A cocktail party can be a very international educational experience (and much more fun than sitting in a classroom!). Things I learned at a cocktail party:
1) Making cocktails is messy business
Making mixed drinks (pouring, using a shaker, etc.) is not as easy as it looks when the bartenders do it (my drink-coated table and floor will attest to this!). We had milk punch (alcoholic milkshake) and brambles (a fun, British drink) - we got the hang of it eventually!
2) Party games are different across the ocean
I went to a well-respected party school for college (Go UW-Madison!) and thought I had a good handle on party games. However, I learned two new games. One is distinctly British and the other is too much fun not to share:
Save the Queen:
Using a British coin (which has a picture of the Queen on it), you have to try and get the coin into someone else's drink. If they are holding the drink, you can slip it in. Otherwise, you have to throw the coin in. If you succeed, you exclaim 'Save the Queen!' (because she's drowning!) and they have to finish their drink. Of course, beware that you don't accidentally swallow the Queen in your haste to save her from her watery fate...
Paper/Guessing Game:
Using whatever theme you want (anything from all nouns to famous people or Valentine's Day), each player fills out three slips of paper with appropriate (or inappropriate!) words. Then the game is played using teams and three rounds. In the first round, each person gets 1 minute to try and get their team to guess as many of the words as possible by describing them in any way, but without using the word on the paper (a la Balderdash). When the minute runs out, the other team gets 1 minute and it goes back and forth until all the words have been guessed. At this point, everyone on both teams has heard all the possible words. You would think that would make the following two rounds easier...
In round 2, the format is the same, but you only get a single word descriptor. Finally, round 3 is miming only.
3) Names for Disney heroes/villains are not the same across languages
This difference is apparent mostly when trying to use the name in a party game with people from at least 5 different countries! Our particular example was Cruella vs Crudelia. I looked up another example as well as my homework.
- English: Huey, Dewey, Louie
- Finnish: Tupu, Hupu, Lupu
- Swedish: Knatte, Fnatte, Tjatte
- Danish: Rip, Rap, Rup
- Norwegian: Ole, Dole, Doffen
4) Innocent handwriting misinterpretations can lead to hilarity.
I'll leave you to invent a definition for 'spankles'!
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| Cheers! |
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