All the cool kids are dancing the Charleston

This is R writing!

This is Gatsby's party, not ours.

Last Friday night I had another school event. After staying at school very late Thursday night to decorate and set up we had Friday off from school and then had to go in at 7 pm for a mandatory party. Every six years the school has this party so that everyone gets to go once. This year was the 100th anniversary of the school so the theme was "Centimental." A pun for you, Grandpa! Each class got to choose a decade and my class chose the 20s.

The reason my class chose the 20s is apparently that someone saw the movie The Great Gatsby and decided that our party theme would be a Charleston bar. (Not the candy, the dance.) For the last month the girls of the class have been learning how to Charleston so that during the party we could perform it. The party went from 7 pm to 1 am. So I did not get to do all three performances because I left. However, everyone else as far as I can tell did stay the whole time, which I don't get because I know a lot of them have the same train that I do which stops running at thirty minute intervals but instead hourly.

The party wasn't all 20s though. That was only two classes. There was a large range of eras and themes. Two classes did the 80s. One did a futuristic space themed class. Another room was a haunted house. And another one a James Bond casino. I guess not all classes had to fit with the decades theme. One of the 80s classrooms had rentable roller skates. Since disco came a little late in Switzerland it was roller disco themed with 80s music. There were strobe lights everywhere, too. One hallway was filled with them and there was a checkerboard pattern on the walls with tin foil. Thank goodness it was a short hallway because it was pretty disorienting once you got in.

Another thing that surprised me a bit was what was on the menu. Each class had its own unique selection of food. The cold war Soviet room had hot soup. Our room had fruit punch and little triangle sandwiches. Another one which as far as I can tell was snow themed or winter themed was selling ice cream. But what really surprised me was the alcohol. Several rooms scattered here and there had wine on the menu and one or two that I saw, the Soviet room being one of them, had beer. A few wines were described as imitation, like in the casino. However, some were the real thing. I understand that there were teachers and some adult family members there, but with the other 80% being underage children it was unexpected to see so much of it or even any at all.

There is nothing really much more interesting to say about this. There were bright lights. loud music (thank goodness I could escape the nonstop Charleston song before I went crazy) and food. The rest of it was pretty much a normal school party, if you don't think about the time being so late and the games of poker going on in the basement.

p.s. While I was desperately trying to learn the Charleston so I didn't make a fool of myself during our demonstrations L picked up a few moves of her own. She's actually pretty good and seems to love it.

p.p.s. from A - R really has been immersed in this 20s theme. The other day we were talking about something and she said that someone had "pulled a Tom Buchanan"! I'd forgotten she watched The Great Gatbsy in French class and it took me a minute to catch the reference.