My 20th birthday bash

One great birthday celebration with my friends

25th of November is the day when I wished my teenage days good bye and welcomed my adulthood. Those years of playing, fooling around and taking things for granted came to an end on that very day. I wasn't really sad despite the fact that my teenage years were over; my days from the early days of secondary school to the beginning of college were hardly pleasant and always rough. Things only became better in the 2nd semester of college for me when I got to know my good friend Chai Ann and her friends; it wasn't long before we started the Strike Team together. Having the Strike Team was not the only memorable event in my teenage years; the W.I. 106th Regiment, one of the finest regiment I've ever served in gave me a new perspective on my social life. The comradeship that I have experienced during the months in the Regiment taught me that not everyone around me were assholes, bastards and bitches similar to those in my secondary school. The Regiment also made me feel how important I am to them with the utmost support and warm friendship harvested during those days. Besides that, the Regiment opened my eyes to global events and issues that made this world unique. The W.I. 106th Regiment wasn't the only class that made my teenage days joyful; Miss Rohwena's Organizational Behavior classes gave a nice introduction to business organizations around the world which prepared me for my future corporate career. Her class gave me an opportunity to work with some of the finest business students from Touche Inc which comprised Chin Yen, Eugenia and Michelle. Those are the days I'll clearly remember and will deeply miss as my teenage days are outnumbered. Although the fun days of my teenage days are over, my arrival into adulthood was welcomed with a great birthday celebration organized by my good friends from Hong Kong and Japan. Although we were recently acquainted this semester, my foreign friends took a lot of initiative and effort to organize one great birthday bash for me.

My birthday celebration actually begin a day earlier. Celebrating my birthday one day earlier was something I never really like as I hardly look forward to getting old. However, after realizing that my friends instilled a great amount of effort into my birthday celebration, I knew it was wrong of me not to play along. The celebration begin with a movie outing in the evening; my friends managed to get tickets for the movie I was really looking forward to this year: Hitman. Although most of them were not really a big fan of movies like these, they still decided to watch it with me as they wanted to make my day. Shelley, Calvin, Maaya and my roommate accompanied me for the movie. Although Cindy couldn't make it for the movie (which I was disappointed...), her neighbor Adrian (which I recently knew) replaced her. Adrian brought a friend of his to the party on that day as well; his name was Kenny and he was a Korean living in Vancouver. After the movie ended, night approached with the escort of light snow which delighted everyone; the snowing scenery in Kamloops can sometimes be a sight for sore eyes. Seeing that the next bus to downtown was arriving soon, we hurried together to the nearest bus stop. My friends thought of buying me dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant in downtown which I thought was really nice of them.

Most of my friends were new to Mexican cuisine. Consequently that night, I had to personally suggest Mexican dishes to every one of them according to what they love and what they don't. Fortunately, with the help and suggestion of the restaurant's owner, my tedious task became easier. After ordering our dinner, we started our friendly conversation with topics ranging from school work to gossips. Although I could have started my talk on global politics with my friends, I feared that I will put all of them to sleep which will then jeopardize my celebration; therefore, I thought about letting it go for tonight. Half an hour later, Cindy joined us for dinner; she then apologized to us for being late. Dinner that night was awesome, I was glad everyone enjoyed their meal and had a great time hanging out together. After dinner, I thanked everyone personally for their dinner treat.

Before we celebrated my 20th birthday, my Hong Kong and Japanese friends insisted that I must get drunk on the night of my birthday. Knowing that I was a lousy drinker, I wasn't really comfortable with that idea; on the other hand, seeing that I mustn't disappoint my friends, I decided to play along. Consequently after leaving the Mexican restaurant, we visited the liquor store which was a stone's throw from the restaurant. As I entered the shop, I became nervous as the "lethal" look of the alcohol bottles welcomed me. From mild alcohols like beer and shandy to the extreme ones like whiskey, vodka and tequila, I knew that I will be chugging down one of them later on that night. Adrian was the only one among us who bought from the shop which surprised me as initially everyone was eager to get me drunk. When I asked the rest of my friends why didn't they buy anything, they said that they stocked up vodkas and other heavy booze a couple of days ago. They added that they wouldn't mind buying some more if I can finish all of their booze by that night. I knew I was getting myself into more trouble if I continued talking about booze, so I thought maybe I should shut up before they get more funny ideas about making me drunk. Adrian bought 2 bottles of rum that night and he smiled at me sinisterly which made me felt that he expected me to finish this 2 bottles of rum that night. After our brief visit to the liquor store, my fear escalated that night knowing that I will have to face a couple of drinks that would make me sick.

