birthday

Today is my birthday! So I was excited when the university was having an activity to go out and try different tapas. We only had to pay 10 euros and we went to 3 different bars and got ice cream too. At the first bar, I had white grape juice, which is one of my favorite things. For tapas, we got garlic mayonnaise potatoes (patatas alioli), which are kind of like potato salad, spicy potatoes(patatas bravas), and grilled squid (sepia a la plancha). My favorite was the garlic mayonnaise potatoes, but I really liked the squid too. At the next bar we went to, we had Spanish ham in tomatoes and toast (tostada de jamon con tomate) and a ham croquette (croqueta de jamon). I liked them both a lot. The first ham tapa had raw ham on it, but it was really good and I couldn’t even tell it was raw. The ham croquette is sort of like a mozzarella stick. It’s like a fried fat little stick with cheese on the inside. I didn’t see the ham in it, but I guess it was in there. To me, it just tasted like cheese. The last bar we went to, we had eggs with fries (huevos rotos). They were just like French fries with an over hard egg on top. It seemed kind of weird, but I liked that too. Even though we all paid just 10 euros for all of that, we still had enough money left to go get ice cream. Of course, I got chocolate in a cone. Their chocolate ice cream always either has bits of brownies or chocolate chips in it which makes it really good. Also, their cones are like a mix between a waffle cone and a regular cone, and they have a really unique and sweet taste. They’re my favorite kind of cone now. I also like how they only put one scoop in the cone, so you don’t have to eat ice cream for half and hour before getting to the cone part.
Next, I went to a peluqueria, a hair salon. They’re salons are just like the ones in the states. First, they washed my hair in those special sinks, and it felt just as nice as it always does to get your head massaged by a hair stylist. Then the lady cut my hair. I told her to only trim it, so she did and she re-layered my hair and made my bangs a little shorter. Then, she blow dried it and let me pick if I wanted it to be straight or curly, so of course I chose curly. She did a really nice job with it. It only cost my 28 euro, and it was a really nice salon.
Tonight, I’m going to go eat at my friend Kassie’s house because she has the same birthday as me! Her mom is going to make us these really good cheese sandwiches (using the type of cheese they have at Don Ramon’s!) and she’s also making us a nice dessert. Then, we’re going to go out to a discoteca to dance and be with friends. Me and Kassie don’t want to make a big deal about our birthdays today, but we plan on celebrating more when we take our weekend trip to Santander. One of the French boys taught me how to say happy birthday in French too, its joyeaux aniversarie, or something like that. Hasta luego!