Avskedsfest

Last Saturday was Mr. Chad Balls going-away party. Chad was first introduced to me as "the other Rotary Exchange Student in Ystad". Today he is not only my fellow exchange student, he's one of my close friends. The theme of the party was "Dress Like A European".

I decided to go as a Frenchman. I think Chad was expecting me to be a Russian because I study Russian all the time. Unfortunately, Russians are really more a fur-coat wearing kind of people, which doesn't really go with the summer weather. I threw a costume together earlier that day: a striped shirt, a vest and a pair of black pants which I rolled up at the bottoms like I've seen Valou do. Lena dug out a berrete that Kristine got while she was in Paris and suggested a scarf. I found my old red hankerchief and tied it into a kind of bow. The final touch was a fake mustasch that Chad got earlier. All together, it looked a little something like this:



I went in on the bus. It was really strange when I got on in Glemminge because there was another Frenchman on board. I assumed that he was also going to the party, rightly as it turned out.



The party was supposed to start when I arrived at six o' clock, but it was mostly only his adult guests to got there then. It was his last host-family and some friends of his current host-parents. Chad's host dad was dressed as a German with leather shorts and high stockings.

Everyone was assembled at around seven. The Australians finally came after getting a little lost in Ystad and Filip and Marcus, the Swedes in attendance, were there a little after that.

I, of course, was a Frenchman, but what about everyone else? Well, Chad was dressed as a Swede with tight jeans and flattened hair. Sarah and Teagan had togas and Emily had a vaguely spanish dress. Filip was also a Frenchman and Marcus was... well, I'm not sure what he was. He just had a really nice suit on. We decided that he looked like Barney Stinson from "How I Met Your Mother".





We started with dinner; bread with cheese and butter, salad, potato salad, turkey sliced up like lunch meat but intended to be eaten alone and a whole rullebär, wheelbarrow, of drinks.





After dinner we sat around and talked. Filip had a baguette with him as part of his costume. I think it was really only intended to be a prop, but Chad must still have been hungry because he had a few bites. Then Marcus had a bite. Then Filip said that it was a year old. No more bites were taken.

We had a kings dessert of pies and cakes and muffins and ice cream, but I was far too full to put away any more food. There was also a lot of candy sitting out.

After a while it was time for the Australians to go, so I went with them to the station. When I got back it was quite dark and I found everyone playing poker betting the candies they hadn't eaten. I joined in as a spectator for a while. Finally we decided to watch a movie. It was quite late then, Lena picked me up at eleven thirty while the movie was only about a half hour in.