All of us decided to return to our apartment after our visit from the liquor store. Unfortunately for us, we missed the bus and we had to wait for an hour before the next one arrives. The night was getting cold and non of us were willing to wait for the bus in the open; therefore, we decided to get ourselves indoor before we catch a cold. Most shops were closed that night and there were not many places to visit; however, Calvin came up with an idea of visiting the casino. All of us agreed to Calvin's plan as most of us never visited the casino in Kamloops before. The casino was located in a 5 star hotel (...out of 10 star) which was a couple of blocks from the bus stop. Although we were eager to visit the casino, none of us thought about gambling since we wouldn't want to put our student's allowance at stake. As we entered the casino, the security asked us for our ID before letting us in. Shelley was the first one to be asked because she look the youngest among us. Although it wasn't exactly Vegas, the neon glittering colorful slot machines and fancy looking poker tables mesmerized us. Our tour around the casino reminded me of my gaming days in Rainbow Six Vegas; only there wasn't any gun battle in the casino that day. As the bus was almost coming, all of us decided to leave the casino; we took a 10 minutes walk back to the bus stop hoping that we would not be late again only to miss the bus. Fortunate for us, we still had 7 or 8 more minutes before the bus came, consequently, we thought of getting some coffee from Tim Horton's which was just beside the bus stop. As the bus arrived, we hopped on and headed back for our apartment.

It was already 11pm the moment we reached the apartment. Most of us look tired and sleepy so they thought about taking a nap before we continued partying. Like the rest of them, my roommate was also dead tired, so he took a nap as well. On the other hand, seeing I was still energetic, I thought about spending some time with my Play Station 3; I played Ghost Recon and Call Of Duty 4 that night while waiting for my friends. After what seem to be a long night of gaming, I then wondered whether my friends were coming down to my place to continue partying. I was worried that their nap turned into a long sleep so I immediately phoned them to wake them up; unfortunately for me, none of them answered my call and I knew it was the end of my celebration. I submitted into disappointment with a huge sigh and I thought about calling it a day as well. As I prepared myself for bed, a loud knock on my door was heard; the knock was continuously and I thought it was some drunk sucker playing a fool. Feeling a bit agitated, I rushed to the door clenching my fist getting ready to deal with that annoying idiot. As I opened the door, surprised caught hold of me as I witnessed Cindy, Shelley and Maaya standing outside my door. It was 12 am in the morning on the 25th of November when they appeared at the door; their surprise was right on time. Shelley had a big birthday cake on her hand and the girls started to sing "Happy Birthday"; they sang it very loudly which showed that they were really dedicated to my celebration. I almost broke down in tears as I was so touched but I struggled to keep the waters behind my eyes since I wouldn't want to present an emotional impression to my friends. Just a minute earlier on, I was slightly angry with my friends as I thought they forgotten about my birthday but at that moment, I felt like an idiot for mistrusting my dear friends.

The birthday cake was simply beautiful. It was Tiramisu cake with nice creaming decorations and coffee sprinkles; in the middle of the cake was a big white chocolate flake in a shape of a heart which had the words, " SWAT Lim". The cake was really gorgeous and I really loved it so much; according to my friends, Shelley took a lot of initiative in making the cake. My friends snapped some photos of me with the cake and we all had a group photo together later on. As I blew the candles on the cake after making a wish, more photo flashes blinded me which really made me feel like a star that night. Adrian joined in later on as he woke up slightly later than the rest of them. With him, he brought Illa( new acquaintance from Russia) along. Adrian wasn't the only one who had guest, Maaya brought her friend Alex whom I knew this semester at a paintball match. Seeing that everyone was here, we started off the party with drinking games.We played SNAP for our drinking game that night and all of us had a great time. That night, my friends did a great job making me drunk; it wasn't even 3o minutes in the game and I was already feeling tipsy. Fortunately for me, I did not do anything embarrassing that night regardless of my drunken state. We celebrated my birthday until 3 in the morning and by then, all of us were dead tired. Before everyone left, I thank everyone of them personally for attending my party; as for Shelley, I gave her a big hug as I couldn't be thankful enough for the cake she made for me. My 20th birthday party was a great one to remember.

Although we were recently acquainted this semester, my foreign friends took a lot of initiative and effort to organize one great birthday bash for me. My 20th birthday celebration was awesome since the ones held for me by my Strike Team and Touche Inc. last year. Ever since the celebration, I became closer to my Hong Kee and Japanese friends. It was really unexpected as I never thought that they would treasure my friendship so much despite I knew most of them this semester only. This illustrated that I meant a lot to them.

My 20th birthday dinner in a Mexican restaurant with my Japanese and Hong Kee friends.

Cheers!

The guys at my dinner. (Next to me) Robin, (Bottom left to right), Calvin, Adrian and Kenny

The girls at my dinner. (From left to right) Shelley, Maaya and Cindy

My 20th birthday cake.

One happy birthday boy

My beloved cake maker, Shelley. The girl who I cannot thank enough for her wonderful cake that placed a big smile on my face

Getting drunk tonight!

Illa and Cindy with their booze

Alex and me...Don't mind the finger, buddy

Maaya and me, two drunk heads

We've got a man down! I repeat: we've got a man down! Adrian was the first drunk head to KO

Maaya and Shelley taking advantage of the drunk guy. Gang bang!