Birthday Party

         Every other Saturday, a different class is in charge of preparing the Agderlørdag celebration. It's a party with a theme, and everybody dresses up, we play games, and eat a fun evening meal--that's more than just bread! A few weeks ago the film class did a Willy Wonka themed dinner, where we dressed up as characters, ate lots of chocolate, and did candy themed games. Some people went all out with their costumes, but I just wore all of the purple that I had, and called myself Violet.

        This past Saturday the theme was a kid's birthday party. We all had to dress up like little children, and they handed out party hats and goodie bags. We had hotdogs for dinner, and the whole place was decorated with streamers and balloons. Sofia and I got ready together, so we made capes out of bedsheets, and put our hair in pigtails and barrettes. Honestly, we should bring capes back into fashion--they're wicked fun! 

        After dinner the whole school gathered into groups, and we played a bunch of games, like musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey, and one where you reach into a closed box and have to guess what's inside. We also did an activity where we cast a fishing pole over the balcony, and a person hiding under the stairs attached a goodie bag to it. Apparently it's a common Norwegian birthday game. 

        Something interesting is that the Norwegian birthday song is an actual song. In the US we just sing the words "happy birthday to you" over and over, which is what we do in Spanish class, and what the Germans said they do too. However the Norwegian students sing an entire song with a whole lot of words, and it even has dance moves! I'm still trying to learn it, but I've almost got it down. The only problem is that it gets stuck in my head all the time, so my friends and I are just constantly singing "Hurra for Deg" and annoying all of the other students. 

        At the end of the party we did a scavenger hunt. The class in charge listed random items, and each team needed to run around grabbing them. One item was a full glass of water, and my teammate grabbed a glass and brought it over, but the judge said it wasn't full enough, so she ran off to get more. However another team's member was close behind, and bringing a really full glass over. When he was walking by me, I knocked the bottom of the glass so that it spilled a little, and when he realized he wouldn't win, he threw the rest of the water at me! It was okay, because I figured we'd still win, but when I saw my teammate, she was just standing there, and said "Oh, I gave up". Really sums up group projects right there :)

        Another funny item was when they asked for a shirt, and two guys--who had quite obviously been waiting for that one--ripped their shirts off so quickly they had to fight each other to get it to the judge first. Our class doesn't plan an Agderlørdag for another month, so we haven't really started thinking about what we're going to do. Since we're the internationals, we might do an airplane/travel themed party, but I'm not sure yet. Feel free to comment suggestions! 

        By the way, I'm feeling much better now. This is likely the last day that I'll be stuck in my room. I guess I really jinxed it when I said things would start settling in this week!