Summer Vacation Day 46: La pendaison de crémaillère and a Good Time

Hello, Tim!

Random fact: house-warming party, in French, pendaison de crémaillère, basically means ‘hanging of the chimney hook’. The Net told me that it was an expression from the Medieval times.

8/15, Wednesday

Today, our math classes took up only the first two hours since eight in the morning, so we were free starting at ten o’clock. A pack of my classmates started packing right away, and the group included Cathy, Candy, Melody, Selena, Sherry, and Angela. We were we headed for?

My house! It was my house-warming party with friends!

Pre-Party group photo!

We took the bus to a nearby station, made a detour to an arcade in a cinema. Meanwhile, Melody ordered pizza online.

I have always dreamed about this, not particularly a house-warming party, but at least for once, I want to invite my friends over to my place, and just have fun and treat them all like a good host would be. I know that sounds like I was hosting to impress, but I really like the feeling of tending to other’s needs, and holding a small party gave me the perfect reason to do so.

I led all the girls into our humble place, and they just kept saying that this wasn’t what they expected to see. Well, maybe except for Angela and Melody, who had been here already. Twice. In fact, as soon as Melody got into my house, she laid all her things on the couch, and dialed a friend, slouched on our couch, and started talking about a senior we saw on the way home. When it comes to making some place her own house, Melody nailed the job impeccably. On the other hand, Angela called herself a tour guide while leading the others into my bedroom.

Candy, who was impressed by my just-moved-in clean bedroom, said that she never expected my house to be so neat (‘What happened to you at school? Your desk at school is like a dumpster,’ she added.) She even asked if I would mind her taking pictures! Cathy said that she thought that I have fewer books than she'd imagined, which slightly ‘offended’ me, and I quickly explained that there

About ten minutes into the ‘tour’ and the ‘sightseeing’, the buzzer to the door, well, buzzed, meaning the pizza was here. We got two large and two smalls, all in exotic flavors like kimchi and cream sauce with seafood. Someone turned on the television and turned to a volleyball replay. Half of the girls groaned in disdain but watched on anyway.

I should explain. Today was also the championship and the competition between the third place of the Asian Men’s Volleyball Cup. Yesterday, Team Taiwan, or Chinese Taipei competed against Iran and lost, and the replay on the TV was the very game. Today, our national team would be fighting for the third place against Japan, and some girls present would be watching the game at the arena, which was conveniently located in a ten-minute walking distance.

Somewhere in the middle of the game, the lock of the door clicked, and Mom was back from her sister’s quality time at Eliza’s because someone was here to make measurements for our to-be-made curtains. After everything was done, she said at the doorway that she would be back soon to grab something, and she would be out of our hair for the rest of our afternoon.

After the heartbreaking replay of the volleyball game, we turned off the TV and started studying for a while. Melody took a nap, lying on the couch while Sherry was next to her, just chilling out. Melody woke up and switched place with Candy, who was just sitting at the desk, studying.

About another hour had passed, and I got a text from William, asking if the others were still at my place. I did invite William to the party, but he said that he wanted to stay at school and finish his homework first. I told him to call me if he finished his stuff and still wanted to come. I was almost absolutely sure that he wouldn’t be coming then, so it really surprised me that I was even getting a text from him.

William entered the house, and the first thing he said was, ‘Your house is quite small.’ I yelled at him for being so rude, but we all knew it wasn’t serious; he's always saying the first several things that came to his mind, albeit sometimes exasperatingly blunt and thoughtless, and I always chastise him for it.

There were only seven of us at first, so we have plenty of pizza left. William then sprawled on the couch and just started watching telly and munching on pizzas.

And the prize for the runnerup of the 'Make Yourself at Home Award' goes to...

Cathy then launched a very simple but unexpectedly laugh-provoking party game in which you put on your earphones and blast some music with such high a volume that you can't even hear the others shouting. (Kids, it does sound fun, but it impairs your hearing, so, be careful.)

Caution: Hearing damage; do not play on a regular basis.

The others without earphones come up with a sentence, and by mouthing the words to the contestants, they have to figure out what the sentence was.

In this game, things just kept happening, things that set us into a cacophony of cackles. For starters, Sherry spoke in the loudest voice we ever heard her. Maybe she didn't know that she was talking so loudly because her hearing was blocked; then Sherry and Selena, both with ears plugged, had an exchange of conversation that is managed through loud-shouting and lips reading- It was hilarious.

This went on for another thirty minutes or so, and the girls were off for the volleyball game. Soon, it was just William and me left in my house. We just sat on the couch, him watching a movie on TV and me typing another entry for my blog. Then we started chatting, (smaller voice) mostly about his love life (cue the smirks). I think he is my best male friend in high school at this point. He has been around for the longest, and at times, he can be considerate and goofily cute. There was actually one time we took the metro back home (same direction) when we were talking heatedly about English accents and somewhere in between, we just started talking entirely in English. Later that evening, I got a message from Cathy asking if William and I were chatting in English on the metro. She said that she had her informant (which, I later found out, was her mother). 

A while after that, even William left. He needed to go to his cram school, and that meant I would be home alone for a couple of hours. I started to clean up the little sesame that was missed when we all helped clean up before the girls left, and I thought to myself:

I did the job as a host quite successfully, didn’t I?

This is all for today.

(p.s. Unfortunately, Taiwan lost to Japan, but they were very close to winning. Good game! Fourth place was the best yet, from what I heard from the other classmates.)