Tag Archives: Birthday

Pre-birthday party party

A little under 2 weeks from now it will be my 20th birthday. Since I can remember my family has always done cake and icecream for birthdays. No matter where we are, from my parents in Iraq to my older brother at school we always find a way to sing happy birthday and get them a little treat to show how much we love them. It’s a family tradition.

Even when you know it’s coming you are always excited, you always smile and you occasionally laugh if the fire alarm gets set off because of the number of candles on the cake.

This year I thought I was going to miss that, the off key singing, the silly gifts and reading the cards out loud. All of it. 

But my mum was having none of that. So a few days ago (just a little early) I opened an unexpected box from home containing a homemade, shrink wrapped cake, a can of icing, party hats and cards.

My mum had sent me my birthday all the way from the U.S. A little ahead of schedule because she thought it would take much longer to get here. But it had to be the most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me for my birthday.

So I iced it up with my friends, who were quite excited for some homemade cake, and had a mini pre-birthday party party.


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Best early birthday gift ever. 


Location: Lincoln, New Zealand

Life in London

I’ve made it to London in one piece and with no complications, no sleep, and a wonderfully fortuitous upgrade to business class on my flight. It’s been five days and I am already completely enamored by this city.

My flight was quiet and comfortable, and I was even lucky enough to be seated next to an intriguing British man who resembled Chris Martin and drank lots of gin and tonics. And they gave us such fancy food!

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When I landed in London at 7am on the 5th, Ariel and I (a girl from PSU who was on my flight) found the man who was driving us to the hotel pretty easily, and from there we were out on the streets of the city we were to be spending the next five months exploring. Thank goodness for the driver, because my overweight suitcases and massive duffle bag were NOT easy to maneuver, and I don’t think I would have been able to pull them through the underground stations alone. As soon as we reached the hotel, we dropped our ridiculously heavy bags down and passed out… for 6 hours. Not the best idea, because jetlag is a REAL thing and since then and it’s been hard falling asleep at night. I’m sure that’ll go away soon, though.

I’ve been spending the last few days getting to know the people on my program- they’re from all across America and I’m living with lots of them in my “flat”! We’re all getting along so well so far, I’m so happy!! There are 16 people total- 4 boys and 12 girls, and all of the boys have significant others. How coincidental is that?! PLUS, two of the boys on the program are dating two of the girls on the program! So much love.

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We’ve been slammed with lots of information about transportation, classes, and other cultural stuff for the past few days of orientation, and now it feels like we’re actually settling into our own spaces in London. Since Thursday, we’ve eaten at lots of great restaurants (paid for by our study abroad program :) ), ridden on a tourist-y bus tour around the city and boat cruise down the River Thames, shopped at the British version of Walmart, laughed at an improv-style comedy club, drank cider and beer at pubs, and discovered a lot in general about London and how things work over here.

Today was a big independent day for me: I took the tube into central London alone! The tube is a lot easier than the map makes it look, and I was able to get on, transfer trains, and get to where I needed to be for an advising appointment on time. My classes for the semester are so wonderfully British and interesting that now I’m even kind of excited for school to start next week! One class I’m taking, called “Art and Society”, is all about the art and history of London, and each Thursday we’ll go out on little excursions to see secret parts of the city that many people miss out on. AND my classes only meet once a week and I don’t have any class on Wednesday or Friday! Life is good.

I feel so fortunate to be able to study and live in this amazing city. This post was just a general catch up entry, and hopefully I’ll be writing a lot more in the next few weeks. Cheers!

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Location: London

Paris Holds the Key to your heart, and all of Paris plays a part!

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Most people have a pretty epic 21st birthday, especially at Penn State. For me, I knew I would most likely be abroad so having the “Penn State” birthday was not going to happen. So I decided to head to Paris for my 21st birthday weekend, and I was joined by my mother and younger brother Tyler! I’ve always wanted to go to Paris, and I figured maybe 6 years of intense French lessons would finally pay off (actually they really didn’t).

My mom and brother were waiting for me at Paris Gare du Nord when my Eurostar train dropped me off, and there wasn’t much time to waste because we had a full day of sightseeing. The first stop was, naturally, the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is absolutely amazing in person. I couldn’t believe how tall it actually is! It was a beautiful day outside, sunny and 65 so the line to go to the top was extremely long. But we waited and it was definitely worth it! You can see all of Paris from the top! Here are two photos, the first of my brother and I enjoying champagne at the top (hey, it was my 21st!) and another of my favorite view of Paris from the top!
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After enjoying the views from the Eiffel Tower, we hopped on a Metro to check out the Notre Dame Cathedral. It’s truly an architectural masterpiece- can you see the carvings and gargoyles in the photo below? My mother and I were slightly disappointed with the inside- Notre Dame is more of a huge tourist attraction than a church. There was a mass going on inside but it was heavily distracted by the millions of tourists. But, it is beautiful.

