formal party

The formal party was a huge success. In all we raised nearly 400 kuai for the earthquake relief efforts. I was initially worried that the party would be misinterpreted by colleagues or other Chinese people living in my building given that the previous week extracurricular activities were canceled schoolwide and three days of national mourning were in effect. We Nanchongren organized a schedule of activities for the party in which we'd be raising money and entertaining at the same time.

Here's how it went down:
7:45 - Moment of silence followed by candle lighting
8:00 - Start of sale of tickets for raffle and candy giveaway. Raffle for two CDs. Candy giveaway entailed people guessing how many candies were in a plastic bear jar. Closest person won. Raffle and candy giveaway tickets were each one yuan.
8:30 - Raffle giveaway. Loopy and Jason each won
9:00 - Candy giveaway announcement. Total number of candies was 51. The candy was split between two people, one of whom guessed 50 and the other 52. The extra candy was given to the person who guessed the furthest from the actual number, one of my students, Peggy; a guess of 140.
9:30 - Magic trick. I rocked the floating cigarette. If you're curious what the floating cigarette is, check my youtube for a practice show before I did the real thing. It's not an easy trick, and there are still some fine points I'm honing, but I think the overall reception was good. A few of my students asked me why I don't teach them this in class. Some of Durf's students were unimpressed, however.
9:35 - Fashion show. Guys and girls walk down the dance floor to music and strut their best moves. Congrats to Bo Tao and Sarah, winners of the male and female parts respectively.
10:30 - Announcement of the final money count ~ 400 yuan.
10:45 - Departure to roof to light fireworks. The blasts were so loud that car alarms on the ground floor were set off.
11:00 - Departure to Tian Shang for post party.

Great night... Oh, and who made such a cool invitation for the party? I do that for free, too. Anyone need an invitation made?