Garden Party (aka: shiver fest 2008)

On Friday the Informal Association of Foreign Chambers of Commerce in Slovakia (I know, longest name EVER) hosted its 7th Annual Garden Party in the Presidential Palace Gardens. The day promised to be a lot of fun, except that the morning of the event, the Presidential Palace was opened to the public (picture unsupervised children running around while people are trying to put up tents and set up catering), and the weather looked a bit ominous. Luckily, it didn't rain, but the wind was formidable and the temperature was less than desirable.

Still, I trudged through my 8 hour work day (nope, she didn't let me out early) in hopes that tonight I would meet Ambassadors, congratulate the First Lady on the success of her fundraising campaign, and eat fantastic food.

One of those things happened. My favorite. If you've been following my blog, you know which one that is.

So, after work, I headed to my friend Sherisse's apartment to get ready. It was really nice to have "girly" time, just like when I was at Cornell and the girls and I would get ready for formals together. Put on some music, make a cocktail, and let's get to primping! My old apartment was perfect for this because the bathroom was HUGE, and had a large (almost full body) mirror and plenty of counter space. Slovakia doesn't put as much emphasis on checking your reflection before you leave the house to make sure that you look like you got dressed with the lights on. Oh well. I had the eyes of my friends!

After Sherisse and I did each other's hair (the first time I had done anything besides blow dry it!), we progressed to make up, and then getting dressed!

That's when the first of our visitors showed up. I was lucky enough to be able to invite a couple of my friends, mostly because they worked for companies that were members of one of the Foreign Chambers. All together, it was Sherisse, Justina, Basack, Dominic, Bondi, Kevin, Maxime, Anders, Sarp, and MOI. Quite the band of misfits. We do clean up well, however, as you can see from the photos below.





After toasting with some of Slovakia's finest sparkling wine, Hubert deLUXE (for those of you from Cornell, think Andre, only better and cheaper) We headed out into the early evening for some dancing, auctioning, and of course...eating. The caterer for the event was Red Monkey Group, which I had actually suggested when I overheard that the ladies were looking for someone to do the meal. They are a branch organization for a couple of the best restaurants in town, so I figured it would be a safe option. If there is something I love, it is researching for event planning. I got a taste of it when I was the Social Chair for KD with Melanie Tu our sophomore year...and now I keep going back for more.

Here is part of the buffet that was out on our way to the cocktail station (they had Mojitos!) Asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, fresh mozzarella and tomatoes, slices of cucumber hollowed out with fresh tuna and chili powder, and new potatoes filled with cream cheese and caviar. All very tasty. (as was the mojito)



These are the plates we got from the main course buffet table. I have to say, the staff did a great job of getting pans in and out in time for the guests so that no one had to go without one particular item. Some of the things I had:

Tiger Shrimp roasted with cherry tomatoes and citrus butter
Salmon wrapped in bacon with spinach gnocchi
Marinated white asparagus
Caramel drizzled cream puffs with vanilla cream
Panna Cotta with lychee
Apple Strudel with English cream

...there were more things, but translating them is difficult :)



This is the damage afterward....




All in all it was a great night, other than the fact that I had to keep seeking shelter from the cold in the arms of my friends. I had a coat on, but it wasn't enough to stop the wind from piercing my soul. However, we stayed all the way through the Charity Auction, and even got to watch the BCC SR's member, Trevor David Smith (a famous singer) sing some songs. I was able to coax Sarp to dance with me :).

We'd had enough after that, and ordered some taxis to take us to Las Vegas Club, which was conveniently right by my bus stop to get home. We danced to 70's, 80's and 90's music (including Kylie Minogue's "Lucky"...I didn't know she was so cute back then!) and then went home. I was beat, and happy to get out of my dress and sleep.