07.22.16
Dictionary has been incredibly good to us throughout our time at KUIS. Today was our last Dictionary-Dartmouth activity, so we decided it would be especially fitting to throw a party…a pizza party, to be exact!
The party took place in one of the classrooms in KUIS, right after lunchtime. The Dictionary members ordered pizzas from the Costco located near Makuhari’s giant Aeon Mall. It was quite amusing seeing some of the Dartmouth students drool at the sight of the pizzas lined up against the classroom window: you could tell that it had been ages since we’ve all had a good slice of pizza.
After we feasted on the pizza, we all arranged the classroom desks into a circle. We decided to play an icebreaker game. Each person, after sharing their name, was instructed to answer this question: “If you could be any animal, what animal would you be and why?” The ensuing answers were on a wide spectrum of hilarious (for example, a rich person’s dog) to profound (for example, a bird that can soar through the skies).
After the icebreaker game, we decided to attempt a game of Mafia. For those of you who may not know, Mafia is a game (one may even perhaps categorize it as a psychological thriller) in which players are designated roles (nurse, villager, police officer, and mafia member) and have to figure out which participants are mafia members. We decided to rename the game “Yakuza” to fit our current setting.
We decided to play the game in English, since Dictionary members were generally fluent in English. While we fumbled with the rules quite a bit, the game itself was very enthralling. Tension and suspense definitely filled the room, and some of the players definitely got very immersed in the game (thankfully, everyone was a good sport even when the game got especially tense). We never reached a full conclusion of the game, as the police officers accidentally revealed themselves when there was still one mafia member left.
After playing Yakuza, we decided to end the party with another game: charades. This was yet another high-energy game, as everyone was basically flailing their arms in excitement and shouting synonyms. The classroom was definitely filled with laughter.
Our last group pictures with Dictionary: one serious and one silly.
We gathered for our last group pictures with Dictionary, which turned out lovely.
Thank you Dictionary for all of your help! These last few weeks would not have been the same without you!