Staff Christmas Party

All public schools released at noon on Friday, so a half day just like the radio announcement said. This meant 25-30 minute periods. We actually had all 7 periods. The first time we've had a short day and still had all classes rather than just dropping the last ones. I like this idea better. That gave Hannah and I time to run to town to purchase our tickets for the ferry to Independent Samoa for a weeklong visit over Winter Break after Christmas. Just $65 for a round trip.

Got a ride home with one of our co-workers, which was nice. Exercised for 70 minutes before showering, relaxing, and putting on my blue dress for the staff Christmas party. Funny story, somehow all four of us volunteer teachers at Tafuna dressed up in some shade of blue that night. Looking good.

Our friend and co-worker Pepe did us the honor of picking us up for the party which was being held at the Country Club in the village of Ili'ili. I've been there before. It's a nice place with live music, pool tables, and dancing. Pepe's friend Liana also came along, and I know her from Zumba. She came with Pepe for a while. They are both really fun, and the ride over there was full of laughs between all 6 of us piled in Pepe's car. This is me with Pepe and Liana.

Before dinner was served a few holiday games took place. They asked for some volunteers, and I went up. We had to try to draw a Christmas tree on a paper plate on top of our heads. My fellow volunteer Josh won that round. He won a case of butterscotch toffee with chocolate and almonds, which were interesting.

Some trivia questions about Christmas was another little game. I named all 9 of Santa's reindeer and received a big tin of Danish cookies. Yum. Then, there were some dance-offs. When I heard them say Gangnam Style was one of the songs, I thought I might as well go up for that one. We dance to it in Zumba all the time, so I could do a little advertising for Zumba class and represent the few of us Tafuna staff that go to the classes regularly. It was fun. I ended up winning that dance-off. I'm sure some of you are thinking "Jessica got up and participated in a dance competition? What madness is this?" My best friends all know I love to dance (although maybe not always the greatest, but dancing is all about having fun.) I have learned a thing or two from Zumba, and I'm sure those of you who follow my blog have seen I attend those classes regularly. I decided to give you all a little snippet of the dance that won me a bottle of sparkling cider :-)

Another dance-off commenced where they asked a representative from each department to come out. I was the only science teacher I could see around at the time, and I figured why not. Ended up winning that one, too. Maybe just because I am a palagi, one of the volunteers, or was enjoying myself. Who knows. I received another tin of Danish cookies for that and a $5 bill. Gave one of the tins to my friend Pepe. It was fun, and I'm sure some of them weren't expecting to see me get up there. Got high fives from all of my Zumba friends and others at the gathering.

We had the option of iced tea or lemonade with dinner free of charge, and I went for some good ole ice tea. They ended up setting a pitcher in front of me, which was pretty exciting. I had a total of 5 glasses, I do believe. Good stuff :-)

Here are my prizes I brought home from the fun night.

Then we just hung around, danced, chatted, enjoyed each others' company, and had a good time. Successful staff Christmas party. Only a few staff members reached the point of ridiculousness through the course of the night.