'Tis the season.......
......for Christmas parties. Yes, the Christmas parties have begun - already! We had our lab Christmas party on Friday. My advisor and his wife invited the lab over for a Danish/Swedish "Christmas dinner". The first course of the dinner was herring, which was put on homemade bread, with a cream-based sauce on top. Then, we had ham, potatoes, and salads for the main course. Lastly, we had cheeses with bread and crackers.
Throughout the meal, it is Swedish tradition for everyone to have a snaps glass filled in front of them at all times. A snaps glass looks like a combination of a shot glass and a cordial glass. Snaps (or aquavit) is a very strong alcohol, usually distilled from potatoes. At anytime during the dinner, someone can raise their glass and sing a Swedish drinking song - after which, everyone drinks! Luckily, only about half of the group knew Swedish drinking songs. But, they kept us drinking until the snaps was gone!
After the meal, we played a gift-giving dice game. We each had to bring a gift that was a max of 20 SEK (< $3 US). So, the gifts were, um, interesting. The gift is kind of like the white elphant game so the gifts change hands many times. One of the most sought after was "the fart book". Another gift was the "cool sunglasses".
We all stuck around for a while after the dinner and gifts for some drunken conversation, some arm wrestling (I don't know how that got started!), and to sober up enough to be able to walk down several flights on a spiral staircase.
Throughout the meal, it is Swedish tradition for everyone to have a snaps glass filled in front of them at all times. A snaps glass looks like a combination of a shot glass and a cordial glass. Snaps (or aquavit) is a very strong alcohol, usually distilled from potatoes. At anytime during the dinner, someone can raise their glass and sing a Swedish drinking song - after which, everyone drinks! Luckily, only about half of the group knew Swedish drinking songs. But, they kept us drinking until the snaps was gone!
After the meal, we played a gift-giving dice game. We each had to bring a gift that was a max of 20 SEK (< $3 US). So, the gifts were, um, interesting. The gift is kind of like the white elphant game so the gifts change hands many times. One of the most sought after was "the fart book". Another gift was the "cool sunglasses".
We all stuck around for a while after the dinner and gifts for some drunken conversation, some arm wrestling (I don't know how that got started!), and to sober up enough to be able to walk down several flights on a spiral staircase.
posted by Kim at
12:18 PM
2 Comments:
Man, don't you love that you don't have to sober up enough to DRIVE anymore?? :) Gotta love Europe.
By
Anonymous, at 1:23 PM
I miss my car. But, I don't miss any of the responsibility associated with having a car. I did laugh at those stopped at the sobriety checkpoint I walked past on Saturday. I was laughing more at the fact that it was a sobriety checkpoint set up at 4pm on a Saturday!
By
Kim, at 4:16 PM
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