We're Young & Beautiful

"I intend to live forever. So far, so good." -Stephen Wright

So it's officially over. The checkered flag has waved. The fat lady is singing. The little pig in the black hole is stuttering again. It's April and my birthday, -week, and -month have concluded. But I had an incredible celebration over the past couple weeks and 21 is not soon an age I will forget celebrating.


On the night before my birthday, I stayed up Skyping with Jared when it turned midnight in Pamplona and then at midnight in Lisbon my parents called me to wish me a happy birthday as well. It was a solid start to my day. Because I was already up so late, I seriously considered not going to some or even all of my classes for the day in celebration. But for some reason that didn't sit well with me and it's not like I had plans to do anything else that day, so why not go to school and see some of friends? My alarm went off at 7am on March 23rd and I got up and got dressed for class. The final touch to my outfit was my "Birthday Princess" crown which I bought for my 18th birthday party and have worn every year since then. 


I walked to school while jamming to some tunes (this is my new morning regimen) and made it to my first class on time. The rest of the day is kind of a blur of monotony and routine. I went to all 5 classes and was actually at NOVA from 8am-5pm - that's longer than some people's work days and I wasn't even bringing home a check =/ [Side Note: In Portugal you say"parabéns" to someone on their birthday, which is the equivalent of "congratulations" in America. Many people said "Congratulations!" in English to me upon the realization that the day was that of my birth and it was surprising to me because I don't think I've ever been congratulated on being a year older. Nonetheless I was appreciative of the acknowledgement. [Side Side Note: It's the 4th year in a row that I have worn my crown on my birthday so people should no longer look at me funny because of it; they should just know.]]

That night I got dressed and ready to meet everyone at Valentino's, the Italian restaurant where I was having my birthday dinner. I was a little late when I was leaving my apartment but I told myself that since it was my birthday, whenever I got there was "on time." It ended up being about 15 people total at the restaurant for dinner and I was so thankful to everyone for coming to celebrate. People even brought me gifts which I totally didn't expect - thank you all so much! I had never been to this restaurant before but two friends suggested it and I was so glad we went. The decor was elegant and the food was very good and inexpensive. It was just an all around nice place (think Olive Garden + Cheesecake Factory).
 
Some people needed to get home after dinner because not everyone finishes their school week on Wednesday like I do :) But James, Charlie, Rosie, Teresa, and Julien, went out with me. The plan was to do the casino, get some drinks in Bairro Alto until 2ish and then go to a club named Urban Beach. However we took longer than expected at dinner and we didn't get to the casino until about 12:15. The metro closes at 1 so we figured we'd have to take a cab when we were done - maybe we could win enough to cover the cab ride. The casino was nice and pretty big and after getting a drink, I played a slot machine. I actually won 2.45€ so I cashed out and was done for the night (I'm such a daredevil). James, however, went upstairs and found the blackjack tables and won 12€ after just a couple of hands. Right around this time, we decided to go to the club via the metro instead of a cab but there was just one problem - the metro was closing in about 5 minutes. Awesome. Rose and I were in heels so we booked it for the door while the boys got James' money. We literally sprinted across Oriente to get to the station just as the guy was closing the gate so he let us in. I laughed pretty hard the whole time and I seriously put my thigh high boots to the test - they passed. There were some casualties along the way though, specifically Rosie's heels. One had gotten stuck in a crack as we were running and broke off. Therefore she ripped the other one off and ended up with some makeshift cowboy boots. Good thing she only paid 5€ for the shoes.


We made it to the station nearest Urban Beach and it was supposedly just a 15 minute walk so we opted not to take a cab. When we were coming out of the metro there was this semi-young black man who was talking toward us but not really saying anything we comprehended. But somewhere along the way, he got the impression that we wanted him to join us. He actually started walking with us to the club, as if he were part of the group, but this is not Destiny's Child - you can't just start adding members; we're freaking N'Sync and this dude needed to be Gone. He talked a lot of nonsense the whole time and dropped an ignorant N-bomb every other sentence, and he stopped being funny about 4 minutes after he opened his mouth. We eventually ran to a McDonald's and tried to ditch him there but that didn't work. We were stuck. About 30 minutes later James finally came up with the winning idea which was telling him that we were walking to Cascais, a beach about 30 minutes away by car. This caused the man to retreat and head in the opposite direction of us - thank God.


We walked quite a ways in the direction of Urban when we realized that it had been much longer than 15 minutes and we still hadn't reached the club so we took a cab to speed up the process. When we finally got to Urban, low and behold it was closed! Perfect. The Docks were close by which is a whole line of bar-type establishments right on the water, so we went there instead. The first place we went in was kind of small and the demographic was about 35+. Not cool. To avoid the sweaty old men, we moved on. We quickly realized that the rest of the bars all seemed to be closed - of course. As we were walking, a woman in one of the bars that was open offered us all a free shot. We accepted but after taking the shot, we realized it was purely pink lemonade. Thanks, lady.


Enough was enough with the middle-aged shenanigans so we asked the cab driver about another club that we were told had Ladies Night on Wednesdays. There were only 5 of us at this point (there are casualties in every battle) and the club wasn't far according to the cab drivers so we walked. When we got to where they told us to go, we only found a construction site and a rainbow bridge that I'm sure was born that way. Defeated again, we grabbed a cab to head to our last resort - Bairro Alto. Bairro is an area of tiny streets with a ton of bars and usually a ton of people crowded into the small space. But, as we should have expected, it was anything but crowded when we arrived. Hardly anyone was outside, bars looked closed, and it was all around deserted. I freaked for a second thinking maybe the Rapture happened and I got left behind but I calmed down quickly because Jesus is my homeboy and I know He wouldn't leave without me. But by this time, it was about 4am and we were all exhausted so we had to surrender our efforts and call it a night.

The next day I had scheduled myself a massage at Altis Belem Hotel & Spa. It was the first time I had ever gotten a massage and it was incredible! I suggest everyone treat yourself to a massage as often as you can because it was so nice and so relaxing and I was on Cloud 9 afterward. I was able to use the pool and jacuzzi as well as the lounge area and the gym, which everyone should know I didn't go near. I could literally spend all day in there. Best birthday present I ever gave myself.


Despite everything that went "wrong" on my birthday, I had a lot of fun. It was quite the series of unfortunate events I must admit but I laughed a lot and I was just happy to have friends that would traipse all over Lisboa with me in the wee hours of the night looking for an open club on my birthday. I'm having an awesome semester with less worries and responsibilities than I'll probably ever have again, and I'm just so grateful for the people I get to share these moments with. Thank you, friends :)

"While we're young and beautiful,
Living free and easy,
Here without a worry,
Dancing in our bare feet..." -Carrie Underwood