Week 11: 21st Birthday

January 9 - January 15

And so it begins again...school! The first term was pretty exciting, despite all the work, so I'm expecting this one to be just as fun. After a very cold, but very eventful and adventurous winter break (I promise to post about it. I have all the notes and pictures ready, but I just need to get around to actually posting everything) I am finally ready to get back to the grind. 

The most interesting part of the week was my 21st birthday which I will get to and highlight. The rest of the week, however, was mainly dedicated to getting back in the groove of things and ensuring that all the work I was assigned over winter break would get done, eventually. I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but LSE runs on an academic year system. Thus, the classes I took from October-December will be the same classes I take from January-June. As a reminder, I am taking the following:

• Economic History of China 
• Economic History of Latin America
• European Integration and the Cold War
• Public International Law

Now on to the good stuff. One would think turning 21 in a country where the legal drinking age is 18 would be boring, but my friends and I made it an unforgettable night. A lot of preparation, time and effort went into planning it, so I want to thank all my LSE friends for helping. Needless to say after a few drinks our plan went to shit, but as they say, 'C'est la vie. The day started around 8:45 when I woke up and thought really hard about going to class. Grabbing my towel, soap, and shampoo, I made it to the door and then said "screw it," dropped everything, turned around and then went straight to bed - you only turn 21 once, there is no point in going to class that day. After waking up later on in the afternoon I thought it prudent to complete an unfinished reading from the night before. Lunchtime case and Papa John's was promptly ordered -NBD. One of my friends from high school came later on in the afternoon, so we hung out and ate dinner in the dorm - remember, dinner it free here! Another friend found Cuban Cigars which are not illegal in London, so we had them and then started the festivities. The drinking started in a friends room and then we went to a club. Somehow I managed to get a VIP table for my friends and I at the club, which was a lot of fun. To be honest, and you all know this, I have left a lot of things out of this story. My 21st birthday was not that dull, but for the sake of my future political career I will not elaborate on a night that would never win me the "values-voters" because great many sins were committed. Also, a second celebration occurred on Saturday night at a local pub called "The Court." I went out with true British people and learned British drinking games. My stomach and my head hated me the next day, which I was not too surprised about. 

To end, here are some pictures from the pre-game we had in my friends room, the subsequent tube ride to the club and the night our at the pub.  All of the people in the pictures are friends from LSE, except my friend from home and another friends two brothers. As I said, I will post the winter blog as soon as possible. Expect a lot of posts this term to be about weekend/day trips which I hope to do.