Hip Hip, Hooray!

Work pizza lunch

Those words are traditionally shouted after singing "Happy Birthday" to someone here in Australia. One person leads with the "hip hip" and everyone else responds with "hooray," and it's repeated several times.

Although I may have had dinner with my family or a few close friends in the past, since becoming an adult, I hadn't made much of a big deal about my birthday. Even for my twenty-first, I spent a night in Philadelphia with a friend with whom I share a birthday, but we hung out with her friends and I felt

Dinner at Alice's Thai Restaurant

like it was more of a celebration for her, which was more than fine because honestly, ever since I turned eighteen, for whatever reason, I stopped making a fuss about turning older. With that said, however, since this was going to be my first summer birthday, and my second one spent abroad, I decided long before even arriving in Australia that I wanted to do something special and more out of the ordinary, at least for me. Last week, I had sent an email to my co-workers and our manager to invite them to join me for drinks after work on Friday. Not only did they all agree to go, but our manager suggested we order pizza for lunch and gave us an extended meal break. On top of that, they were

At the QV for dessert

sweet enough to surprise me with a card and two cakes, a chocolate cheesecake and a Jamaican mud cake. I had never had mud cake before, but it was awesome.

On my actual birthday, I organised a dinner at one of the Thai restaurants in the city centre. It was a little challenging to decide where to eat because I love so many different types of food, but Thai won in the end because I hadn't had it in such a long time. Anyway, a lot of my friends showed up, including those from Cross Cultures and Planetshakers, Caylee, and Tegan, a girl I had met in London almost three years ago. Even though the customer service at the

AMAZING cake

restaurant left much to be desired, the mixed company and delicious food were fantastic. There's definitely a reason why Thai is one of my favourite cuisines. After dinner, we walked over to the QV, which is one of the shopping centres here that has a food court and tons of tables, and enjoyed the rich chocolate fudge brownie cheesecake my friend Li was generous enough to bake in my honour. Seriously divine. As far as I'm concerned, there really isn't anything better than homemade cheesecake when it comes to dessert.

My lovely Connect group

My Connect group met on Tuesday for our weekly study; however, we met earlier than usual to have dinner together for my birthday, which was nice. Steph was even kind enough to bring along a delectable chocolate cake to share with everyone. One of the things I love most about this group is that it's new so, for the most part, we're all getting to know each other at the same time. I only wish it had started meeting in the springtime when I first arrived in Melbourne because if I stick to my current plan of moving to Sydney this autumn, I won't have much time with them. I'm trying to stay in the present though and focus on the good times to be had. I'm certain I'll be learning a lot in the next couple months.

I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to celebrate my birthday with so many wonderful people. It's really made me realise that I have a lot for which to be grateful. Life in Oz isn't too shabby. :o)