All of a sudden, 23.

It was a very mellow day in lots of ways. I slept in (for me, so, 7:30 or so) and had a swim in the morning, talked to my host family and my skyped with lots of my actual family. I had a few presents to unwrap in the morning and then my aunt picked me up for lunch with her and the boys, Calder and Powell. We went and had Pho (and the squiggle over the o is one of the marks I don't know how to make on a keyboard - I know ö and ø and ó but not that one...) and it was delicious, and then (silly as it might sound) I went back to their place and had a positively blissful nap.

I think I was and still am quite tired - this week not only did I work on Saturday to compensate for my absence this coming Friday, but also from Thursday to Friday this week was the intern Hackathon, a hacking competition - except 'hack' in the sense of something you throw together, not breaking into someone's computer. So, this 24 hour ridiculous competition where we stayed at work (I came home for about five hours of sleep, I'm a wimp) and got to know each other as you only can at 1:30 in the morning when you've given up on your idea, right before you get your second wind.  So, I was wiped out from that.

And so the nap was blissful. If my affection for sleep continues as it has so far, then by the time I hit forty-five or so, all I will want to do is sleep!


But then I woke up and had a lovely afternoon with my aunt, drinking tea, looking at pictures, watching a movie. And then we had an incredible dinner - grilled Maui onions and eggplant(who knows if they're really from Maui, but damn, are they delicious), grilled steak, roasted cauliflower and corn on the cob. Of course, courtesy of my uncle Sam, we also had a lovely bottle of wine. He opened it and told me it was from 2007 and that I should think back to 2007, who I was then, what I had done since then, how different I am now. He said that was one of his favorite things about wine - that you can think of when it was made and how long it aged, and every time you sip or inhale it's aroma, you can think back to that time. It really made drinking that glass of wine a particularly lovely experience.

Of course, there was also cake. :)

And then, after cake and laughter and smiles, I came back to my host family.  We hung out in the kitchen and talked about our days and then my two youngest host sisters and I engaged in what I can only call some form of Calvinball -- for those of you who have never heard of Calvinball, I've attached a comic for your edification. Basically, we each guard one of the doorways in the entry hall - there's one to the music room, one to the dining room, and one to my bedroom - the first two are at least eight feet across, whereas mine is a normal door size. So, getting the inflatable ball through another doorway is one point each for the first two goals, two points if it goes in mine. But then again, I'm at least twice as big as these two girls, so things were slightly skewed in my favor. Still, I lost. Also, you can use hands or feet. And sometimes pick up the ball and walk directly up to the goalie past whom you are trying to shoot the ball. Everything is fare game. Hence, Calvinball.

And now, I'm going to go to bed. Only three weeks left of this internship-- crazy. And a very lovely Birthday.