Farewell Party

To celebrate the final days of classes & the beginning of teaching practice 2, a farewell party was organized last Thursday at Alex’s apartment. Actually, the main basis for the party was to celebrate her birthday but since many would be leaving the following day, why not kill two birds with one stone? Arriving with a six pack & party munchies, I correctly assumed this would be a night to remember considering the next time we’d all see each other would be 9 weeks in the future.

The party was alive & jumping by the time night had settled and everyone was filling themselves up with alcoholic drinks, chips, & candy, as well as predicting how their second practice will turn out. From what I can remember, everyone sounded confident & a little anxious because we’re closer to obtaining the important teaching diploma.

Several students such as myself are staying in Christchurch while others are being deployed to Auckland, Gibson, Wellington, & Nelson. Those travelling outside of Christchurch are given transportation money from the College.

To lighten the mood, Emily, a science major, arrived wearing a short black wig, confusing us at first because she’s a brunette. Over the course of the night, the wig sat on many heads, its hidden power alternating the moods & actions of many, thus becoming one of the main highlights of the night.

The other was the colourful piñata bought for Alex to bash it with a police club. Following tradition, she was blindfolded, spun several times, and then given the club to take risky swings. The original plan was to hang the piñata from a tree branch but there weren’t any strong enough prompting Ried, a gingerhead Kiwi, to hold it from a broom. Yeah, well, the obvious happened, with him being hit in the arm. After that, Alex removed the blindfold and busted the piñata open, spilling its sugary guts onto the floor. She’s got quite a strong vicious swing for an English teacher so her future pupils better be nice to her.

One of Alex's roommates has a collection of large map posters, surprisingly a large map of Canada displaying the main Canadian National Railway lines. Ried was even more surprised to learn there’s a Canadian city named Regina. He spent the next several minutes telling all the non-Canadians about his revelation while us Canadians shook our heads thinking, “It’s 3^rd grade all over again.”

A lot more entertaining comedies happened that night but like the old saying goes, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Despite being, um, ‘empowered’ by alcohol, I managed to capture some great moments on my digital camera.