The Taiwan Scene of Halloween!

Halloween was a blast. It was insane, chaotic, and yet in spite of all the mishaps, it went quite well. I have developed a huge sense of respect for elementary teachers who have to suffer through this process year after year and keep it fun. It''s such a funny paradox between the stress, the reward of happy children having fun, and relief that you actually made it out alive. I am eternally grateful for that extra adrenaline rush in chaotic situations that got me through Friday.
And I loved every minute of it.

Sharon and I both dressed up as Ladybugs. She was adorable. For Morning Kindergarten, we also had the kBr classes (kindergarten basic reading) participate in the activities, and it was actually kind of fun to see the differences in language abilities just in a few years in the program. I'm excited to stay another six months to see how much these children improve throughout the year that I'm here.

Since I'm currently in Art, we decided to make Spiders and Spider Webs. Having to create over 40 of them in three hours with the kids was fun. Sharlene was possibly the cutest pumpkin ever, even if she was a little perplex as to why she was dressed up in a puffy orange suit...

Rotating the groups were Lindsey, Jessica, and the horde of secretaries. Honestly, that was the hardest job, the organization. I just stayed in my room, and had the kids do the project. Amazingly, I only got one group at the wrong time once during the morning. Out of five groups, that ain't bad.

The kids did Trick-or-Treating around the small complex near the school. The owner of the school (Frances) and her immediate and extended family live in that block. The secretaries at the old school and Gerald (married to Francis) handed out most of the candy and the doors. Jemmy is the really tiny spider man, and the other orange pumpkin is Felena.

In the afternoon, Dustin and I hosted the water balloon toss that ended up being improvised quite a bit for the younger Afternoon Kindergarten. We had six rotations, with ages varying from 6 to 10 year olds (the middle aged groups). We were lucky that it was a very hot day yesterday, but we were unlucky that construction in the back of the school limited our space for the kids to play in. It all worked out well though. ^_^

For the upper Elementary classes (5th to 6th grades), I did a Glow-in-the-Dark Balloon stomp, which they -- much to my relief -- loved.

After all the teachers finished their classes, most of us went to KTV, which is a popular karaoke place here in Taiwan. For about $10 US dollars, you get a huge selection of songs in English, free food, your own private room for three hours, and Taiwanese people who wanted to take pictures with the Americans (I had to use my phrase "wo shr meiguoren" quite a bit last night, because no one seemed to believe I was American...)

All in all, a very good day.

Here are some pictures taken throughout the day...