21!

I've probably never been surprised as much as yesterday on my 21st birthday! I skyped my mum and brother in the morning before my Irish class, which was really nice! Other than that, though, the day seemed just like any other day, to the extent that I was sure it wasn't really a big deal and that I hadn't been exactly forgotten as I did get wished happy birthday by my flatmates, but somehow indifferently. Little did I know...

First of all, I've been receiving birthday cards and even some presents throughout the week, which has been really lovely and made me feel so special! I was especially touched and surprised by all the cards I've got from Charlie's family!

All the cards I got!

The first thing I noticed when I went to get breakfast in the morning was my door.

 

One of my flatmates Mathilde had decorated my door at 1 am! She must have been incredibly quiet, because I was still awake and didn't hear a thing!

I was prepared to spend just a quiet evening in as I didn't have any plans, which I started to regret as the day went on! However, I had been out to dinner and cinema (Catching Fire!) with two friends the night before so I felt like maybe that was something at least. It didn't seem like anyone was free though, so I was feeling a little gloomy because I thought maybe I should have been doing something special. This continued until about 8 pm, until there was a knock on my door...

My flatmates had got a gorgeous chocolate cake from an actual bakery, and not wanting to break the cake, they had stuck the candles to an apple... :D They had also got a card that made me want to both laugh and cry with all the lovely messages inside! And if I wasn't surprised enough already, they told me that they had messaged Charlie in order to find out whether I had any plans for the evening... Those sneaky girls (and boy)!

Oh, and I got some presents too!

The pretty silver stars are from Charlie's sister and the bicycles are from my flatmates! I also got a mysterious Christmas stocking from Charlie's parents and from home I got chocolate and a giftcard amongst others! None of them had to get me anything so it was so lovely to receive them and know that I was being thought about. All in all, it was a great fun day and I'm so happy! :)

Today is Finland's Independence Day so I'm getting together with some Finnish people later! That will be nice because I don't really know them that well and it'll be nice to speak Finnish!