Current mood:	amused
Current music:	Akemi Kimura, Noriyuki Iwadare - Mitsurugi Reiji - Great Revival

Christmas Party!
Uhhh, I'd better not comment on how long I haven't updated anymore. *embarrassed cough*

Today was the Christmas party of the residence here.
In a nutshell? I'm... not too sure whether I shall laugh... or bang my head against the wall. In the meanwhile, I'm trying to do both. Simultaneously.

Let's start with the food.
Which was clearly the Best Thing at the party, hands down, it was really good. This was not just a buffet of home-made salads and bags of chips and lots of beer cans, oh no, we had a real catering service, no less. It was really really good.

And now that I mentioned the food, let's start with the girls. Which is a less pleasent matter. Because honestly, the girls that were at our table (no, we were just standing, there was no complicated seat etiquette of course) attacked the buffet like there was no tomorrow and began to stockpile about three pieces of those exquisite looking cakes - each - on their plates. Do I really have to say that there weren't that many cakes all in all? Good thing I reacted fast enough and snatched one piece before everything was gone, because I don't think they cared at all.

Another little detail at the buffet: The plates on the buffet began to look almost empty, one of them only had two little pieces of smoked salmon left. Well, I might be shy and uber-anxious not to take anything away from others, but the girl in front of me in the row didn't seem to have such fears. While I would have taken one piece only, no she took both of them. Why bother whether there are others who'd like another piece or not?
As for the paella? (Because yes, we had paella, you heard that right) When I wanted to take some at my second visit at the buffet, there was still plenty of rice left. But nothing else that makes the paella a paella, just almost bare rice with nothing but a few colorful splotches where vegetables and shells and other things had once been.

Japanese attention and courtesy? I begin to think this is a myth.

Well, that was about the food. Let's talk about those mysterious presents, the second incentive on the promotional poster.
Because yes, there were presents. And the party was for free. I have no idea where they take the money from, but I guess the girls' parents are paying more than enough for these little details in their daughters' student lives.
Anyway. The first round of presents were distributed to the winners of a bingo game. Where I probably would have won the loser's price quite easily, those were obviously not my lucky numbers, but *ahem*, I didn't really care because not winning would mean I didn't have to go and take my presents in front of everybody. And when I saw that said presents were in fact make-up accessories in various forms and sizes, I really Didn't Care Anymore!
That was my first attempt to bang my head at the next wall, laughing maniacally.
I didn't escape the make-up anyway. The second game was a quiz, the teams were the tables were you were randomly standing at the moment. Well, I didn't know one single answer, I didn't really care anyway, but "my" table happened to be amongst the winners. I got a Lady Oscar mascara, thick and curly.
Yes, this is a girl's only university, and that university happens to be in Japan, has anyone forgotten yet? I almost did, I got so used to ignoring the Barbie Dolls while they apply their make-up and bend their eyelashes into shape in classes, but welcome back to reality. No seriously, what am I doing here???

Third present, for I don't know what game "we" lost (I think it was to pod a piece of adhesive strip from a balloon without making it burst, where we had a real screech concert whenever there was a loud bang), we had the choice between Hello Kitty bath sponges, Winnie the Poo bath sponges... or hooks. I took the hook. And I don't even know where I could use this one, as you have to use it on a cylindrical piece of furniture, and I can't remember having any of that particular sort. But it was a black hook and I like black and...
*ahem* Anyway.
The fourth present topped it all. Two sponges. No bathing sponges, no, sponges for cleaning your bathroom or your kitchen. Yes, you heard me right. No, I don't know who chose to buy those presents. But they have a little german flag on the vinyl sheet, because something related to those sponges is supposed to be "born in Germany" (yes, "born", not "produced"), and that makes everything better of course. I'm not quite sure what exactly it makes better, but we had a very good laugh and that's all what matters in the end. And that I can do my cleaning with new christmas present sponges, yay for that! And if there is any kind of message (girls' only residence, make-up, sponges for cleaning...), I don't want to think about it, because my head already hurts as it is right now.
And no, I still haven't decided yet what's more appropriate, laughing... or crying. I guess I'll opt for hysterical laughter instead...


(Except for that though, we got to know a very nice girl, even though she talked and talked and I almost didn't understand her at all with all those screeching background screams, but oh well, it didn't seem to bother her too much that I didn't contribute much to the conversation aside from a regular "Oh really?", "No really?" or a "Ooh, so interesting!".^^;