Finally a Real Adult

Hi everyone! Long time no see. Sorry about that. I’ve been extremely busy since school started getting going, and I promise to write about all of that soon! But since it’s recent and exciting, this post is going to be about my birthday. Woo!

This was the birthday when I finally became a legitimate adult. The big 21. At Iowa (the number one party school), this celebration would have probably been over the top. Here, though, where I still knew very few people, I was picturing myself drinking alone in the dark.

BUT thankfully, that was not the case! I ended up having a very pleasant birthday. I started it off with a biostats test at 8 AM.. ugh. But it was nice to have that done early. When I finished classes I got to come home and open the awesome gifts that my even more awesome brothers sent me! That was exciting.

That night I had Bible study, and they had made me a cake! I didn’t know they even knew it was my birthday, so it was a really nice surprise. I completely failed at blowing out the candles, but they let me have a second shot at it, and I think I redeemed myself a little bit.

Then when they found out it was, in fact, my 21st birthday, they would not hear of me NOT celebrating. So a big group took me out to a place that makes craft beers and I got to try several! The waiter looked at me like I was a total weirdo when I told him I didn’t know what I liked to drink, but once he got past that, he brought me a bunch of samples.

They all tasted varying degrees of horrible.

..I think beer will be an acquired taste. But it was still tons of fun! All of the delightful people in the group made my birthday so much better than I thought it would be.

I got to continue enjoying my official adulthood that weekend as well! I was invited to a winery tour/tasting in Canada, so I took a inter-country day trip with some lovely friends.

We started off with the winery tour, which was pretty cool. One of the best parts was the barrel room where they let the wine age in oak:

The tour itself was awesome, despite our tour guide being extremely blasé. I don’t think she could have been less enthused about our presence. But she still served us wine, so that made it a little bit better. I liked the wine tasting much more than the beer attempt.

The rest of the day was spent in a Canadian national park! We stood on the southernmost tip of the country looking out on the Great Lakes.. which I am not convinced are actually lakes.

But the park was beautiful, especially with the leaves turning.

On the way back, we stopped for the Canadian staple, poutine. Gravy, french fries, and cheese curds. I know that sounds kind of gross, but it was DELICIOUS. And a wonderful way to round off the day.

So all in all, being a restriction-free adult has been wonderful so far, pretty much all due to the people that I’m lucky to know.

As for the non-brithday parts of my life, I’ll write about the topics you guys suggested soon, I promise! Thank you for giving them! Until then though, here is an adorable otter.