Korea Kicked Our Butts

To keep the good times rolling, I went to South Korea over the Winter Break (the Winter break here runs from January 20- February 9 because of Chinese New Year) for 9 days!  Some posts will be shorter than others due to unforeseen circumstances….

Day 1 (arrival):

A bright and beautiful day, comfortable temperatures, excellent airline service (seriously, Asian airlines could teach American airlines a thing or two about not cutting when it comes to customer service and comfort).  A wonderful landing in Seoul with it’s brisk weather…. Abruptly followed by me emptying the contents of my stomach on one of the Seoul subway platforms.

Gas masks available in the subways in case of an attack by a certain country

Day 2:

Out of commission due to stomach flu.

Day 3:

Feeling slightly better, but a little weak (and having 0 appetite), we headed off to check out the more traditional sights of Korea.  We visited two palaces: one was the main palace and the other was more of a vacation/retreat-to-in-case-of-emergency palace with a “secret” garden (called so because only the king, queen, and any special guests they allowed in could enter the garden). Because of Chinese New Year, all admissions were free and there were even some special events going on.  

Rooms in the "Retreat Palace"

More of "Retreat Palace"

Frozen pond, pavilion, and island that they would strand scholars on if they couldn't come up with a poem in the time it took them to float out to the island in a boat (all in the Secret Garden of the Retreat Palace)

At Main Palace... Changing of the Guards ceremony

Intricate details of some of the paneling in the palaces (can you find the bat? Bats were supposed to bring good luck and fortune in Korean culture)

Intricate gold dragon fixture on the ceiling of throne room in Main Palace

A lot of Korean women (and tiny girls) wore their traditional Hanbok (traditional Korean dress) in public as part of celebrating the New Year and it was beautiful to see the different colors and styles… even on the subway.  Pink seemed to be an overwhelmingly popular color. 

We also tried to check out a Korean night market, but it was all shut down because of the Chinese New Year.  Actually, a lot of things were shut down because of the New Year.  Some restaurants were still open (and our hostel owner supplied us with an overwhelming amount of ramen and other snacks), so we weren’t going to starve.  But after the New Year was over, we realized just how much of the Seoul nightlife we had been missing because of it.

Day 4:

Out of commission due to my boyfriend’s contraction of my stomach flu.  Needless to say I got to watch a lot of movies that day.

Day 5:

Find Eat Your Kimchi Day! So in case you don’t know, I follow some bloggers known as Eat Your Kimchi who are a Canadian couple living in Seoul.  They blog about Korean music, culture, living abroad as foreigners, and are just plain hysterical.  Anyway…. I really wanted to find their studio, especially since Google maps showed it was so close to where we were staying.  And success!

I didn’t get to meet them unfortunately, nor did I get to go inside the studio (1- it didn’t look like anyone was home, 2- I couldn’t find an entrance, and 3- my creepiness was only gonna go so far).  But it was still cool to see where the magic happens.

We tried to go to this REALLY cool café, but we didn’t find it.  As it turned out, they had moved locations, and the address I had was the old location. Luckily we had success the next day (so I won’t tell you what the café was just yet).

One of the big stops on our agenda was the Korea War Memorial/Museum.  I never knew much about the Korean war and it’s not something we cover thoroughly in any US History class I’ve ever taken, so it was really interesting to learn more about what caused it, why many thought it was necessary to get involved, and the impact the war still has on the Korean peninsula today. 

Memorial outside of the Museum

Day 6???:
After I finished writing this blog post I realized I was missing a day.  Or maybe I'm putting too many events on one day... hmmmm.... I was sick people, ok? Anywho... at one point we went to Namsan/Seoul Tower. Check out the view of Seoul!

Day 7:

Many dreams came true this day.  First, we found the Coffee Prince Shop.  For those of you who don’t know, I watch some Korean dramas/tv shows.  My favorite one is called Coffee Prince and, in case you couldn’t tell, quite a bit of the store takes place around this coffee shop called Coffee Prince (the concept of the coffee shop in the show is that all the waiters are handsome guys, so hence the “prince”).  Once filming was done, they turned the location they had outfitted into a coffee shop for filming purposes into a real coffee shop which follows the same theme from the show… all “handsome” male waiters and baristas.  It was a really cool/bizarre, just like walking around in the show (since it was the actual location for filming).  Slightly overpriced coffee though.

