What a week.

The birthday week has been and gone, and I am now 21... All right, Enough of the rhymes. But what a week it has been! I'll run you quickly through the itinerary:

Thursday: Arrival of my friend from home to stay for a long weekend. Flight due to arrive late in the evening, so we stay over at another friend's as the trains don't run late enough for us to make it all the way home...
Friday: Party time! A day of prep., then a rather lovely evening with various assistant friends, church friends and family, including a game or two of Jungle Speed, several attempts at doing clap press-ups and wall-bar chin-ups (not all entirely successful), along with a nice round of 5, 6, 7, 8 to finish off. Good work, guys!
Saturday: Day of recovery. Also made it to the Witch-Hunter Mayor's House (a local sight), and cooked pancakes for dinner with everyone round. Stayed up late enough to see my actual birthday in, with a rather hushed (but obviously wonderfully melodious) version of 'Happy Birhday'. Lovely!
Sunday: My 21st!!! A slow-moving start (due to the late night), but soon it was all go - I had a beautiful table of presents waiting for me in the main house (complete with 21 candles), then we went for a meal at a local Italian restaurant (yup, no changes there) and afterwards decided to explore the castle next-door. A good idea, although the walk afterwards perhaps wasn't - sleet on your birthday is never fun, but especially not when you're in the middle of the countryside with one umbrella between three people. Ah well, we were all back in the warm and dry soon enough (thanks to a very kind someone who agreed to pick us up!).
Monday: No school due to open day, woo! A bit of exploration further afield, namely the nearby town Detmold. We managed to meet up with one of my colleagues and I have now seen the local monument that everyone has been telling me about since I got here in September. Some things do take some time!
Tues: Bit of a more chilled-out day (still off school though, some people get all the luck =p). Slept in late then made muffins, sadly after that it was time to say goodbye to my dear British friend and send her off back to the land of pasties, fish and chips and other such delicacies. Came back home and had a lovely night in with my Lemgo buddy and a copy of 500 Days of Summer (what a film!).

All in all, this week(end) has made me very thankful for the life I've been able to build here, and the friends I've been blessed to make. I'm feeling good about life as a 21-year-old (we'll see how long that lasts!).
P.s. Did I mention that several people mistook me for a German person this weekend? That could have something to do with my massive feeling of happiness right now!