Update Part 1 - Halloween

Trip Start Sep 18, 2007
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Trip End Apr 17, 2009


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Thursday, November 1, 2007

Goodness folks...it HAS been some time since I last updated the situation here on the other side of the world. My apologies to those who are avid followers of my blog...but my only option was to resort to a horrid internet café which claimed to have a 'non-smoking' area. This area was not so much 'non-smoking' as 'smoke-reduced'. You just didn't get hard core smoke blowing in your face but the acrid smell and disgustingness were all there. As a result...every time I went there I came out smelling like an ashtray and would have to shower immediately, wash my hair and then wash my laundry. I then started only using that place on emergency situations and every few days or so. I had been waiting to receive my debit card in the mail (since my old one was lost here in the McDonald's purse-snatching episode) before attempting to buy a laptop and things just took longer than expected. I also decided to purchase a scooter...since it's one of the best ways (yet most dangerous) to get around in Taiwan. Scooters outnumber cars here by a factor of 10:3 I think. LOL. You are more likely to find a scooter parking spot than a vehicle spot. I'll take some pics later of how many scooters there really are. It's ridiculous. Anyway...I decided to start saving up for a scooter and buy that before moving on to the laptop.
Halloween came around and we were told that the school would be celebrating it for 4 days (Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday). I was so super excited...this was my first actual Halloween with children in a school setting. My first Halloween in Brazil I was unemployed...my second one I was teaching adults (and they didn't care much). So, as a result, I went all out. I purchased a giant M & M costume (the red one) from Carrefour (they had this store in Brazil too...apparently it's a French franchise and a lot of the products are actually in French) which is like this one huge all-in-one mart. Anyway, I went early October and nabbed what I think was one of the only adult costumes they had. It wasn't pretty...but I thought the kids would enjoy the bright color of it and the chocolate factor. I bought a purple wig to go with it as well as bat mask. I bought all these toys to give away to the children and even used oil pastels (man, I hadn't worked with those since junior high school) to make Winnie The Pooh and Mickey pictures to use as give-aways. I put a lot of time, money and effort into the whole Halloween thing...but was quite happy to do so because I was just so excited about it (I LOVE Halloween).
So, the Saturday came and things began with my 10 AM class on Saturday. Things ran smoothly. We did normal class for the first hour and then spent the second hour trick-or-treating around the school and playing games and stuff. The rest of the day I had the older kids who were just too cool to dress up or even give a damn about Halloween. We just did crossword puzzles and mystery puzzles. You know...cool stuff for older kids. LOL. Monday I was back to the young and un-tainted kids who still thought Halloween was exciting. We played this balloon game where everyone had one balloon tied to their leg and had to run around popping other people's balloons while protecting their own. I have some fabulous video of this (complete with high-pitched shrieks of pure joy and laughter) which I will post on FB later.
Tuesday was spent mostly trick-or-treating (no time for games) and Wednesday was not too bad. My first class was totally into it while my second class was just a bunch of kids who didn't want anything to do with anything. Man, let me tell you how glad I was when it was all finally over. I was so exhausted from the planning and stressing. Not to mention that the M&M costume was SOOOOO hot and uncomfortable. I wish I had received $0.10 for every time some kid had said "Teacher! You're an M&M Chocolate! I want to eat you!". Funny, yet somewhat disturbing. I was quite excited to be returning to the normal class schedule.
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