Of course, our week at school was Halloween themed. And by Halloween themed, I mean Sophie and I taught Halloween classes, while all other aspects of school remained totally normal and everyday. For our older kids we held our regular classes, but taught them words like "supernatural" and "zombie apocalypse." For whatever reason, in China all the students thought that a jack o'lantern was called a "pumpkin lantern" and that the colors of Halloween are yellow and black. For our Junior IIs, we asked them to write "I am most afraid of ________" and "I am least afraid of _________" with the expectation their answers would be "mummies!" or "witches!" but one tiny Junior II embarrassingly announced in class, "I am most afraid of teacher."
For our younger kids, we had a Halloween party in addition to their regular class. We had a costume brainstorming session, and the kids came up with some surprising ideas. The oddest were: Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Barack Obama (we got on a presidents kick) Osama Bin Laden (then we got on a terrorist kick) Lady Gaga, Madonna, a baby, a monkey baby (baby animal kick) and Hello Kitty. One boy wanted to be a king for Halloween because "he was already fat, like most kings!" It's not as big a deal here for a kid to call himself fat. Most excitingly, we had a MUMMY WRAP CONTEST! The results were both "wasteful" but "fun" according to our students, totally worth it in my opinion.
Sounds weird, but I picked this up out of the trash can and I think it's really awesome. I don't know what it means though.
We told students that they were welcome to come "trick or treating" to our office for candy, which in theory sounds awesome but in practice meant we had a 100 person mob desperate to get the few pieces of candy we brought. We tell the students to come to our office every week and they never do, so we assumed no one would actually come to get candy... but boy were we wrong. I guess getting candy is such a novelty in Chinese schools. It's a novelty in America too, but it's less of a desperate, angry, mob-like struggle and more like a pleasant surprise. We told them we would bring everyone candy next week instead, since there was no way we would be able to hand out the candy in a fair and productive way. Kids at the front kept taking all the candy... rude.
Obviously, Sophie and I were invited to the most exclusive, high class Halloween parties in Nanjing. Just kidding. We were their guests of honor. Over the weekend, she went as a hippie and I went as a devil with light up ears. For actual Halloween, our friend threw a party at a local bar and Sophie went as the Jerry to my Tom. Costume suggestion courtesy of Andy, one of the mummies above.
Obviously, Sophie and I were invited to the most exclusive, high class Halloween parties in Nanjing. Just kidding. We were their guests of honor. Over the weekend, she went as a hippie and I went as a devil with light up ears. For actual Halloween, our friend threw a party at a local bar and Sophie went as the Jerry to my Tom. Costume suggestion courtesy of Andy, one of the mummies above.
Tom, drinking some green Halloween drink!
RIP Halloween 2012. Luckily, it will return from the dead... China Doll is already looking forward to Halloween 2013!
