Halloween in China!

It's Halloween and China or not believe you me, I'm celebrating!  (Okay, it's two weeks later, but I was in Shanghai for the first week, then I was sick all this week, blah, etc. Good?  If you need any more excuses, I can always come up with some.  A good debater always has hot air to blow.)

Jack-o-lantern carving was to be part of the festivities, along with the name-the-body-part game for the Senior 3 students.

First comes the costume:

Here's the normal Rick; slick and with a tie.  Bright blue eyes and bright white skin.

...add the Halloween Costume.  (the horns light up, too!)

Let's see how the students react!

Somehow I don't believe that's a look of comfort and security in Carol's face.

 On this Halloween, instead of throwing a poorly-attended party, I darkened the room for our mid-day class and prepared the reach-into-the-bucket-and-touch-some-food-but-you-think-it's-a-body-part game.

And what do you know, my attendance doubled for the day!  Surprise!  The senior 3 students attend sporadically, because they are inundated with homework and preparations for the higher education entrance exam, but on this day my typical attendance count skyrocketed.

As is important for the game, everyone must be blindfolded.  With double the attendees, I hadn't planned enough blindfolds, but being resourceful, I used T.P. and the students looked like outpatients from a bad mental facility.  I think it added to the ambiance.

We started with the Brain!  (Some odd vegetable thing I found in the grocery store.  It smelled like a brain!)  From here we included ears, eyes, hair, nose, blood, and the worms feasting on the remains!  All were imitated by foods found at the local grocery store.

But best of all, don't forget the heart!  As I said, all were imitated by foods from the local grocery store--in China you can buy a pig's heart like any other meat.  Being that a market-weight pig weighs 250 pounds, it's nearly a perfect match for human!  How could I resist?

After the foray through the remains of our victim, the students all headed for a thorough hand wash, but not before snapping photos with the Halloween props.

Following the Senior 3 (12th graders), Senior 2 (11th graders) carved Jack-o-lanterns.

They learned step-by-step to cut out the top, scoop out the insides, and carve the face.

Jesmine proudly displaying her design (before having to carve it).  Just to comment, Chinese pumpkins are much smaller and have a very thick rind, very good for baking, very difficult for jack-o-lanterns.

Thus, when the students discovered that their intricate drawings for the face were too difficult, some resorted to other designs for their final product--here the ravenous rabbit.

But the groups all fared very well and successfully made jack-o-lanterns for Halloween 2010.  Plus, not a single injury among 50 students! (thank goodness)

...and, of course, the students' carving and games were followed by mounds of candy.  A complete Halloween.

Later Days,
Rick