March 7 - A Basin for My Birthday

What was one of the best birthdays I've ever experienced started on friday when I came home to find the housing office had broken in to my room, installed a brand new basin in my room, and vanished (after waking my corridor mates with assorted banging sounds). How they are suppose to encourage student hygiene with behavior like that I don't know - why clean when you just get a new one? But that was only the beginning. And I know what you're thinking, "But gareth how could it possibly get better than a basin?" Well on friday night I headed to one of the student nations for a drink and was having a sweet low key evening when it turned midnight and the whole place seemed to turn to me - a monstrous plate of nachos appeared from the kitchen, and the singing began. So by the way nachos is the new cake, just so you know. But that was still only the begining..

For starters there was the amazing gifts from New Zealand, thank you guys- you know who you are. and you know how wicked it was for me to receive everything (the video especially). So my day continued with cleaning my corridor, recycling, and all your other standard super-fun birthday activities waiting for dinner at a pals place that night. Or so I though, but instead my fellow students threw me a surprise party, and days later the surprise is still resonating. Perfectly planned down to the fake invites, it was amazing to see how well people have come to know me in only two short months: a kiwi made of marzipan, an ample supply of fair trade coffee, a flag signed by everyone, and a mechanical wind-up hopping rooster, just to name a few. And then there was the 4 cakes and the french crepes which had taken one poor fry pan all day to make..



Just when I begin to understand people, their generosity seems to break my beliefs open like a cheap happy-meal toy and surpass everything I thought I once knew. Cake 1: Complete with a bee from a fellow beekeeper. Cake 2: the moose represents Sweden and the kiwi is of course new zealand, however the Austrians couldn't think of a suitable symbol for themselves so given that they're called aussies as well they just turned it Australian (the kangaroo), and fashioned it all out of marzipan. Cake 3: its easier to write '23 years old' in french when there's only 3 letters, fair enough I think. Cake 4: well this one never made it out of the Russians oven in time and got a tad burnt.. but I ate it in spirit.


So a wicked night was had by all, and with cuisine from all over the world and some wicked friends for company there was no excuse. And when the night came to a close, march 8th ticked over and I no longer had a reason to celebrate, I headed back to my room only to find out they had taken my keys from my jacket, broken into my room (seems to be the thing to do) and left my bed covered in presents. I mean c'mon will the carnage never end??















Only 364 Days to go..