Christmas party
※ This article discusses the 17th of December 2016.
At the beginning of December, Martina was invited to join a christmas party. We both joined the event. A corresponding Secret Santa (we called it Wichteln in Austria) was organized via drawnames.com.
On 12th and 16th of December 2016, Martina and I went shopping to find an appropriate gift. The price limit was defined by 1000-2000 Yen and we could ask anonymously for wishes via the web interface. My receiving friend was interested in Zelda, NBA and vaping. I bought him some Zelda merchandise and Pocky. It was not easy to find wrapping paper, so we bought a Santa sock instead. Martina bought Haikyuu manga for her assigned person.
On the 17th of December 2016, we headed to Kobe University’s Kokui Residence (here on Google Maps). It was the first time, we were at a different dormitory by Kobe University. The party was privately organized. We have been about 50 people and Rapunzel Glühwein was offered by a German exchange student. She told me she bought the German product from an import distributor located at Sannomiya. Not everybody participated in Secret Santa, but we have been at least 20 people. First, the Secret Santas got revealed. We had to describe our assigned person in a non-obvious way (usually how he/she is dressed). Then the gift was offered. The receiving person had to reveal her assigned person next. However, we ended up in 4-5 circles this way. I received a portable version of Shogi, commonly referred to as Japanese Chess. I love my gift. In the following, I gave my present to my assigned person. By the way, how do you assign people for Secret Santa such that no-one picks himself (without using a third-party like a web application)? The solution is presented by Hannah Fry.
Afterwards, we chatted with other people. Particularly from Germany and Australia. The last train required us to leave at 23:30. For this event, it was nice to experience Secret Santa in an international context. The party was not particularly lively.
In recent times, my bucket list did not get shorter. The christmas party took place on Saturday and I could have done an event day on Sunday. But I was very busy with the progress of my bachelor thesis and decided to consider this christmas party as event. In short: Christmas holidays are coming and I am motivated for sightseeing/travelling.
Want to know another interesting fact about Christmas at Kobe University? Every faculty decides on its own when makeup classes (substitution classes for dates, when class couldn’t take place) take place. They are typically attached to holidays making holiday planning a mess (in my humble opinion). So as far as I am concerned, I will have Japanese class, but no other class in the week of 26th of December.