By Ershisikou

At 4 or 5 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, it is darker than before because of the pouring rain.Many visitors flood here during the cherry blossom season, making Guangba Road even more crowded and noisy on such a rainy day.

In the deep alleys, people put away their dripping umbrellas and walk into a small café. Sherry is serving the customers with cakes and drinks while Giorgia is busy preparing the colored tabs for the swap party on the window.

A small-sized swap party is to be held here. Sherry and Giorgia are organizing it. Sherry is the owner of Gatto Café who likes wearing a baseball cap backward.She is slim, yet has been in business for four years.Giorgia is from Italy and has taught Italian in Wuhan for many years. She is not particularly good at speaking Mandarin, but knows enough for simple communication.

The swap party, to put it in another way, is more or less a second-hand exchange party: each participant can take out two spare tops, two spare bottoms, and two accessories to exchange at the party.

This party was initiated by Giorgia—for this kind of second-hand exchange activity is very common in Italy. Sherry said that she agreed to do it together after hearing the idea. As soon as they hit it off, they began to prepare separately.

星期天的雨越下越大，下午四五点钟天色已全部暗下来，樱花季和雨让本就嘈杂的广八路更显拥挤和混乱。

从人来人往的小道转向小巷子里，收起湿淋淋的伞，小小一间咖啡馆里满是人。雪莉在吧台里准备着蛋糕和饮品，乔治亚在窗户边准备着置换派对要用的彩色标签。

这里即将开始一场小型置换派对，发起人是雪莉和乔治亚。一个是“加图”咖啡馆的老板，喜欢反戴棒球帽，小身板的她经营这家店已有四年；一个来自意大利，在武汉教意大利语多年，普通话不算好，但简单的交流完全没问题。

置换派对，更接地气的说法是“二手交换派对”：每个活动参与者可拿出自己闲置的两件上装、两件下装、两件配饰来派对现场进行交换。

这个玩法由乔治亚提出，在意大利，这种二手交换活动很普遍。雪莉听过她的想法后表示愿意一起玩，她们一拍即合，便开始分头准备。

雪莉在小店里结识过很多生活在武汉的外国朋友，乔治亚是其中一个，来喝咖啡的次数多而逐渐熟络。英语、法语、意大利语， 随意自由的氛围让这个空间逐渐变成“外语角”，周末的时候，上下共20平米的小店总是挤满人，大家有说有笑。还有人带来自家小萝莉，瞬间变成逗笑的焦点。

“我的外国朋友们周末都喜欢宅在家，他们说武汉不好玩，我却不这么认为”，这是乔治亚策划这场置换派对的初衷，她觉得只要有人带领和引导，这个城市也可以变得很有趣。

这是他们的第一场置换派对，场地面积有限，天气也不太给力。……