Tuesday of this week was my 20^th birthday. Last year was the first year that I didn’t see my family on my birthday, but my boyfriend came and visited me at my university, so I was still with someone close to me. This year was the first time I celebrated a birthday without anyone I’ve known more than a month. I thought I may feel a bit homesick on my birthday, but I was surprised that even though I haven’t known anyone here very long, I felt like I was surrounded by lifelong friends.

The first thing my host mom said to me in the morning was “¡feliz cumpleaños mija!” and gave me a hug. Then she recommended some restaurants that I could go to with my friends if I wanted. When I got to class, my friend brought me a slice of cake, and then when the professor for my first class arrived and was informed that it was my birthday, she suggested that we hold class in a nearby heladería (ice cream shop)!

On Monday, the day before my birthday, we had our weekly meeting and we were told that we also had a meeting between our morning classes the next day. We all kind of thought that was weird, but I ultimately didn’t give it much thought. After our first class we went to the location of the meeting, as directed, and then moments later two of our coordinators came in with a birthday cake for me! Everyone sang happy birthday in both English and Spanish. This was the first time in a long time that I got truly surprised on my birthday.

I was pretty much on sugar overload before it was even lunch time! (Which is definitely not a complaint!)

Milestones such as birthdays can be days that are hard to be away from home. It’s easy to switch to the mindset of ‘I could be doing this or that if I were home’ but when you’re abroad you’re having different and unique experiences here instead, and it’s important to put that into perspective. I suppose I don’t know for sure, but it is more than likely that I will not spend another birthday with these wonderful people here in Cuenca. I of course miss my people back home, but I also am thrilled that I had the wonderful day here that I did with some really lovely people.