Cumpleaños Feliz!

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Hi everyone!



It’s been a while since I’ve had a minute to write because things have been pretty busy here since the beginning of March! I’ve got a lot of catching up to do so just be prepared I will be posting a blog a day for about the next 4 days. I know! Yay, right?! Right?



A few Saturdays ago my friend Blair who is studying in London came down to Seville to work on a project so I got to show him around! I guess he’s actually more studying in Europe than in London, he’s based in London like 3 days out of the week, but the other four he and his group spend travelling. On the surface it sounds pretty fun, which I know travelling is neat, but I also know that travelling is super tiring and they seem to spend a lot of their travel time studying. Anyways, his semester project is on and expo that took place in Seville so it worked out nice to go up and meet Blair and walk around with him while he took photos for his project. I was a little worried he wouldn’t want to walk around and I would have to figure out the buses, but it was a really beautiful day and Blair likes to walk so it worked out pretty well. It turned out to be about 4 hours of walking around Seville; he’s lucky that’s my favorite city in Spain. Every time I go back I literally love it more and more. After all that walking we clearly needed to walk some more so we hiked up the bell tower, La Giralda in the Cathedral and just enjoyed how nice a day it was. One of the perks of living at practically the southernmost point of Europe is that it is also one of the warmest areas in Europe, unlike London which is very gray, and cold, and I hear Blair is a fan of Hawaii so you can imagine how the gray and cold is going over with him.



Speaking of gray and cold, Carly was in Sweden that weekend so I spent a lot of time out and about wandering around the rest of the weekend because there wasn’t much else to do and the weather is getting really nice here. Monday was the twelfth, aka National Girl Scouts Day. Just kidding, the twelfth is my birthday and last semester my host family and Natalie and I had a conversation about when everyone’s birthdays are. I being my Mother’s daughter put them all on my calendar so I wouldn’t forget. As my birthday drew nearer I was starting to get the feeling Pepa didn’t do the same, so I figured we could avoid the uncomfortable moment where I have to remind them it’s my birthday and perhaps I just wouldn’t say anything and my birthday would pass without a fuss. I thought maybe Alba would figure it out when she ran into me at the copy shop trying to make those color copies of my license that are apparently illegal to make in Spain and when I said, “Oh, well my license expires soon when I turn 21 so I am trying to renew it.” I figured that would be the cue for her to ask, “Oh, your birthday is coming up? When?” But it wasn’t and the line was really long so she left and went to another copy shop.

Monday morning breakfast confirmed that they had forgotten, so we went with plan B of just not mentioning anything, which was easy because I have class all day and I don’t usually get home until about 7pm, then it’s just dinner and we would go out and we would be back after they get in bed so the plan seemed pretty fool proof. A little after 8pm Carly came home opened the door and, “WOOOOOO!! 21!!!!! Let’s go get you a cake!” Then it really started to feel like my birthday.

On the way she says, “Oh, by the way, did the family not know it was your birthday?”

“No, I don’t think so. I mean we talked about it last semester but I thought it would be weird to bring it up and just say, ‘Oh, by the way my birthday is tomorrow.’”

“Yeah, I see what you mean. Um, well, ok, so when I got home and opened the door and said ‘Hi’ but then I was like ‘Where’s Devin?! It’s her birthday!’ and Pepa was really confused and they were like ‘Its Devin’s birthday and she didn’t say anything?’”

“Oh no. Did she seem mad?”

“I couldn’t tell.”

So plan B failed and now it was on to plan C: wait and see what Pepa does. This could be a very angry Pepa, hurt Pepa, or “no pasa nada” Pepa. Clearly the Pepa I prefer is the latter. Turns out what Pepa does is ask why I didn’t say anything, then give me a hug and make me a flan pie. I love flan. She even tried to make it sugar free because I gave up processed sugar for Lent (which is very difficult when you have a birthday during Lent, I might add, and when half the Spanish food pyramid is chocolate filled pastries). The flan pie had a cookie crust, whipped cream and chocolate chip cookies, but I was so touched she threw it together so fast I ate it, just like I ate the cake my friend Stephanie made me on my 19^th birthday when I gave up sweets for Lent. I should start doing something extra for Lent instead of giving up things, it just doesn’t work. At this point I think I need to go about a week past Easter to make up for all the days I’ve eaten sugar. Last year I did really well with peanut butter, no one thought I could do that one. Honestly, I should just say I gave that up again then I will have done really well for Lent plus about 4 or 5 months.

Anyways, it was really nice that the family all got together and did that for me. However we still had Carly’s cake too. Pepa, “What’s that”

“Oh, it’s a cake I got for Devin for her birthday.”

“Oh.” –Pepa exits.

“Oh crap, do you think she’s mad I got you a cake?”

“No. Well, she shouldn’t be, it’s not like she got me one.”

Then we saw the pie Pepa made and realized that she had realized that now we were all going to have to eat two cakes. Pepa’s was better than the store bought one, obviously, so that was gone pretty quick, but it took a few days to get the other one gone.



After dinner we went out to meet with the other API-ers (the other kids in my American group) at our favorite hangout, Woodstock Bar for some drinks. We even invited Alba to come, but she was already in her pajamas. It’s sort of like me with my retainer, once it’s on, I’m not going out.

It was pretty weird thinking that I’m actually 21, but unlike Carly I’m not really a “WOOOO! 21!” kind of person, so it was pretty low key, just the 7 of us hanging out. The other nice thing is that there are only 6 of them so when the take turn buying drinks it’s not like it would have been were I at Clemson where I have a lot of friends all buying drinks while I have an alcohol tolerance of -500 and quite possibly would have either had to give drinks away or been on the floor. While I really wished I had my friends from home with me, some things happen for a reason; now at least I have a chance to bring the tolerance level up to 0 before I get back. 😊 But since I’m 21, and its ok, I have no shame in telling all of you what I got to drink for my 21^st birthday. Alex got me a Whiskey and Coke; Emily got me a Capriokski (?) (What is that thing called Leigh?) It’s like a Lemon, Lime, Bitter with alcohol in it I guess, Carly got me a Bailey’s milkshake and Jesse and Holly bought shots for the table and I got to take my first shot ever. It took me so long to drink those Tyler never got the chance to get me anything before we were all too tired, I mean it was a Monday night after all.



It was a pretty fun birthday, and I got to spend it with my friends at our favorite hangout where the bartenders know us so well they brought us free pizza bites for my birthday! I learned a lesson: I should have just told my family it was my birthday, but coming from a great birthday card I once received, Carly was like my birthday spackle – she covered all the holes I missed. 😊



Love you and miss you all! 😊



Love always,

Devin 😊

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Photos

Birthday Flan!
Just like Monica made Rachel!

The Fam
Alba, Selu, Pepa and Me