As a result of my terrible blogging, I have decided to make one collective post about all of our great birthday celebrations we have had over the last few months. Birthdays are always special, and I know my friends were all a bit a bit worried about spending them away from their family and friends from home, but I think (or at least hope) it is safe to say that we at DomoFrance have become a family, so having a birthday in Bordeaux was, yes still very different, but was equally as special as being home.
Victoria Centeno: April 8
Vicky's birthday was on Friday, but we began our celebration on Thursday night, of course! Thinking we, Andy and I, had purchased tickets to see an orchestra at Grand Theatre, we put on our nice dresses and headed into town for what we thought would be an evening of elegance. Turns out that the performance was actually in Palais de Sports- a non-air conditioned arena (on one of the hottest days we have had). While the performance was beautiful, let's just say the atmosphere was not what we expected, so we left at intermission in favor of enjoying some wine with friends at Place de la Bourse. The night ended with Mary taking a tumble of a park bench, Vicky covered in wine, and all of us ready to continue celebrating Vicky's birthday. We woke up extremely early for our standards, 7:00, to cook her a birthday breakfast before class. As I dragged my groggy body out of bed, I could not help but be excited so see her face when she walked in. We had a really nice morning just sitting around talking, eating, and giving Vicky her present from all of us, thanks in most part to Jemma. Jemma drew a picture of all of us at the beach, and we each signed the frame for Vicky; I hope she liked it! Vicky is an incredible artist, as is Jemma, so they both truly appreciate and treasure the intricacy of drawing. The rest of the day Vicky relaxed and enjoyed the company of a visiting friend while we all ran our respective errands before meeting for a picnic dinner in Place de la Bourse. It was just so nice to be all together on a beautiful night, in a beautiful place. I had to leave early and was kind of missing in action for the rest of the weekend because we had a soccer tournament (finished last overall, but I had such a great time playing soccer again). However, I know the rest of the group made Vicky's weekend incredibly special. They had a birthday brunch with Annie's home made scones and infamous chocolate cake followed by a day at the pool. Now 23 years old, I hope this birthday was one our beautiful Vicky will remember fondly.
Megan Darcy: April 17
Megan's real birthday was over our Easter break, so we had to give her a proper celebration before that. Scheming as usual, we all decided to pitch in and treat her to the Adele concert in Madrid! As much as I would love to say it was purely selfless, Jemma and I were dying to go as well, so it was a win-win; a weekend in Spain with some of my best girls and the Adele concert. Megan was thrilled when we told her, about two weeks before we were set to leave, but I was even more thrilled to be able to do something like this for her. So, we all, Megan, Jemma, Jody, Mary, Annie, and I, packed our things for a quick weekend and headed off. Friday, due to several plane delays,we did not arrive in Madrid until late, so food and bed were the only things on our mind. In another twist of events, the hostel we booked online was full, so we were taken across the street to this sort of house/ home combination. We literally had to walk through these people's living room in order to get to our bedroom! We felt as if we were invading their privacy, but the rooms were clean and the location was perfect, so we could not complain. In the midst of dinner, I got a call from Cece, who was in Spain for the weekend with her family, so they came and met us! I just adore Cece and her parents, so it was so wonderful seeing them. Saturday morning we went our separate ways, Jody, Annie, Cece, and I went to the Prado while the others went sight seeing, and then we met in Retiro park for our traditional picnic lunch. I split away for the second half of the day in order to make it to the Reina Sofia while some of the girls went shopping and the others enjoyed muchas sangrias! We met back at the hostel/ home to get ready for the concert. All I can say is Adele is one of the most talented artists of our generation, and I was almost in tears listening to her effortlessly sing "Someone Like You." I had another one of those moments where it seems that time stands still and you have neared perfect happiness while hearing this live performance in the company of two of my best friends. After our emotional concert, we headed back to our hostel/home to gear up for our evening at Kapital- a seven story disco... enough said. 5:30 later, we hit our pillows to get in as much sleep as possible before our flight the next afternoon. The concert was more than we could have ever expected and listening to Adele perform her album 21 while bringing in Megan's 21st birthday was more than fitting.
Jemma Schilling: May 6
How do you repay or truly show your appreciation for someone who constantly gives and gives and never asks for anything in return? This is the question we were all struggling to answer as we began planning Jemma's birthday surprise. After weeks of thought and sneaking around, we settled on a home made cookbook and coffee cup. The cookbook was a compilation of a all the recipes we have concocted while being here, one from each resident of DomoFrance, and was decorated with pictures of some of our best memories. Jemma is our master chef here at Domo, so we figured she would appreciate it. In true Australian fashion, Jemma's only demand was that we have a barbecue on Friday, her birthday, and sit outside and drink beer all day- none of us were complaining. So, that is exactly what we did. Megan brought her couch outside, we heated up the barbecue, drank some beers, listened to music, and celebrated our amazing friend Jemma. We kept it low key that evening because we had to be up at 8:30 to catch the bus outside BEM for San Sebastian, Spain. The Melting Potes organized one last hoorah trip for us to the beautiful beaches of northern Spain. Saturday was very rainy, cold day, so we had no choice but to hang out inside and take in the Spanish culture via Sangria! It is Jemma's favorite, so we can just say we all did it for Jemma! That evening we had dinner with everyone from BEM at a restaurant and followed that with a visit to a night club, which I did not make it to (it was too late for me, back to the hostel I went). The girls, however, had some pretty interesting storied for me in the morning- most notably was Sarah's sprint back to our hostel after she had made Annie crazy all night searching for a bag and shoes she did not even bring out, oh and we must not forget that she ran home in Annie's shoes which she stole off of her feet! Annie walked home barefoot to a game of cards and coffee with the bell man while Sarah went straight to bed after her exhausting work out! I seriously adore my friends! The weather on Sunday would not have been more perfect, so we lounged on the beach all morning until it was time to hop back on the bus to Bordeaux. I only hope that we were able to reciprocate an inkling of the love and kindness that Jemma has shown us over these past five months, and I hope that we made her day as memorable as she has made every day for us.