September 17

Dara made me get up at 9 to go run with her, which I am extreme grateful for, due to the amount of dessert I would consume later.  She took me towards the bio-park, which is at the other end of the riverbed. She was telling me about this place and about how nasty the water was but how there were turtles living in it and she couldn't understand how. I was highly entertained when we finally arrived because it's Maumee Bay picked up and moved to Spain. She was worried about the wildlife living in this water...compared to the green Lake Erie I saw, and smelled before I left, I knew the turtles here were much better off. We walked through the playground, across the boardwalk, through the beachy area. I'm not kidding, if I ever feel super homesick I could go there and feel like I was back in Northwest Ohio.







I was surprised with a birthday cake from my parents. My friend knocked on my door and started singing to me, I had a candle and everything. It was great. My flatmate, Sam, and her friends were over and helped us eat cake, which was helpful due to the size of it and it was also very entertaining. They're fun to chill with.

Later that night we went out to dinner on Mom and Dad's dime. I made all my friends dress up, because Lia was wearing her black dress and I changed into mine and so on so forth, everyone had to look nice. We do anything for the birthday girl in our group, that's something I learned the first few times around. We went to Cafe and Tapas in one of the plazas here. It was delicious. Lia went into the Burger King next door and got be a crown to wear around the town. From there we walked and walked and walked through the streets for about two hours, kind of getting lost, but not really. We blasted music and danced in the streets, it was a great, great birthday night.


At 1 in the morning I Skyped my family and at 6am I Skyped Jacob. I was sung to both times. It was an unforgettable night.