So first, the "Welcome Party."
During the "Welcome Party," we were put into groups by what was placed in our card protectors. I was in the Naraokayaki group. Naraokayaki is basically a beautiful pottery dish. It has a blue enamel that is very pleasing to the eye. Look, here it is on my card thingy.
After we got into our groups, we had just talked to the people at our tables. I got to know a domestic exchange student named Ai. She was very kind to the people at our table and seemed like she generally was interested in what the other person was saying. I also met a girl from Hong Kong, but she was very shy. At my table, there was a guy from England that I had met earlier, but had forgotten about. He was aware of that at the party. So, once again, sorry Robert!
We had then eaten delicious food/snacks. I did not take any pictures though. So, after that we played an ice-breaker game. In your groups and then out of your groups, you were suppose to go around and ask people about themselves. If they had something on the list that you haven't filled in yet, you had to write it down. Here is what mine looked like... obviously I wasn't too good at this game. XD [if a last name was written, I covered it up for the protection of others]
After that, we all returned to our tables. The next game was played was rock, paper, scissors. But before that, my table played a different game by ourselves... the nose game. No one had wanted to be the leader of the group to play against all the other tables so we did the nose game. I think only the Americans at the group knew it, but no one else. We had to quickly tell the ones that didn't know the game what we were doing. Some went with the method of "just put your finger to your nose before anyone else does" and some went with "touch your nose if you don't wanna be the leader." So, our leader was picked that way. XD
She made it to round three, but then got out. Heather's team almost made it though! Then time for more socializing within our groups. And that's when the music started playing. You could tell that people wanted to dance but were too scared to do so. What most people did (including myself) was just sway to the music. It wasn't until the macarena was introduced and got everyone doing the dance! Then the YMCA started playing. Everyone was having a great time. As time went on and music still played, people were leaving one by one or in groups. Because I love dancing and having a fun time at dance parties, I didn't want to stop dancing. I wanted to dance the night away. I tried, but eventually they gave us looks like "go away. We're trying to clean here." We continued dancing until after the song "Cupid Shuffle." After that, we left the cafeteria and went to our respective rooms to sleep.
So... second party was the Ice Cream Party~!! The ice cream party was so much fun~! Like seriously! Being lactose intolerant, I was like, "ice cream party? :/" but then it changed more into "ICE CREAM PARTY~!!!!! :D" shortly afterwards. We are still children at this school, there is no doubt in my mind about it.
Seriously, the games we played here were musical chairs (twice) and Japanese Rock, Paper, Scissors.
So, musical chairs first. There were two rounds of it. Most of friends went in and played, but I didn't want to. I would rather take pictures from the outside. Everyone was cheering people on. I acted like a cheerleader for the Ursinus folks and for friends. Thomas made it to the final five, but got out. I didn't know the two girls who were playing in the first game. However, in the second round, it was Ivan (from my school) versus some girl I don't know. I was cheering for Ivan to win; just because I wanted a UC student to win. XD
While cheering, a Hawaiian friend of mine Keli'i (pronounced as Kelly-e) was cheering on his friend. He put me to shame with his cheering skills~! XD [Sorry, random short story to throw into here.]
When they called Ivan's name to teh stage, all the UC students were cheering. We were all "whoo~!" However, when they asked him where he was from/which college he attended. Sara and I let out the loudest "WHOO~!!!!" in the whole room. At that point, people were mostly quiet but still energetic. It was really fun~
Then we ate the ice cream. They had different flavors; vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, cookies and cream (they ran out of that one before I got to it D:), and a different vanilla. So obviously, I went with the vanilla~! Yummy~ :9 But I did want the cookie one~
After eating, we played more games. ^^ This time Rock, Paper, Scissors... JAPANESE STYLE!!! Actually, I don't know if it is Japanese style, I just only seen in Japanese tv and here in Japan. I just assumed, but it might be incorrect. Anyway, I should probably give a brief difference between "American" rps versus "Japanese" rps.
American - you play against one person and someone loses. After that, the person is out of the game. People keep playing until it's only two. Japanese - you play one on one (like American). But instead of that person loses, they join onto your team by holding your shoulders. Then the person who won, goes to the next competitor. They play, someone loses. You gain two more people for your train. It continues until there are two long trains of people. Then they BATTLE ROYAL it out. Okay, not really. But they do have a last match. This one was on the stage without their trains. Only difference.
So pictures? Pictures.
So, here is the back story of the random dance party one: Thomas, Gustav, Sara, Rebecca, Heather, and I were just hanging out in the Student Hall place. Anyway, we were sitting near the dance studio. So me being me, always wanting to dance, had decided to let it out and dance in the studio since no one was in it at the moment. So, Heather and Rebecca convinced me to do some K-pop dancing. Like I needed any persuasion! :p. After I had finished k-pop dancing, we were just sitting there talking... and that's when MIM and LIN came into the room to get back to wherever they were heading. They had joined in the fun~! We danced to more k-pop together. It was a fun time. :D We did multiple SNSD, PSY's Gangnam Style, Super Junior's Sorry Sorry, BEG's Abracadabra, etc. I had so much fun with those two~!! <3 Let's do it some more? :3
So, random dance party = over. IAC's dance party = beginning. So, yesterday (September 7th) IAC - or Intercultural Affairs Committee - had thrown a "Welcome Back" party for all the students. I had just gotten back from a field trip with one of my classes (that's for a separate post) and was in the almost finished/in the middle of eating when Phil (the head of the program) had approached Rebecca, Heather, and I to help out set up. We were all excited and already had been planning to join that committee so of course we said yes. We had a fabulous time at the dance. It was a lot of fun~! <3 I danced for most of the night (except to most of the rap songs and when I was trying to recruit people to come and dance). We were so official~! Here are some pictures~: (sadly, I got no during set-up, the dance itself, or clean-up... but other people did.)
A final/special thanks to all the members o f IAC for their hard-work on these events and Rebecca for letting me use her dance photos of Mim/Lin/me. Also, thank you to all the readers of my blog. Please feel free to comment on here or on my facebook~ don't be scared~!! :D
Wow, looks like you had fun, actually more than fun. Haha. I think that is really interesting how they play the RPS game. Sounds less harsher than our own and much more involved. I would have loved to see you three dance. Haha. Especially to the Gangnam song. The questioning game was also intriguing, good way to start up a conversation and meet new students. Oh gosh, I imagine for the chair game there were a few casualties? There is always one that pushes you off the chair and both end up falling, haha. I'm happy you had so much fun, keep us updated! Love to hear more events from your journey.
ReplyDelete~Maria
Hey, Maria.
DeleteSorry for taking so long to respond to this. ^^;;
It was really fun, the party and dancing with Mim and Lin I mean. Mim, Lin, and I are planning on learning a dance together and hopefully they'll let me film it. Hehe~ ^^ At the party, there were few almost causalities, but not many thankfully.
Please continue reading (and loving) my blog!! <3
~Kelly