Tonight we celebrated Halloween by hosting a party for the Waiban, our teachers, the other international students, and our Chinese friends. A subset of the students planned, organized, decorated, and hosted the whole thing. They had a mummy wrapping contest, bobbing for apples, showed a horror film, and had music for dancing. Many students came in costume.
My only contribution was walking all over Beibei today to try to find a pumpkin. I ended up carving a very large squash instead! The Chinese guests referred to it as my "pumpkin lamp." Jim and I also caused a stir by dressing up. They were impressed with my pirate costume, but Jim stole the show as Sarah Palin! He even had her accent down pretty well.
Fun was had by all. The Chinese students - and African students - were especially interested in the American tradition of Halloween. Several asked me to tell them stories about what really happens. So I told about children going door to door and saying "Trick or treat." I talked about haunted houses and haunted hay rides. I talked about people of all ages putting on costumes and having parties. I talked about 'soaping' windows and throwing toilet paper on trees as some of the "tricks" that kids would play. I think they got the gist of what I was saying, but several had fairly puzzled looks on their faces! I guess I would too if I were hearing about it for the first time.
Happy Halloween! (Connie)
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