Born on the 4th of July

23 Years Young

Sharing my birthday with America has its perks. For starters, Independence Day is a federally-recognized holiday, so everyone gets the day off from work. All over America, people are hosting cookouts, marching in parades, watching fireworks, and proudly displaying their American patriotism. Unfortunately, Germany doesn't recognize the 4th of July as a valid holiday (shocker), so for the first time in my life I experienced a "business as usual" birthday. Rather then the usual holiday festivities, I got to sit through a 3 hour economics class and stress over my finals which start on Monday. My parents always told me that I would never have to work on my birthday. I have officially put this statement in the same category as: "Of course Santa is real."  Damn parents - always lying to their kids! ;)

Fear not though!! I actually had a really great birthday. In the afternoon, I headed over to Daniela's apartment to feast on a delicious, homemade birthday cake. Afterwards, we met up with some meteorology friends for an impromptu cookout in the park. While a normal 4th of July cookout consists of chicken, steak, and wieners, I figured that when in Germany do as the Germans do - so I chowed down on freshly grilled sausage, aka brautwurst. Waddup Deutschland!

My 4th of July themed birthday cake courtesy of Miss Daniela.

After stuffing my face with sausage and chips, Kaitlyn, Daniela, and I made our way to the Reeperbahn. Christina Perri was playing a concert in Hamburg that evening, and we had tickets to go. We got to the Reeperbahn a bit early so we passed the time by drinking pre-concert cocktail at a nearby bar. The cocktails ended up being reallllly intense. I could barely finish mine, and we had to play the finger game (a game we learned in London) to get through Daniela's. Kaitlyn kept saying that the point of a cocktail was to have a delicious tasting drink...so we all agreed that the bartender failed at making girly drinks. Thankfully, the Reeperbahn provided us with a few hilarious encounters to distract us from the awful taste. Distraction #1: a transvestite deciding that the street was his dressing room. Distraction #2: a homeless man making weird music for us in a paper cup. Distraction #3: my complete domination of the finger game (which in turn saved me from having to drink the drink)

The red, white, and blue colored Reeperbahn stop.

Jamming with the Beatles before the concert.

Beat boxing into a cup at the top of his lungs.
The bartender ended up coming out and yelling
at him to step away from the restaurant.

After struggling through Daniela's drink, we meandered over to the concert venue. The room was super cramped, and it had absolutely no air ventilation. We kept fanning ourselves with the tickets hoping it would help, but as I learned from Dr. Kloesel during my sophomore year, fanning yourself only makes you hotter. Christina kept commenting on the heat and mentioned multiple times that it was the hottest concert she'd ever played. Despite the heat, the concert was really good! She played a nice mix of original songs and even threw in a few classics. I had a great time, and I think Kaitlyn and Daniela really enjoyed it too. So even though I didn't get to see the usual fireworks display or watch Pop Goes the Fourth, I still managed to have a really lovely evening.

Photo courtesy of Radio Hamburg

At the concert

After the concert, we paid a visit to our favorite bar in Hamburg. Because my birthday fell on a Wednesday, the bar was completely empty. And when I say completely empty, I literally mean we were the only people in the bar. It was kind of fitting though. An acoustic guitarist was on stage playing sweet, soulful music, and we were sitting at the bar talking about how much had changed over the past year. We haven't even left Hamburg, and we're already reminiscing about the memories we've made. It's incredible for me to think back on the last year of my life. So much had to happen for me to be here right now - and when I say "here," I'm speaking of both the physical and emotional "here." I am a completely different person then I was a year ago, and it's moments like these that I remember why I believe everything happens for a reason. But enough with the sentimentals - here's to another fantastic year - may it be even better then the last!

Tschüss