Jessica and the Whale: We wish you a merry christmas

Last week we had our house christmas party!

It was a wonderful evening of good food, beautiful decorations and friends.

Our house was prepared ahead of time and booked the library in the castle which is gorgeous.

The girls spent a good part of the afternoon crowded into the bathroom and running up and down the corridor getting ready.

At 5:30 we poured into the dayroom (at this point I would like to bring it to your attention that the girls were ready before the guys who are not very 'time-aware')

As is tradition everyone in the house is randomly paired up as dates for the party (we are one of the only houses who actually has the same guy to girl ratio and so none of the girls had to share their dates). Usually the guys pick names out of a hat about two weeks in advance, but as a house we decided to change the tradition as early date choosing always results in secret swapping of dates, which the girls find insulting. So instead the party reps cut christmas cards in half and then on the evening of the party we all pulled a half out and had to find who 'completed our card' and who was therefore our date. It was pretty fun. And so after a few minutes of people milling around te room holding their cards out in front of them like they were on fire, we all found our dates.

My christmas date was Faizan, the latest arrival (he can approximately a week before) from Pakistan. He is very sweet (not to mention brilliant) and gave me flowers which were lovely!

This is Laura ( from the States [on the right]), Nora (Norway [left]) and I in our dayroom:

After establishing our dates we ventured outside and down to the library.

Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) it was raining outside and because my umbrella had walked out of my room earlier in the week (I swear that it walked out on its own!) and because Faizan didn't have one, we walked to the castle in the wet. As a result my nicely straightened hair turned into a frizzy mess.

On the bright side the library looked beautiful! The tables were set up, the couches had been moved, music had been set up and the all of the shelves were decorated.

Here is Maria (Spain) in front of the tables:

Here are the beautiful tables, with christmas crackers and everything

Here is a (slightly dark) dorm photo. From the left is: Marthe (Norway - 2nd year), Kete (South Africa/ UK - 2nd year), Helen (Hong Kong - 1st year) and me!

My fabulous first year doormie!

More dorm love:

Summer (Jamaica - 1st year) and her date Geome (France - 2nd year)

Helen, my doormie with her christmas date, Donald (Sierra Leone - 1st year)

Laura, Nora and I again

Iris (albania - 1st year) the house genius and my math party buddy (really it is her doing math and me badgering her with questions)

Dongju (China - 2nd year) trying to look like a chinese pop star (and doing a pretty good job!) and Floria (Hong Kong - 2nd year) creeping in the background

Here is Laura's beautiful hair. When she arrived at AC she had dreadlocks. However after about a month at school (she only had then down about a month before she came) she decided that she wanted to take them out. So we spent many, many evenings since then sitting the bathroom, listening to music, talking and combing the dreadlocks out of her hair. It was painful process (mostly for her) but we finished the day before the christmas party and then throughly conditioned her hair and cut it... and here is the final result! I think it looks beautiful :)

Sheila (Uganda - 1st year) who was my secret santee (I gave her gifts)

James (Falkland Islands - 2nd year) and Yuki (Japan - 2nd year)

Nora and William (USA - 1st year)

Alex (Nigeria - 2nd year) and Gabriel (Venezuela - 1st year)

Leah (USA - 1st year [she is not in my house but she came to visit]) and Hugo (Spain - 1st year)

Me and my date, Faizan!

Me with Sumire (Japan - 1st year)

Faizan, Ula (Norway - 1st year {this is a classic Ula expression - he is probably one of the funniest guys I have ever met but is still a really solid guy}), Nora, Sheila, and Facundo (Paraguay - 2nd year)

Our pensive looks

Facundo looking intelligent

Everyone enjoying good food and good company

all the yummy food!

Our house dance party. After we filled ourself with delicious goodness, we migrated down to the end of the library were the couches had been cleared away and put on our dancing shoes!

After dancing off some of the food from our stomachs we gave our final secret santa gift and thus revealed ourselves to our secret santees. I gave Sheila chocolate and a big scarf to keep her warm during the winter (when I asked her what she missed most about Uganda she said the heat!).

My secret Santa was Laura (USA)! She was a wonderful secret santa and over the two weeks she had given me chocolate, a cupcake and various messages. As her final gift she made me a gingerbread house!! It was amazing!