Monday, December 18, 2006
Laughter and forgetting
Saturday night was Andy's sayonara party- a scrambled meal in 280 followed by more beers, then dancing until 5 am at the Triangle club. I fell into bed closer to 6 and closer, by far, to death than I care to remember.
Last night was our school's Xmas party/bounenkai- the traditional Japanese end-of-year party. On the back of sleep deprivation and work, I was ready for some anti-social behaviour.
#1. I complimented one Japanese staff girl on her new hairstyle. When she fell for it and thanked me, I casually asked her which bakery she'd gone to, prompting some ill-natured cackling from the other gaijin and a complete lack of comprehension from the voluminously-haired staff member.
#2. I then proceeded to alienate the staff further by treating them to my impersonations of them. Particularly good was the one who's such a dunce she doesn't even understand her own name when you say it to her.
#3. ...and then got in a macho contest with an ostensibly male Japanese staff member regarding who could handle the most hot sauce on their pizza. I put mine away with considerably more heroism and stoicism than my rival, whose glasses got all fogged up. He then said that the first person to sip any of their beer was the loser, in response to which I pointed out that there wasn't much point to putting restrictions on beer drinking at a year-end party. Realising the wisdom of this, he downed his beer so fast he nearly swallowed the glass, then went on to order several ice creams.
I stole the hot sauce.
***
Bounenkai means a party to forget the year, but I think I could use a party to forget the party. The book we teach from is called "Diplomat"; I seem to be anything but.
Last night was our school's Xmas party/bounenkai- the traditional Japanese end-of-year party. On the back of sleep deprivation and work, I was ready for some anti-social behaviour.
#1. I complimented one Japanese staff girl on her new hairstyle. When she fell for it and thanked me, I casually asked her which bakery she'd gone to, prompting some ill-natured cackling from the other gaijin and a complete lack of comprehension from the voluminously-haired staff member.
#2. I then proceeded to alienate the staff further by treating them to my impersonations of them. Particularly good was the one who's such a dunce she doesn't even understand her own name when you say it to her.
#3. ...and then got in a macho contest with an ostensibly male Japanese staff member regarding who could handle the most hot sauce on their pizza. I put mine away with considerably more heroism and stoicism than my rival, whose glasses got all fogged up. He then said that the first person to sip any of their beer was the loser, in response to which I pointed out that there wasn't much point to putting restrictions on beer drinking at a year-end party. Realising the wisdom of this, he downed his beer so fast he nearly swallowed the glass, then went on to order several ice creams.
I stole the hot sauce.
***
Bounenkai means a party to forget the year, but I think I could use a party to forget the party. The book we teach from is called "Diplomat"; I seem to be anything but.
