A week of twenty...... firsts.

The most anticipated birthday of all..... 21.

Here is how my first week as a proper adult unfolded.

Sunday- Birthday Eve

After getting back from Bath quite late on Saturday night, I was exhausted to say the least.

Let me tell you about Bath, easily my favourite place that I have seen in England so far (not that I've seen a lot). Rolling through the countryside on the bus was a visual delight of its own, as we passed field after field of lush green countryside, most with enormous classical homes sprawled across them. As the city came into view, all you could see was a perfect patchwork of sandstone coloured homes, churches and cathedrals with roman inspired architecture and a beautiful river that ran right through the middle of it all. Bath, didn't feel like a city in England at all, but instead some kind of European delight, I could easily have been walking through the streets of Italy, with cobblestone pavements and authentically Italian Gelato, or perhaps even France, with the sound of the river, buzz of the traffic and patisseries scattered around each corner. I truly felt like I was in another world, in another time. Five hours was only just enough time to explore Bath in its entirety and I would gladly go back an indulge in another Gelato, whilst sitting at the park in the sunshine.  

It was a truly beautiful way to start my weekend and made me appreciate my time here even more.

Sunday was SMFD (Skype My Family Day). No hints were dropped about birthday surprises that may or may not occur on Monday morning, so I did not suspect a thing....

Treated with some delicious chocolate cupcakes with butter cream frosting from my dear NZ soul sista, and a wonderfully thoughtful card from my English home girl my day could not get any sweeter. These two are keepers and I consider myself a winner to have found friendships so soon that I know will last so long.

Monday- Hello 21

I have to admit I was a little bit emotional (ok a lot emotional) waking up on Monday morning without my family by my side to celebrate such a special milestone, BUT, I really should have known that there was no way I was going to get away with no birthday surprises.
Earlier in the week I had received a parcel from home, after a little bit of sneaky touching.... Hey everyone does that with their presents!! I figured out what it was..... A 21st birthday key, which I assumed had been signed by my family, but instead, was signed by another group of very very special people. Thankyou to my fresh family for making me feel very loved, I was truly moved by all of your kind words and well wishes. 
As well as this there were cards from all of my family, and I can't forget the beautiful drawings and paintings done by two gorgeous little girls, which are now hanging on my wall and are the hottest new look in room decor. I was also very lucky to receive more presents and letters from home from my parents and grandparents, which I will cherish and no doubt continue to read over and over until my time here comes to a close.
I can't not mention or not give a huuuuge thankyou to everyone that contributed to my birthday fund, you've made me an extremely happy and insanely lucky girl, I owe my time in Greece in the summer to you all, so thankyou for helping me to make more of my dreams come true. 

Log onto Facebook..... Watch the best video ever known to man kind...... Laughed..... Bawled my eyes out..... Laughed a little bit more...... Cried a little bit more..... and finished it all of in complete and utter amazement, for having a family that I know would do anything and everything for me. I know that most people love their families and consider themselves grateful to have them. But I believe that there is no other family quite like mine. They are the most caring, considerate, compassionate, generous, inspiring and most importantly CRAZY people I know and without them, I would not be the person that I am today.
 Everyone in your life shapes you in some way, negatively or positively, their influence is inescapable. I will forever appreciate the way that my family has helped me to become the person that I am, by inspiring me and supporting me in everything that I do. My success is not purely my own, but the success of all of these people who I love so so dearly.

My happiness would also not be complete without another extremely special person in my life, you guessed it.... Harry. He knows who he is. It is his continuous support and love that helps me to get through each day without him right by my side and to remember that time is flying and it wont be too long before he will never be able to get rid of me again. (Just warning you).

I was pleasantly surprised and very touched when I received the biggest 21st birthday card from the schools caretakers, my own 7 dwarfs (not really vertically challenged) but the sweetest English men I've ever known, literally. See..... they do remember special occasions, well, the foreign men anyway ;)

Showered with hugs from the students at lunch and serenaded by the year 3/4 classes I could not have possibly asked for a better 21st birthday. But what else could possibly happen......

A nice walk along the waterfront to work off the cupcakes and the small box of Ferrero's that I scoffed at lunch.... present from home, had to be done. Then it was time for dinner and you guessed it...... cocktails. If you know me you will know that two cocktails is more than enough to get me feelin the vibes. So we left the restaurant in relatively high spirits, got to the Vodka bar across the street and those spirits were magnified.

I have just three words for you.

Nutella frozen vodka.

Yes you heard correctly, the liquid of gods.

The Chinese owner of the establishment was extremely generous, giving us several free drinks, over 100 different flavours of vodka that they make themselves from flavoured sweets and chocolates, he is living the vodka dream. 

For me it was a Blue Raspberry with two shots, one Nutella flavoured and one Rolo flavoured.

As we were just about to call it quits two gentlemen entered the bar, bit dodgey looking but perfectly harmless. We managed to get ourselves another drink each, shortly followed by another three shots.

Having fully got to the merry stage by now our new friends began to tell us about their line of work.....

Turns out that they were both recently released from prison on drug charges and had popped back to Portsmouth for the weekend after taking their girlfriends to have consultations with city doctors about breast enlargement surgery (why we needed to know this information I will never know).

Oh the people you meet in England.....

Oh the things that people say to you in England....

Apparently I look like a cannabis addict.

Something I don't get told every day, but a fantastic compliment for anyone on their 21st birthday... NOT. We agreed that it was time to bail and headed home. Laughing most of the way and discussing how often the English shower (according to my dad not a lot), but dad, I can tell you that they shower the same amount as we do.

Tuesday- A normal day at school

Luckily no seediness at all! Had to man the student teacher interviews refreshments table, which involved me standing in one spot for two hours, pouring two cups of tea and coffee and eating a ridiculous amount of cookies. YOLO (you only live once).

Wednesday- Swimming carnival day

Who ever thought that giving out 3rd and 4th place tokens would be so difficult. Freestyle isn't freestyle its frontcrawl here.... the English are so bloody bizarre.

Thursday- aka today

Another regular day in the office. The weather has been unbelievably good, my standards have dropped to about 17 degrees at the warmest. Its usually when everyone starts getting their tops off over here, FYI British men and women pasty white chests are not a good look. Jordy and I have started to go for walks of a night as there has been no rain (I hope I haven't jinxed us but I honestly think that we have seen enough to last the rest of the year).

The students are as funny as always with one running up to show me a log of wood she found in the playground, exclaiming 'Miss Cragg, look, this is a baby log, its only five years old, can I PLEASE take it home'. Unfortunately I had to play the hard card and tell her that if she found it in the garden it had to stay in the garden because that was where it belonged. 

Another told me that when I first arrived she 'didn't like the look of me very much' (cheers), she wanted the old gap student to come back but now she..... 'really loves me more'.

I've been working pretty hard on helping the 3/4 classes with props and costumes for their play and today I was given a beautiful bunch of tulips, completely unexpected and unnecessary in my opinion but so very thoughtful.

I also got back from lunch today to find a big 21st balloon and a little present on my desk, with a note 'To Tonoya, Happy 21st Birthday, from all of us XX'

It was a beautiful silver bracelet that I will treasure and hold dear, for it will remind me of all the great memories I have made here so far and the many more that are yet to come.

Leicester tomorrow.

English roast dinner.

English family time.

More exploring.

How very lucky I am!