Halloween!
I spent the last two weeks with some of my classes organizing Halloween parties, and the day finally came this week! Chinese people do not know about Halloween. In fact, it is mostly an American thing as I also learned when I was in New Zealand two years ago at this time. So as a 'cultural expert' (weird that I am considered this) it is my job to teach my kids about North American culture; and Halloween is certainly a great excuse to have some fun with them! I failed to tell anyone here that as a child I never celebrated Halloween, really. But that didn't stop us from getting dressed up, eating lots of candy, and carving pumpkins.
On Halloween, Jason also had a party in his class. He teaches all the grade 1's in the school, and before heading to his party, I wrapped him up in toilet paper. Sadly, half of it came off before he even got to class....but it had me laughing so hard!
What was more, within about thirty seconds of him arriving to class, his kids had completely ripped it all off. But they are so cute...how do you get mad at these faces?
My grade 7 overseas class did such an amazing job of their party! We'd been decorating the class for weeks and when we organized the party, I put all the tasks for the party up on the board and each student got to decide what they were going to do. We had two DJ's and about eight kids who brought food. I was expecting cookies, chips, etc, but these kids had their moms drop off huge pans of spaghetti, 20 KFC chicken burgers, these weird Taiwanese blood pudding squares, (which I made the mistake of putting into my mouth and then asking what they were) etc.
Also, six kids volunteered to be part of the pumpkin carving contest. The issue being, they don't seem to have pumpkins for carving here; hence the small size of them.
On Halloween, Jason also had a party in his class. He teaches all the grade 1's in the school, and before heading to his party, I wrapped him up in toilet paper. Sadly, half of it came off before he even got to class....but it had me laughing so hard!
What was more, within about thirty seconds of him arriving to class, his kids had completely ripped it all off. But they are so cute...how do you get mad at these faces?My grade 7 overseas class did such an amazing job of their party! We'd been decorating the class for weeks and when we organized the party, I put all the tasks for the party up on the board and each student got to decide what they were going to do. We had two DJ's and about eight kids who brought food. I was expecting cookies, chips, etc, but these kids had their moms drop off huge pans of spaghetti, 20 KFC chicken burgers, these weird Taiwanese blood pudding squares, (which I made the mistake of putting into my mouth and then asking what they were) etc.Also, six kids volunteered to be part of the pumpkin carving contest. The issue being, they don't seem to have pumpkins for carving here; hence the small size of them. One thing that they certainly could work on is dressing up in costumes. I told everyone they needed to dress up, and those that did not would be wrapped up in toilet paper like a mummy. Ironically, one of the kids in class's father owns the toilet paper factory in town so he volunteered himself to be the t.p. guy. They were much better at wrapping one another up than I was for Jason.
This is Charles, one of my little trouble makers. He is such a problem child and I absolutely love him for it. He brought his erhu to play squeaky, scary music on for the party.
It is times like this when I forget I am in China. And then look a little closer, and am reminded....this is what Chinese Halloween candy looks like!
This is Charles, one of my little trouble makers. He is such a problem child and I absolutely love him for it. He brought his erhu to play squeaky, scary music on for the party.
It is times like this when I forget I am in China. And then look a little closer, and am reminded....this is what Chinese Halloween candy looks like!The party was a compete success. A couple foreign teachers came by and helped us to celebrate Halloween, 'A weird and interesting holiday celebrated in America.' (as on of my older students wrote to me).
Want to talk about weird and interesting? I wish you could have come out with Jason and I on Halloween night. Here are our costumes: I was a girl ghost, he was a 'pot' head. I think these costumes are almost as good as mine and Stevens last year; where I put my snowboarding helmet on and went as an epileptic and Steven wrapped a towel around his head and put a button down shirt on and went as an Arabian business man. I know.. what the...!?! I am a big fan of putting as little effort into a Halloween costume as possible. Yes, this was the bed sheet supplied to me by the school.
We went out to a bar that was giving out free drinks all night to anyone dressed up...Heck yeah! On our way there, we got some of the most incredulous looks I had seen in my life. A man finally stopped us and asked us if we were Muslim. Then we started hearing the word Muslim in Chinese the rest of the way there. They thought I was in a Sari!?! Also, someone asked us if we had any drugs. Apparently the Muslims run the drugs here in China. I don't need to tell you how the rest of the night went. Just... holy smokes! I am heading back to that same bar tonight since their free drinks with a costume policy goes until tomorrow. I'm dressing up as a hockey player (I brought my Canadian hockey jersey here) to drink more free booze. Is it just me, or does free beer taste better?
Want to talk about weird and interesting? I wish you could have come out with Jason and I on Halloween night. Here are our costumes: I was a girl ghost, he was a 'pot' head. I think these costumes are almost as good as mine and Stevens last year; where I put my snowboarding helmet on and went as an epileptic and Steven wrapped a towel around his head and put a button down shirt on and went as an Arabian business man. I know.. what the...!?! I am a big fan of putting as little effort into a Halloween costume as possible. Yes, this was the bed sheet supplied to me by the school.
We went out to a bar that was giving out free drinks all night to anyone dressed up...Heck yeah! On our way there, we got some of the most incredulous looks I had seen in my life. A man finally stopped us and asked us if we were Muslim. Then we started hearing the word Muslim in Chinese the rest of the way there. They thought I was in a Sari!?! Also, someone asked us if we had any drugs. Apparently the Muslims run the drugs here in China. I don't need to tell you how the rest of the night went. Just... holy smokes! I am heading back to that same bar tonight since their free drinks with a costume policy goes until tomorrow. I'm dressing up as a hockey player (I brought my Canadian hockey jersey here) to drink more free booze. Is it just me, or does free beer taste better?Categories
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I replied to this already but it is not showing up!?! Gotta love technology.
Chinese people do not celebrate Christmas and the Cultural revolution banned any and all religions; so there is not much in the way of Christmas celebration here unless it is for the expatriates. There are thousands of books banned in China, (my traveling guide is one of them) so it is no surprise they might want to ban the bible. I am surprised it isn't already blacklisted.
My kids all know about Santa and christmas trees and stuff though and they are already talking about the christmas pageant that they will be putting on for their families. The decorations you sent me will certainly be used!
Are you doing a Christmas theme? Heard on the news that China was considering banning the Bible during the Olympics. Do Chinese even do Santa etc?