Costume Party

Way back on Halloween (really, more than three weeks ago? really?) I threw a little costume party. And by little I mean I invited everyone I know in Iasi. Because I just love the idea of my 15x15 foot living room holding nearly 100 people. And potentially crushing the floor through. Not quite sure how durable this Romanian architecture is. In any event, I decided to make it a Costume Party, just avoid all the potential pitfalls of Issues and Misconceptions With Halloween. When dealing with a dozen cultures on any given day, it's best just to avoid all things problematic. Nevermind that it was on Halloween Night. Small coincidence.

I also decided to make it a THEMED Costume Party. Again, I could just picture people showing up dressed as Parlor Maids and Demons and thereby offending someone else. And who would get in trouble for Ms. Parlor Maid and Mr. Demon's decision to wear that? Me. So let's make it a Decades theme, shall we? Everyone come dressed as a decade, or as any era of time, within reason (ie, don't come wearing only a fig leaf and say you're from Adam and Eve's era). On the Fbook invite I stated that since it would be a costume party, those not wearing a costume would not be allowed to enter the party. I was saying that mostly to emphasize the fact that Yes This IS a Costume Party so PLEASE wear a costume. I wasn't REALLY planning on denying people entry (or was I? mwahaha), but I can't even tell you how many phone calls I had to field because of that sentence. Or how many people had actually decided they weren't coming because they had no costume. I'm sorry, but get your lazy self out of bed before 2pm and go to a few Second-Hand shops. Or your roommate's closet. Gosh. So I tried to artfully encourage people STRONGLY to do their best to put together a costume, but also assure them they could come if they didn't wear one. BUT I REALLY WANT YOU TO HAVE A COSTUME.

I whipped a playlist of 60s-90s hits (ok ok, it was mostly 80s and 90s!), planned a few games, made a bunch of food, and then just hoped it would all fall into place. As ya do. And I have to say, with total objectivity *wink*, it was a pretty splendid party. For the most part, people really and truly got into the costume idea, and there was actually a huge amount of variety, and loads of creativity. We played some silly games, like hanging 10 apples from string from the ceiling and 10 people had to compete to eat their apple with nothing but their mouth. Way hard. Way hilarious to watch. And way a great way to bridge all those awkward culture barriers because EVERYONE looks silly biting at the air to eat an apple. And then we played Signs, which, if you know the game, know that you cannot go wrong with it.

And of course we took loads and loads of pictures. Here are just a few to sum up the night:

Three Israelis dressed as Japanese women. And their... pimp?

Just a whole mess of awesome in this picture, from the 20s to 40s to 80s to... an imam? I just told him if any Muslims were offended, he could take the heat.

In a group almost entirely of medical students you KNEW someone had to come in scrubs. And I loved Tobi's rockin 80s outfit

Lilian (center) won best hair HANDS DOWN.

It turns out saying "Everyone give some attitude!" means very different things across cultures... Yay group shots.