Holidays on Steroids

Sorry to not have written a long entry in awhiles, but while combating a cold, I have been having to participate in English Christmas, which is totally amped up. The past week and the week to come is filled with a manic amount of Christmas parties, and I can't remember the last time I have been so social, but overall it's been really fun~ I'll be home soon enough to update you all on the festivities in person, but here are some highlights of the things I have been doing:

Thanksgiving: 

Andrew had so graciously invited me to Thanksgiving with his and Yuan's friends from school. It was a veritable ex-Pat Thanksgiving, and where I did miss my mom's cooking, it was a good replacement, and I did get to eat to my hearts content. Here is a pic from the evening. Notice I am holding my stomach because I can't really stand straight:

Random gig:

I accompanied a friend of mine from work to a gig her friend was doing at a local pub. The music was alright (think 50s-surfer themed music), but the most interesting part was the crowd. There were some celebs in the crowd, most notably, Methusela was rocking out hard the entire evening to the tunes. Not pictured here is his date Methusalina, who would be his female equivalent and possible date?

Everyone knows how much I hate standing room only events, and this one was one of those that I didn't like. I got to stare at this all evening:

He seems pretty calm in this picture, but he was dancing like a hippy doped up on acid in a hackey-sack tournament, so I was getting major whiplash (and possibly lice) from his dreads. He also remarkably reminded me of the DJ from Zoolander who kept playing "Relax." 

Coincidence?

Holiday Parties galore:

This past week I had been to two holiday parties. One of them was for OxFam, which I went to with my flat-mate who works there. This party's theme was "Be Evil-Kind", which was some kind of spin on their motto, which is something like "Annoy and guilt people into saving the world" or after going to the party maybe it should be "America contains all things evil." So people had to dress up as things that would be evil Christmas, so we had our bad santas, slutty elves, evil reindeer, but along with that we had many things representing the white-devil of the U.S. There was George Bush and Sarah Palin's, then a woman dressed like a whore with dollar bill signs and dollars everywhere, and of course Ronald McDonald. 

Someone was dressed as a banana, so I asked my flatmate, "What is so evil about bananas?" Her response was that he was a Wal-Mart banana, so he wasn't free trade. How....clever? Perhaps I should have dressed up as a faucet with two separated taps. I find that far more of a mind-fuck than a banana from Wal-Mart. I was thinking that Jeff's Kim Jong Il would have been the best costume at this party, and also something that was actually evil. Don't forget to bring it when you come visit!

Both are far more evil than anything I saw at this evil-Christmas

We had our office Christmas lunch on Friday, which was really amazing. We had a restaurant booked off, and a three-course meal, which was good. It was a good opportunity to chat up people I normally don't speak to (or even knew existed) in the department. After the food, we went to a backroom where there was Secret Santa (I got a really nice gift) and our annual Christmas competition, which was modeled after Dancing with the Stars (called Strictly Come Dancing here). Pairs of people were photographed then put on a generic background and turned to black silhouettes so you can only see their shape and relative sizes to each other. We had to guess each couple in the pics and whoever gets the most wins a prize. After seeing the results, it was nice to see that even up to management levels, every one is a good sport and really gets into things. I also didn't fair too badly for being a newbie, beating some of my other co-workers who have been there for years. 

Here is a nice pic of me and the people who sit in my pod at work:

After all these festivities, we just hung around and drank. Then we moved to a new place and drank some more. At one point, Michelle and I needed to break off and eat again. Brits are hardcore. All in, I think we were out drinking for 12 hours, and some people didn't eat the entire time since our lunch! I couldn't understand how these people were standing by the end of the night, and by the time I left, there were still people out. I may have been able to hang this year, as I want to make a good impression, but not sure if every year I will be able to last this long.

Upcoming events:

Coming up this week, I have more Christmas lunches, our "unofficial" Christmas party (apparently where people really wild out), last minute X-mas shopping, packing, and then coming back to you guys! Can't wait...I hope my mom has the kimchee ready!