Today was my 21st birthday. It’s quite hard to believe; it’s so unusual an experience! This morning I awoke to birthday greetings from my four roommates.I was scheduled to teach in the science department in the University this morning and taught my first two University lessons with three of the other volunteers. The quality of English in the science department is high but many of the students are shy and initially reluctant to practice their knowledge of the language. We began both lessons by playing a warm up game of ‘zip, zap, boing’, designed to get the mouths of the students working. They proved very adept at this novel lesson tool; ultimately considerably better than us. We continued the lesson with pronunciation, helping the students to differentiate the sounds of ‘v’ ‘p’ and ‘f’, which Sri Lankan students seem particularly to struggle with. This worked well; it was rewarding to hear the difference from the beginning of the exercise to the end. We ended both lessons by encouraging the students to ask questions and informally chat about the attractions of travelling, places in the world they would like to visit and the relative virtues of Sri Lanka and England. I felt both the lessons went well. It is important for students of the Faculty of Science to learn good English, the language in which many of their lessons are taught, and raising the standard of English amongst students with already a good grasp is an area in which I feel our time here can make a significant difference.In honour of my birthday, I spent the afternoon indulging in a Harry Potter book in preparation for the release of the last instalment; a much anticipated event amongst us. We have discovered that volley ball, netball and badminton take place in the University gym on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and, this seeming a good way to get to know some of the students, two of us decided to participate. Though intending to play badminton it was the all-girl netball class we joined, sparking great nostalgia for childhood games. Much of the practise was organised in pairs, threes and fours and we swapped around groups, chatting to various students as we exercised. Most of the students turned out to be from the Science Faculty and, as we have found girls to be particularly shy in mixed company, this informal environment was indeed a fantastic way to interact with girls of our age.Returning to our accommodation I was welcomed into my barely recognisable, tidied and colourful room, newly strewn with balloons and streamers, my bed adorned with snack food and presents. This exceptional welcome was much appreciated after a necessary shower. Having had so little time to relax and enjoy our still new accommodation I had previously decided to spend the evening in and, having eaten cake and sweets to the point of sickness, the group huddled around a lap top to watch the appropriate meeting of English and Asian in the film ‘Bride and Prejudice’. This is not a birthday I am likely to forget any time soon!