student doctahs - white coat ceremony!

[my friends are so good looking]

These last four days have been a crazy whirlwind of surprises and celebrations. On Thursday, my sneaky sneaky friends threw me a surprise birthday party and they totally pulled it off because I'm completely oblivious. It was amazing, and so sweet of them - I honestly couldn't ask for a better group of friends. We had delicious food (some made by me because I thought we were just having dinner), apple cider, chai cupcakes, and a pinata for me to hit. At one point of the evening, I was walking from my house back to theirs when I ran into my aunt and uncle in the parking lot - they flew over from Germany to surprise me for my birthday! It's not often that I'm speechless but those were two moments within hours of each other.

[uncle, mom, brother, dad, aunt]

My parents and brother flew in on Friday for my white coat ceremony. The day of the ceremony was also my birthday so we had heaps of celebrating to do. We didn't get lucky with the weather for most of the day, so I wore my favorite pants instead of the dress I had planned on wearing. We received our shiny new short coats, and stethoscopes (mine is red, which is the same color that my dad and sister have!). Receiving the coat made it all feel a little bit more real - it sometimes feels like we're just playing school instead of actually becoming doctors.

[my gorgeous roommate]

how hot is my mom?

For my birthday, my aunt and uncles bought me the dirndl I tried on in June - it's like it was made for me! Polka dots, more dots, and it has pockets. Now I just need to find a way to get to Oktoberfest so I can actually wear it somewhere!

My parents got me the most beautiful bag - it's actually the same one my mom has so now we can be twins :) My roommate made me a terrarium, and Hans received a fun new present too - doesn't he look like he loves it?

Overall it was a really great weekend. I'm not one to talk about being blessed all the time, but I feel really lucky to have such a great family and group of friends both in real life and online. Thank you for all of the well-wishes!