HALLOWEEN and a ton of other things!

Okay, let me begin by saying Halloween virtually does not exist in China. Now, imagine you are one of six American's in a sea of Chinese people who want to know ANYTHING about this somewhat silly holiday everyone over in the U.S. of A. celebrates on October 31st. Ready, set, go. That's what our life was for the past two weeks.

But it went surprisingly well! I took this past week as an opportunity to flex my creative Halloween muscles, that I work out so happily every year. I managed to don a new costume every day this past week in an attempt to educate a few people on how ridiculous or typical it is for the American community to dress up as things that frighten or makes us laugh on Halloween. I also wore my costumes to class, to show the kids. They ate it up. Day 1, I was a Basketball Player (everyone in china is obsessed with the NBA.. notably the Houston Rockets due to Yao Ming being their star player), day 2 I was a pirate (that actually took some explaining, but I managed to stumble upon the phrase 'Captain Jack Sparrow!' to explain. Anything commercial helps explain the American experience around here, I've noticed) day 3 I made a skeleton mask, and day 4 I had off. At school, and in my classes, I celebrated Halloween in a few different ways. I managed to find copies of 'The Monster Mash', 'Toccata and Fugue in G' (that creepy organ blasting, vampire-y song), 'Thriller', and half of the soundtrack from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' that I played throughout class as background music. I explained 'Trick or Treat' quite carefully - grabbed a costume and a bag - and went from student to student asking for a Trick or Treat quite politely! I was responded to by laughter or a pen/book/piece of fruit getting tossed into my trick or treating bag. Hilarious. From there, I went on to draw pictures of Zombies, Vampires, Skeletons, Pumpkins (and explaining a pumpkin's journey from Pumpkin proper to Jack-o-Lantern, of course), Ghosts, Goblins, Witches and Mummies. I even managed to explain the idea of Frankenstein's monster. Don't ask how. From there, I had my eager students grab a piece of paper and frantically draw themselves a little Halloween Mask so everyone could have a shot at the holiday! If they could wear the mask correctly and manage to eek out 'Trick or Treat?' (which sounded much more like 'Tricko'tick!') I'd reward them with putting their hand into my magic Hurley Backpack full of chinese candy (treats!) and rocks/paper spiders/instructions to say difficult words (tricks!). They got a kick out of it, and so did I!! However, for the rest of the week whenever I saw any of my students in passing they would swarm me yelling 'TRICKO'TICK, TRICKO'TICK, RAI-KEE!". Oh, yes, they call me Rai-kee. It's easier to say than Ricky, I suppose. I find it rather endearing. Love that kids.

Anywho, come Friday the 31st - Halloween! - I had no classes until the afternoon. So I decided to go and help Neha run her 'English Salon' for her Kindergarten babies that day. It included teaching a few grades of little kids some spooky halloween English words, making adoreable little masks, and then parading the kids throughout the school from grade to grade as a unit - getting to each classroom and screaming TRICKORTREAT! at the top of their lungs, for a little piece of candy. It was unbelieveably cute. The funny thing is, the Kindergarteners (much like ours over in America) learn everything through repetition and sound. Therefore, when taught 'Trick or Treat' will inevitably get them candy - they simply repeat the phrase over and over until they get said candy. It was a riot. Oh, and I dressed up for that too.

After the Salon and an afternoon class, we began to plot and plan for Saturday night - our big Halloween party. As it seems, it is tradition for the Foreign teachers at Tongliao #1 to plan parties periodically throughout the year for holidays and events, while inviting the teachers we work with, and their families. Hearing that made me ecstatic. I love meeting people, and I love parties! What a killer combo! So anyway, my mother, God bless her, sent us a package FULL of halloween decorations for us to spread generously throughout our apartment, and we did! We managed to grab a bunch of party snacks (and beer, of course) for the party.. and even put together a little 'Haunted House' in a room we don't use, for the children of teachers to go into to scare 'em a bit on Halloween! We did the traditional 'bowls of guts, eyeballs and brains' made by noodles, grapes and other gross stuff, respectively. It was a big success. Oddly enough, flip cup and 7, 11, doubles was a hue hit with the little kids too. All played with water, of course. The party was VERY well attended, and turned out to be a huge hit with everyone who made it. I think we had a pretty good time, too. I dressed up as a Professional Ping-Pong player. I think it was appropriate.

So that was more or less our Halloween experience in China. It was just as good.. maybe even better than many Halloween's in the past. God I'm happy to be out here. Oh, and Sunday night Michael and I got invited to go to a 'Guys night' with David, Mr. Zheng (our boss), Steven (administrative assistant at school), and Sam (one of our drivers) at a traditional Mongolian restaurant. We went. We drank Bai-jiu. We had a blast. Then Mike and I woke up the next morning and thought we were dying. Mongolian food is great goin' down, but once it's inside you.. you're in trouble. I'll leave it at that. Either way - it was a night to sketch down into the records books, for sure.

OH! And one last thing. Sorry for making this such a ridiculously long post. I've been shirking my posting duties, and desperately need to make up for it. We made our way, this past weekend, to a park in the middle of Tongliao that was actually quite beautiful. It's nothing like parks in the states, though. In the middle of the park was a free zoo (which was extremely depressing. It was in a horrible state, and the animals seemed emaciated and cooped up. I will probably return to this thought and belabor it at some point.. but this post is getting long as it is), and also a small carnival complete with bumper cars, a haunted house, and a giant Ferris Wheel! We actually braved the rickety Ferris Wheel to get a wonderful view of the city from up high, then strolled into the haunted house thinking 'how scary could a Chinese haunted house be?? Pleeease.' Well let me tell ya. It was FRIGGIN horrifying. The pictures don't do it justice, trust me. Near the park is a quaint little pond that you can paddle around it (although it's getting pretty cold around here) as well as a Buddhist temple right outside of it. I want to visit it to see what it is like, never being in one, but perhaps I'll go another day.

Other Updates:
- New gym in town. We all signed up. Only 999 yuan for the whole year. Good deal. Can't wait to use it.
- David's Birthday is TOMORROW! (November 7). We all pitched in and bought him a killer gift, hope he likes it. Dinner at 'The Big Hot Pot Place' tomorrow night!
- Honey's Birthday is 7 days later! BIG THINGS HAPPENIN'.
- We just bought train tickets to Beijing for Saturday. We'll be travelin' down there and getting into the city around 7pm. From there we may stay in Beijing for a few days, or head down to Xi'an to see the sights. We have a short holiday (although Meg and Christina can't come.. they have different schedules. Bummer) and we want to take advantage of it! I'll let ya know how it goes, to be sure.
- I successfully explained the full plot of Romeo and Juliet to my high school class yesterday. It was nuts.
- We started Chinese classes with Judy (a Primary school teacher who ROCKS) last week! It's slow goin', but a hoot. Wo ai ni, baba, mama, meimei!!
- I MISS EVERYONE. SEND ME EMAILS OR MESSAGES!!!