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We then walked all the way from Notre Dame to the Louvre and down Champs-Elysees. I think my brother and mom were going to kill me (it was a 2 hour walk). But definitely a nice one. We didn’t go into the Louvre but we did take pictures outside of it. The Louvre is a full-day excursion and we didn’t have time to check it out, but we needed to at least see it.
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Now, I had to make a choice about where to go the next day. It was to be one or the other. The Palace of Versailles or Disneyland Paris. Most people would choose Versailles. Well… I’m not most people.

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The reason I chose to go to Disneyland was simple- I love Disney and one of my lifetime goals is to visit every single Disney park in the world. I have now visited 8 of the current 11 Disney Theme parks (4 in Florida, 2 in California, 2 in Paris- the other 3 are the two in Tokyo and 1 in Hong Kong). But, there was some interesting history I learned about Disneyland before going there.
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This is the most “European” of the Disney castles possibly because of its location. Disney wanted to bank on bringing their parks to Europe since many of Disney’s classic tales took place in old time Europe. With the success of Tokyo Disneyland, they thought Euro Disney would also be successful. But, Disney’s strict American rules lost the park lots of money. Among them, the no alcohol rule. Drinking is a huge part of culture in Europe and Disney had to adapt to the European flair. Now, Disneyland Paris is the most visited tourist attraction in all of Europe- yes, even more people go to Disneyland than the Eiffel Tower! The park seemed inconsistent with using French and English- some rides were in French, some in English, some in both. Probably the most interesting ride was “it’s a small world” which has a section dedicated to America. And also, a glimpse of the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty in New York in 1886- I guess the French like to remind we Americans that THEY built us the Statue of Liberty. Yes France, thank you. We appreciate it.
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The last day we spent back on Champs-Elyssees for a few final photos. It’s one of the most famous streets in the world because of its beauty and illustrious shopping. At the end of Champs-Elyssees is the Arc de Triomphe, truly majestic and beautiful symbol for France. Overall, je t’aime Paris. Whether I’ll return one day is yet to be determined. For now though, bon soir et au revoir!

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Location: Paris Gare du Nord, France

Life or something like it

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and I apologize for that! I’ve been super busy with course work and whatnot for the last two weeks, but that’s all done now so back to the posting. 

I submitted my first assessed works this week. My first essay was a 2000 word essay question for my Sexuality, Subculture and Stigma module that revolved around the stigmatizations of gender and sexuality as signposted by 19th century law and culture (and the development of sexology). I got way too into it and spent a lot of time doing enough research to write a dissertation, not a 2000 word essay. My other essay was a 3000 word one for my International Politics module regarding the UN and its failure to meet its Charter aspirations. I didn’t like the subject, I don’t particularly enjoy the module, and I was so engulfed in my previous essay that this one got a bit shafted. I think it ended up being decent enough, but I prefer to worry about classes I really enjoy and feel gain more from so I’m not bothered. 
Halloween was good fun. I never go out at PSU because a) I’m underage b) the costumes for girls don’t appeal to me and I would freeze and c) I prefer to watch movies and avoid strange people 😛 It was lots of fun here though. We had a mini-party in the flat across from me and then Bertie and I went to the theater just before midnight to see Paranormal Activity 2 since we didn’t want to go clubbing with everyone else. 
I had my 20th birthday last week, too! My birthday’s on the 11th, but I was going to London, so my friends and I celebrated it on Tuesday the 9th. We did a half-Otley run (Otley run is an 18 pub pub-crawl) beginning at 6pm and had a blast. It was a great night and my friends gave me homemade cards and a plate and mug that they decorated together and signed to commemorate my year here. It was really sweet. My friends made a balloon man named “Party!Paul” that had to be carried around all night and if someone popped one of his limbs they had to buy drinks:
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I went to London the following day and stayed with Bertie. On Thursday, my actual birthday, he took me out to a nice lunch and we went to Camden for a bit so I could hunt for a record bag. We didn’t find any before we had to head to Leicester Square to see the premiere crowd for Harry Potter. It was insane. We got there just as Emma Watson was arriving and she looked awesome. We stayed until all the big names showed up then grabbed a quick dinner before going to see a show called La Soirre. It was a good night overall. We spent the rest of the weekend loitering around London and having a Lord of the Rings (extended versions) marathon for 12 hours complete with movie theater popcorn that we went to a cinema to buy. Yes, they thought we were odd. 
Aside from birthday shenanigans, it’s been pretty quiet for me with mid-term assignments due. I’ve been keeping up with my belly dancing class (just got back from a social with that where we went and saw a performer), making movies in filmmaking (I’m acting and producing! Basically, my life goals), keeping up with work, cooking a lot of spaghetti, and wondering what to do with my life. 
Am off to Vienna in a little over a week, so expect a post when I get back from that!
xxx

Location: leeds, uk