, and many times for internet access so I can email and if possible, chat with those back home. We have all bonded quite a bit over the last couple of days especially as we've gotten to know each other more and more, and by now I have spent enough time at their place in these few days that I basically only go home to eat, sleep, and shower and have some private time alone. They met me at 6 p.m. and gave me a couple of options, and after some conversation, we decided on an Indian restaurant called Chutney's. It was definitely an experience. The service was... iffy to say the least, and basically the workers didn't like us. But the food was good, and I enjoyed myself if for no other reason than that I was with these amazing girls out for dinner on my birthday. They wouldn't let me spend a dime, and told me I wasn't lifting a finger for my drink later on either.

Now, for the truly 21 part of the story... We decided to go to the Oxford Union Society bar for my first drink. It was right down the block from where we were and it was inexpensive, not to mention in a great spot because the Union Society is beautiful. We get to the bar and find it relatively empty, with a few people sitting down. Next was figuring out what I should get... Now, frankly, I know next to zero about alcohol, so I let the girls decide for me. And Emily, who used to mix drinks herself, gave me the 411 on drinks and what's good to get for a first drink. I looked at the list and picked one of the cocktails, the title of which I will only share with a selected few to shock people at my whim... kidding! (Sort of...) Anyhow, it is a vodka, creme de criss, motdi (no idea how to spell this, but it's a foundation mix is what Emily said), and mango juice drink equivalent of a margarita in the States. It tasted wonderful, like a smoothie with a tinge of alcohol in it. I tried to take it easy, drinking little by little from my bendy straw, also trying Kristin's rum coke (that was amazing) and Jaclyn's hard cider (it seemed a little much for me, but it was okay). But I was proud of myself for having finished my entire drink and still being almost completely sober with little to no effects other than a small tinge at the back of my head and being a little sleepy. Otherwise, it was just any other enjoyable drink. We took pictures then left the bar and started walking towards Sainsbury's for groceries because the girls wanted to make something, but it closes at 8 pm and we were pushing it so Joelle and Emily RAN to the one at the Westgate shopping mall, saw that the entrance was closed, and then ran to the other side entrance while Kristin, Jaclyn, and I just walked briskly and later got stopped when we tried to go in by the guard. Jaclyn, pleading with the guard to go in, finally got to go in to "get bread". Kristin and I stayed back and waited... and the guard started talking to us, then no joke, started asking us where we go to school, our years, commented on my ethnicity (not fun), commented on how horrible Bush was for the world economy (not fun for Kristin, a conservative), and gave us the whole spew of his life story in the UK... until Jaclyn and Joelle and Emily came out, YAY! I clung onto Kristin and stared at her creeped out face as she kept saying, "let's wait until we get outside... wait..." and once outside, immediately bursted into "What the crap was that!" I laughed so hard I could barely stand up. Creepster security guards at Sainsbury's, watch out. Haha.

We got back to their (Kristin, Jaclyn, and Emily's) place which I will refer to as the APU house from now on. The girls made an awesome dessert of just baked chocolate chip cookie with ice cream on top and I was upstairs with Kristin in her room, using her computer until they called me downstairs for the surprise. I waited anxiously at the dining table as they carried it, still warm in its pan and sang happy birthday to me on its way to the table. I thanked them and took the first bite, SO incredible. Not long after, it was devoured by our hungry selves. We took more pictures, then Joelle and I went to get our laptops from our place and come back to the house, and by that time, Kristin was ready for bed so she said good night, and Joelle and I spent a few more hours in Emily's room with her and Jaclyn until it got late and we headed home.

Overall, this will certainly be one of the best days of my life, and it has made me feel blessed to be at Oxford, blessed to be 21, blessed to be so blessed by God and the people in my life who have made this day so special to me. I don't know what tomorrow will hold, or the rest of my time abroad, but today was fantastic, and I know that it will all turn out all right because He wills.