Good Birthday and Bad Bristol

Thanks everyone for the sweet birthday wishes!  I hope everyone had a good halloween too!  So, for my birthday, me and a group of my friends went to "Church".  "Why Melinda?  Have you suddenly become religious?"  Helllll no.  Hahaha.  Church is this massive Aussie/Kiwi party that goes on every Sunday in a giant warehouse.  You get free entry if you dress up, so I dressed up in my bumblebee costume that I wore for halloween (see drawing).

Haha.  Anyways, so we went, and it was SO much fun.  All the people I was with treated me really special for my birthday.  So at this party, you buy beer by the threes.  Then they just give them all to you in a plastic bag that you carry around.  Oh yeah, and did I mention this starts at noon?  So of course, we were drunk around 12:30 (pregaming with cider, of course!).  So it's basically this giant party, and they play all these classic songs...ridiculous songs really.  Like, "I would do anything for love", and "Halfway there" and all songs like that.  Then throw in some good blink 182 and other random bands, and you'll get the music selection at church.  I constantly would find myself turning to my friends and screaming "I LOVED THIS SONG IN MIDDLE SCHOOL!!!!".  So everyone basically gets drunk and sings along to all these songs, and there's a stripper, and a comedian and super random stuff.  Like, last time I was there all of a sudden they said: "And now, presenting...THE FAT MAN!!!"  and this big fat guy in a leotard came out and started singing.  This is the random shit they come up with.  This pic is a shot I took from backstage.  Backstage?  Yes.  I participated in a drinking competition through sheer perseverance.  I really wanted to do a beer race (cause we all know how fast I can chug...not to brag, but it IS the only skill I picked up while at college!  Haha), so I waited around to do that, but they ended up putting me in a challenge thing, that...honestly?  They really didn't explain to us at the beginning of the contest.  So I was the first to go, and they brought me out on stage, and asked me where I was from, and when I said "The States", everyone booed me!!! Hahaha...it's all in good fun though.  So they gave me a beer to chug, and I skulled that beast, then these two bouncers were on either side of me, and they spun me around REALLY fast in a circle 20 TIMES!!!  Not great on a beer-full stomach, I can tell you that.  So finally, after they stopped spinning me, they gave me a long pole, and all I had to do was hold onto it then step over it.  And of course, you can imagine how dizzy I was.  So long story short, I fell on my ass...but so did everyone after me.  Basically, it was just so everyone in the audience could laugh at how dumb we looked.  So at the end, they brought us all on stage (there were 3 guys and 3 girls that competed), and everyone got booed except for the aussies, so they won.  National favoritism?  I think so.  But after I left the stage, I ran into so many people that were like: "Oh, you totally should have won...you drank your beer so fast!"  So I got a little wind in my sails at least.  I was very happy.  It was a fun birthday...aside from being apart from all of my loved ones, of course...De-pressing.  

So, the day after my birthday I left for Bristol, a city in the west of England.  I was SO hungover...obviously.  I for sure should NOT have left on the day after my birthday, but I did.  I had booked my bus ticket to Bristol and my hostel about a week earlier, but not until I got there did I look in my guidebook and say to myself..."So why the hell did I come here again?".  It was awful.  The hostel was a dump and the city was so boring.  I did find this cool bridge though...but here's a clue.  If a bridge is the most interesting thing you can find about a city, it's probably not worth your time.  It wasn't for me.  

Oh yeah, and so for my birthday, I bought myself a leather jacket.  My parents gave me some money and I went to TopShop, this fabulous british clothing store.  It is literally the biggest clothes store I have ever seen.  Even I left feeling like...OK.  I'm tired of shopping.  That almost never happens!!!  But anyways, everyone wears leather jackets over here, and I really liked the ones I saw, so I bought myself a black one (but don't worry, it only has one zipper).  Below is a drawing so everyone can see what I look like now.  Bad.  Ass.  Just kidding.  But the sheet thing has to do with the hostel I was staying at, that left me an angry note on my bed saying "If you don't put on your sheets properly, we're going to fine you 5 pounds".  Bitches.  So you know what?  I didn't put my sheets on properly, and they didn't do shit.  Take that.  You wanna go up against me and my leather jacket?  You're going to lose!  Ok, anyways, I love everyone, and hope all is well in the world of Portland and Seattle (and any outlying regions)!