Hey you're 21!?! Yeah, No One Here Cares...

     Obviously, the big excitement about turning 21 in America is being able to go out to the bars and order a drink. That is not the case around here as the legal drinking age is 18. So really there is nothing too special about turning 21 in England.
  
     I turned 21 at some point on Tuesday, September 27th; whether it was at 12:42 Denver time or London time I don't know. Tuesday was also my first day of classes and I decided that it would be exceedingly weird and not a great way to make new friends to walk up to my new classmates and proclaim my birthday girl status to them. So yeah, basically no one in this time zone even knew it was my birthday.

     I know that it sounds pathetic so far but I promise you it wasn't really! After a day of classes and a grocery store trip, good ole Sarah came over to celebrate with me! She danced over and gave me a lovely card and then we went out for a birthday dinner at a little Italian place in Angel that we sort of randomly decided on. Did you know that asking for a marinara pizza will get you pizza crust with sauce on it... no cheese? We didn't, but that's what we got! Luckily, it was some mighty delicious sauce and crust so we still managed to eat the whole thing and a side order of fancy meatballs.

     The only alcohol this restaurant offered was wine. I'm not a big wine fan and I wouldn't have had the slightest idea what to order (I know you're shocked) so we just stuck with water. Still though, a part of me really wanted to have a drink on my 21st birthday. So on our way home from the Italian restaurant Sarah and I made yet another stop at Sainsbury's. Let me tell you, I felt like a real champion watching that evening's purchase ride the conveyor to the till.

If a tub of Cornish vanilla ice cream and two ciders doesn't say
I'm 21, let's party! I don't know what does!

     In the UK it is standard for the clerks to check your ID if you look to be under 25 so I did at least get carded on my 21st birthday, that seems almost American! Plus, when we showed the guy our Colorado driver's licenses he got to chatting about how much he loved American football and the Denver Broncos, who knew! We took our glamorous purchase and headed back to my flat for the night.
    
     But wait there's more! The day before I had made a special trip to M&S to procure a cake for us to split in honor of both of our birthdays. Now,combine all of these things and we're getting much closer to a celebration...

Looks like a party to me!

     We spent the rest of the night watching Rio and jamming to it's insanely catchy songs while enjoying our ciders. It was a pretty big deal (to me) that I finished my whole bottle. It turns out that 500 ml of cider makes my feet really hot and leads to a very good night's sleep! (Hi Mom and Dad! How you doing with the drinking news? Weirding you out yet?)

Yep, with cake, ice cream, and cartoons the only thing setting
21st birthday apart from my 5th was the location... and the cider.

     I know I've joked around a lot in this post but honestly it was a really nice birthday and probably not all that different than what I would have done at home; though there wouldn't have been any Kopparberg Cider because they only sell it in New York in the U.S. I had a really nice evening with a good friend and truly enjoyed seeing so many lovely birthday messages from the other side of the pond on facebook and in my email. Thank you all for the wishes!

     In closing...


Cornish vanilla ice cream looks like a butt!