"One time, this guy handed me a picture of him, he said,"Here's a picture of me when I was younger." Every picture is of you when you were younger. "Here's a picture of me when I'm older." "You son-of-a-bitch! How'd you pull that off? Lemme see that camera... what's it look like?"
But I digress... The weekend after I got back from Japan, we had our housewarming party. The weekend we had chosen happened to be 4th of July weekend. Despite being the only american in the household, my pleas for a 4th of July/American themed housewarming were not only heard, they were embraced.
We sent out a Facebook invite and I was immediately bombarded with people's ideas for costumes...A few ideas that particularly stuck out...A competitive eater, The Statue of Liberty (as a guy), Obama, An American Gladiator. Seeing people's enthusiasm for this theme warmed my heart, even if their intentions weren't completely aligned with my hometown pride.
To fully embrace 'America', I knew we had to get a few things for sure for this party. A keg (they're not very common over here because they're so expensive), red solo cups (you can get them virtually no where here but Aussies LOVE them) and beer pong (this is practically unheard of by Australians, but every one of them I've introduced to it has immediately become enamored with it). Fortunately Lindsey had a friend visiting from the states who brought over the red solo cups, we found a place that delivered kegs, and after much work, and almost purchasing a full-sized ping pong table for sheer lack of other options, we managed to find two cheap, outdoor tables that could serve as a beer pong table. My flatmate, James, managed to get two turn tables and a bunch of vinyl records (even though in true-to-American-form, we just ended up plugging in an iPod to play music all night). So overall, everything was perfect!
As far as the flat mate costumes went, I decided to cop out and go for a daily duke/country girl-esque costume. Naturally, it was a little trampy, as all good American costumes are.
My flatmate James claimed he was a 'contemporary Uncle Sam' with cut off jean shorts, a jacket with the sleeves cut off, an obnoxiously giant red bow tie and red, white and blue paint making up his 'Uncle Sam beard.' He also insisted every hour, on the hour, all of the Americans scream 'WOOOOO!' as this is something, I guess based on the movies and TV he has seen, he believes we all do. He would actually stop the music every hour, on the hour, to announce it was time for the 'WOOOO'. We happily obliged (which I believe was more of a result of the copious amounts of cheap beer being consumed and less a result of 'WOOO'-ing being part of our cultural heritage).
This is what other countries thing of us...
My other flatmate, Fin, decided to go as Clint Eastwood from 'The Good, The Bad and the Ugly'. I've included a shot of Clint Eastwood with Fins picture for reference...
The party was a huge success! Our apartment essentially became the United Nations for beer pong, and I, the beer pong ambassador. Once we introduced the game to them, they got so competitive. I never thought it would warm my heart so to see so many other cultures so fully embrace our drinking traditions. We also introduced flip cup to them, which they loved as well. Below I've included a few additional pictures of some good costumes I saw at the party.
Ironically, one of the most fun times I've had since I've been back here was emulating an American party. Go figure!
I think this is my favorite post so far... and I love your flatmate James already.... WOOOOH!
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