21

hi everybody!
sorry it's been a while.. too busy havin fun!

Yesterday was my 21st birthday. i really cannot believe how quickly time has flown by! unfortunately, due to a tennis ball to the eye, my poor daddy-o damaged his retina the night before my parents were supposed to fly over to me for my birthday week. because of this, they were not able to be with me on my big day, which sucks. howeverrrrr, they are looking into rebooking ASAP so we can taste wine and frolic in Arg's wine country, Mendoza! Slurrrrrrrrp.

It's super weird and sad not being with my family on my birthday, but I have the next best thing - Elena. Although I've only known her for a month and a half, we have become so close and I feel like she's been in my family for my entire life. She put together a mini Ladies' Night for us, Cassidy and Jordan, my babes. Seriously I'm so lucky to have made two awesomely wonderful, caring friends that I can hang out with when we get back to the US of A as well! :) #blessed, yall.

feliz cumple! 21 años! que sigas siendo tan buena y linda. un gran abrazo, elena //// happy birthday!! 21 years! Here's to you staying  just as wonderful and beautiful forever. A big hug, Elena. (tears)

This weekend has been so fun - we started celebrating on Friday - we went to one of our favorite spots, Magdalena's Party. It's an ex-pat owned brunch spot by day and a fun bar by night. We love it not only because they speak English and have decent drink specials, but also because they are the only ones in this country that understand what a vodka soda is! (whitegirls of the world, you may now gasp!) Weirdly enough, we ended up sitting with two Argentine men who were super nice and interesting.. one owns two hotels in the city and we ended up going to check out the terrace on the roof of his Palermo b&b. Not too shabby. Free cider didn't hurt either. Although Triste (hotel owner's nickname) kindly offered to throw me a party on the roof, we didn't make that one happen. Y'all should have seen their faces when we told them we were 20... and then ours when they told us they're 30 & 34.. LOL.

Anyways, after that lovely immersion experience we got home at the average hour of 05:00. Saturday was the real celebration. In preparation I bought myself PLATAFORMAS!!!! They're so beautiful... :')

I was going to take my parents to a puerta cerrada (closed door/secret restaurant) for dinner and decided to keep the res and bring bae 1 and bae 2 instead. This one is called Casa Felix. It's owned by a couple and the restaurant is actually their apartment decorated so adorably with colorful, rustic antique furniture and lit by lanterns. They focus on fresh, local ingredients (even herbs from their garden) and serve pescatarian (did i spell that right) dishes. Kind of refreshing in the country of carne, carne and more carne. Good lawd was it good. But demasiado! There were like 10 courses, más o menos. Not to mention some damn good wine pairings. I guess the three of us like food sometimes..

So after the fantastic meal we shared, we set out for Sugar Bar, home of the 75 peso jarra (pitcher.. tryna teach yall some español you're welcome) of vodka lemonade. Splendlidly deadly. Sugar bar (another American spot but I promise we go to cool argie places too) (i use too many parentheses) (sorry) is in Palermo too, just like every other establishment to which we give our business. It's dark in there, with some red lighting.. very punk rock. They play AC/DC music videos on a projector, which of course the inner rocker in me loves. jeje. We sat at a table with all of our guy friends from Tulane who never fail to make me laugh until tears form. Although turning 21 without my family and closest friends was daunting, I had the best company I could have asked for!

Although this morning was a bit of a struggle bus situation, the evening made up for it x10000000 because of LADIES NIGHT III :) ! We had malbec, yummy salad, the best empanadas you will put in your mouth in this entire country, and of course a cake. Actually 2 cakes, thank you friends. The 4 of us got along swimmingly, even Mimí joined the party for a while. Before Elena brought out the delicious tres leches cake, she cut the lights and played a birthday song sung by the minions of Despicable Me!! The cake was adorable - she decorated it with chocolate covered espresso beans, some sparkly decorations and a neon-rainbow"21" candle. When she brought it out, she sang "Happy Birthday" in English. Of course, my heart melted. In that moment, I really thought I was going to burst into tears. That woman would walk to Patagonia and back for me if I asked her to. In that moment I was just so overwhelmed by her love and so happy that she filled in the shoes of my sad mama 5k miles away! Like I said, Ladies' Night just can't be topped. I'm in good hands, y'all.

I know in my last post I mentioned a parilla and never posted about it but i didn't take any pics so you'll have to wait til next week when my lovie friend NIKKI comes to visit from Chile!!!!!!! Yay!!! This week will be super wonderful after we get through our first midterm on Tuesday.. pray for us. Much studying to do! Weeeeeeeee.....


Anywaysssss, I'm super thankful and humbled by all yall's well-wishes and embarrassing pics (lol) today and I send ALL of my love and care from my little casa to yours! I'm one lucky gal.

besos xoxo