Happy Birthday to Me!

About half a month ago I had my 25th Birthday. I am now over a quarter of a century old. Here's what I looked like that day.

I went out to dinner with my friend Karina (pictured below) from the U.K. We went to a really good Moroccan place on Muntstraat, Leuven's restaurant street. I must say the middle eastern/arabic food here in Belgium is about ten times better than any I've had in the States. The company was great too. Karina let slip that she used to be in the British equivalent of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corp, and we spent the rest of the dinner talking about how great camping, hiking and climbing are.

Afterwards, we met a bunch a people at Ron Black's, one of the nicest bars here, conventiently located right next to the law school. It's supposed to be a modern English bar and it certainly feels that way. There more of an emphasis on cocktails than beer, and it feels distinctly un-pub-like, which is a nice change from almost all the other bars in Leuven. From left, Nella from Finland, very nice guy from Germany whose name I can't remember, Tim from Australia, Karina from the U.K., Sanne from the Netherlands, Susanne from Denmark (barely visible with red hair) and Erna from Iceland. There were more folks on the other side of the table, but I don't have a good picture. They all kindly chipped in and got me some very nice cologne as a present. I'm trying to believe it's not a hint about me having body odor.

As it was a Tuesday and many people had class the next day, a lot of folks went home early around 1am. A few people followed my to the kebab place near Oude Market (the Old Market), which was again top notch compared to the places in Grenwich Village, and then to another more Belgian bar with an assortment of beer stein's hanging from the ceiling. After being bought a few more beers, I headed home so I could call Sam and say goodnight. It was a good day, though there's a lot of people I didn't have the chance to see or talk to that I would have liked to.