Birthday in Britain!

                So yesterday was my friend Lauren's twenty-first birthday. Now, in England that doesn't have the same significance that it would in the dear old U.S. of A. because their legal to drink at the age of eighteen. All the same we wanted to make her birthday special for her since it's a big deal to us Americans and she's far from home.

                My friends Brendan and Michael found the perfect birthday cake for Lauren at the local grocery store, Sainsbury's. The small round cake with Yoda leaping across the top, lightsaber at the ready, with the words Jedi Master raised in blue fondant. We all gathered in the JCR and sang her "Happy Birthday". Lauren was completely surprised, so mission accomplished!

Lauren with her Jedi cake

                We then went out to The Eagle, a famous pub here in Cambridge where Watson and Crick are rumored to have sketched out the double helix and it was also a RAF bar during the World Wars. There are tables crammed into every nook and cranny, the walls decorated with portraits of famous Britains.  The portion that used to be the RAF bar has emblems of different companies and brigades stuck all over the wall in neat little rows, wrapping around and around the room. I ordered a Vodka Lemonade, which might I just say was absolutely delicious, and spent the next few hours laughing and swapping stories with my friends.

The ceiling at The Eagle

                After The Eagle, our group moved on to a bar called The Regale, which turns out is right next door to the theater where we saw HP 7. It may be a bit early to say this, but The Regale is my favorite pub so far here in England. It's the perfect mix of dance hall and bar. The majority of the place is pub space with tables both upstairs and down, but music plays throughout and there is a small dance floor for whenever the spirit moves you. And it's ambiance is somewhere between the neon frenzy of Lola Lo and the relaxing comfort of The Eagle.

                We danced for well over an hour (we even taught the Brits how to Cupid Shuffle, it was awesome) before I had to call it quits since I had class this morning at nine a.m., and let me tell you getting up this morning was not easy! But I'm still glad we were able to give Lauren a proper birthday celebration for her fabulous twenty-first!

                Also a very special shout out to my mom, Paula McCann, whose birthday is today! Love you!