Legality

Monday night was community night again, and we have yet to see Ethan at one. One of the girls who has been keeping in contact with him via Facebook said that she thought he said something about joining the army, so it looks like we may not get to see him again. After dinner I slipped back to the girls house to shower, as was my custom, and when I got back people were all like "oh there's Abby" and my roommate said "we tried to call the girls house but no one answered." Oops. People started saying "Happy Birthday Abby" and my first thought was they were kidding, and I just kind of gave them a suprised look and mumbled that today wasn't my birthday. Apparently, since they had three birthdays in a row (a staffer, one if the guys, and mine) they just made one big cake for us and gave it to us on Monday. They put an American flag on my part of the cake since the other two were Irish and Indonesian. I missed the singing which I am kind of relieved of since I don't really like it when people sing me "Happy Birthday" because you just kind of have to stand there. The cake was delicious, though.

I am quite excited about turning 18. Especially since my birthday comes a day earlier here (woohoo, cheated the system!). Plus, since I'm out of the country for this glorious day, I can literally do whatever I want without my parents finding out for 4 months. I could get a tattoo and as many piercings as I want. I could get them just to get them then take them out later. Not saying that I will go crazy with tattoos and piercings, mind you, just that it's nice to know I can. I would like to get my nose pierced though, just a small stud on the left side. I Skyped my mom today and told her I was planning on getting my nose pierced and it was absolutely impossible to keep the smugness/giddiness/"you cant tell me what to do anymore"-ness out of my voice. As predicted she did that thing where she tries to talk me out of it without telling me what to do because she knows that will just increase the chances of me getting it. "How long does it take to close up", "wouldn't it be cheaper to do that in the states" and "I don't know if that'd look good on you". Noble effort, but no. So many years of being told "sure, when you're 18 you can do that" and it seeming ages away. (Heehee ages. I feel so British. I've been reading Black Swan Green and am loving all the British insults. I'm going to have to jot them down to use on future foster children. I wouldn't be charged for foreign insults, and plus I'd sound smart.)

When you're 18 in New Zealand, there's a lot you can do. You can vote, though not me since I'm American. One of the guys got some thing set up beforehand where he can vote in the US even though he's overseas. Too much effort. You can buy cigarettes, though they are 15 NZD so I'm not sure why you would want to. You can drink, but not buy bottled alcohol. I think you have to be 21 to do that; an odd rule. Plus the program forbids all substances, so I couldn't anyway. Though on the plane home I'm riding Air New Zealand, so holla! Don't worry, I won't turn into that trashy drunk girl I rode next to on my way to Texas. (Two Jack Daniels on a connecting flight, really?). You can get a tattoo. You can get piercings. You can buy scratchies, which is what they call lottery scratch cards (everything has so much cuter names here). I'll probably get a scratchy while I'm here. Even if I didn't win it'd be a cool souvenir to have.

Anyway, I am missing you all terribly, and wish I could celebrate my legal-ness with you all American style (aka lots of food). I'm thoroughly enjoying seeing all of your college photos and posts, and look forward to hearing more about it!
Cheers.