Birthdays abroad

It’s been 3 years now since I last had a birthday at home and with my family. It’s definitely different and I’m still unsure whether it’s a good thing or not. I think it really depends on what you make of it – but I tend to find I spend a lot of time alone which would be far less likely to happen with family. Don’t get me wrong, I love being by myself, I really do, but on your birthday I think it can feel a bit lonely – especially when you are used to having a close family. Celebrating your birthday away from home does however mean your day is free for you to do what you want without the worry about squeezing in time to see your entire family – but opening presents alone is something I will never quite get used to. It feels simultaneously both greedy and pathetic – neither of which are great feelings.

I tend to never do birthday nights out the day before my birthday, because honestly I cannot imagine a worse scenario than being hungover on your birthday. Or well, I thought I couldn’t, turns out being actually ill is so much worse, but more on this later… I have a party to tell you about. My 21st birthday was Tuesday 24th February, but I held my birthday (pre-)party on the Thursday before as here at UCU Thursday night is party night. In order to bring a bit of home to Utrecht (and also largely to avoid having to provide drinks for everyone as is Dutch custom), I themed my party as the “The Great British Booze-up”. Essentially British themed, I covered the flat in Union Jacks, made a playlist of exclusively British artists, made Bucks Fizz for everyone and the quintessential British children’s party food – cheese and pineapple on Union Jack cocktail sticks. Of course, no themed party would be complete without fancy (costume) dress. We had John Lennon, Ozzy Osborne, the Tardis, Fish and Chips, Builders tea, Paddington Bear, and in my very biased opinion the best costumes of all, The Spice Girls. I finally got to live out a dream I had had for so long, and make the purchase of a lifetime – the Union Jack Ginger Spice dress. Whilst when it arrived it did look like a sequinned sack, thanks to some very talented friends, it managed to be altered until it looked pretty damn good if I say so myself. So thanks Kasia if you are reading this! Personally I really enjoyed the party, we played a lot of beer pong, sang along to a lot of songs, and of course played the obligatory Ring of Fire and Never Have I Ever… And I even managed to avoid a hangover for at least part of the next day (maybe I was still drunk).

Sadly my actual birthday was not quite as good. On Sunday night I started to feel feverish and assumed it was the start of the flu that had been going round campus, and I woke up on Monday not feeling any better so thought that probably was what it was until about Wednesday morning when I finally went to the doctors. However by about halfway through Monday I started to be in a lot of pain whilst eating, and my wisdom teeth had been coming through on-and-off for a while so just assumed it was that but worse than it had ever been. Most of my birthday was therefore spent in bed drinking juice and watching Netflix and generally feeling a bit sorry for myself. In the evening though I had a few friends over and Louis cooked us all a fantastic dinner which I did manage to eat most of even if it took me ages. It was really chill and just super gezellig – sadly I missed out on the House of Cards themed party that was in the bar that night though (in an attempt to bring back Tuesday party night). But spending the evening with such a great group of people really did make what could have been an awful day a hell of a lot better.

Sadly my health problems were not so easily remedied though and by Wednesday morning my glands were inflamed and in addition to not even being able to eat mashed potato, it was too painful to swallow – so I admitted defeat and went to the doctors. The doctors was awful, and due to my now extensive experience of the Dutch healthcare system I feel I might do a blog post just on that, he was probably not representative of all GPs and the hospital doctors are certainly far better. He failed to tell me I had tonsilitis, said that me not being to eat wasn’t a problem, and prescribed aspirin. Not even a strong dose of aspirin, but told me I couldn’t take ibuprofen. I was thoroughly unhappy and was due to go to Paris the next day. The next day after feeling even worse, painkillers really doing nothing, and not even being able to eat soft bread I went to the emergency room. That was a saga in itself, but after phoning round all the emergency dentists in Utrecht to get an appointment in order to get a referral, I was finally seen in a different hospital. Here they told me I had tonsilitis, infected wisdom teeth, and probably two other infections that they weren’t sure what they were. But I was given antibiotics and happy that this would solve everything I decided to go to Paris. Oh how wrong I was…

I feel Paris probably deserves it’s own post – especially as this one is getting quite long and I am getting quite hungry, so I shall probably write another post continuing my adventures with Dutch healthcare and seeing the sights of Paris.

P.S. Just remembered that on my birthday I set the oven on fire – first time for everything. Also good job I wasn’t alone – turns out you don’t put a damp cloth on an oil fire…