 

We also checked out this pretty cool "river" in Seoul. Not sure how natural it is as you can see from the pictures.  And in case you were wondering how to find it, just look for the big unicorn horn. 

So… remember that REALLY cool café I was talking about earlier? We finally found it! Welcome ladies and gentleman to the Bau House.

Yes, it is a café full of dogs.  You can bring your dog there to socialize with other dogs or just walk in to enjoy spending time surrounded by beautiful fluffiness.  You are required to buy at least one drink, but that was by no means a problem.  They had a smaller area for people who had smaller dogs/felt more comfortable around small dogs and then a huge area for everyone else.  I saw some of the biggest dogs that I’ve seen since arriving in Asia at this café and it was awesome.  Most of the people there were just there to play with dogs (not many people brought their own).  The staff there was great too.  Super on top of cleaning up any accidents going on and keeping the dogs under control.  They also seemed very close with all the dogs.  As it turned out, the café (or maybe the café owner?) owns about 10+ dogs (they gave us a little flyer with all their pictures, names, and ages) that “work” there.   Talk about an awesome life! They get to lounge around where they want (literally, anywhere they want. I’ve never seen so many dogs climbing on tables before), get fed treats all day, have someone throw a ball for them all day, and get petted as much as they want (this one dog came right up to me when I sat down and just wanted to have her tummy rubbed. As soon as I stopped to take a break, she got up and walked right over to someone else to get petted).  Many people in Asia seem to gravitate towards smaller dogs as their personal pets, but many of the dogs at the Bau House were huge (a couple tiny ones though).  So in my heart of hearts, I dream that these dogs were adopted/taken in off the streets and brought to the Bau House as their loving home. 

 

Day 8:

DMZ tour! Actually, we got an email the night before that said, “Due to unforeseen circumstances, the tour for tomorrow will be canceled….” NO!!!!!!!... “because there will be negotiations about reunions between North and South Korean families who were separated by the war.” Oh. Well I guess that’s ok \^-^/  Luckily, we were able to be rescheduled for the next day. Instead we went to…

Lotte World! What is Lotte World you may ask? Only the world’s largest in door theme park! They had roller coasters, theme rides, spinning cups, hot dogs, funny cakes, roast corn (wait, what? Ya roasted corn is a pretty popular snack food in Asia), ice cream, funny ears, etc.  And a trade mark greeting/parting wave of double hand jazz hands.  Need I say more?

 

 

They even had an outdoor section full of rides and awesomeness.

Day 9:

South Korean soldiers standing guard at the blue houses

DMZ tour! For those of you who don’t know, DMZ stands for Demilitarized Zone.  Which is ironic because it’s heavily armed, constructed with military strategies in mind, and full of military personnel on both sides of the line.  This was an amazing experience, and I highly recommend it for any travelers to Korea.  What I didn’t learn about the Korean War at the museum, I learned here.  Plus more about what’s going on there today.  We got to see the Line of Demarcation, North Korea’s Propaganda Town, and a whole bunch of other cool things.  I even stood in North Korea for about 5 minutes (one of the buildings used for negotiations that is under the control of the United Nations crosses the boarder into North Korea… so no need to panic).  

Now for fun facts:

·      The North and South are technically still are war, and you can truly still feel the tension along the line.

·      North and South Korea even still have petty competitions. Examples:

View of North Korea's building and the tiny addition to make it taller

o   When South Korea built a building in view of the boarder to North Korea, North Korea had to respond in kind and add an additional structure on top of their building to make it taller than the one the South Koreans built. 

o   When South Korea put up a flag pole (~100 meters tall) in view of North Korea that was taller than the North’s flag pole, the North once again responded by putting up a new flag pole substantially taller (~160 meters tall?) and with a flag that has a dry weight of ~600 lbs.  So in other words, the North Korean’s flag is huge, but hardly ever flies unless a serious amount of wind is blowing.  And they have to take it down in inclement weather conditions because it’s own weight could cause it collapse.  Our US Military security escort/tour guides also mentioned something about a $1,000,000 reward (not sure if that’s American dollars or Korean won) to anyone who can bring a piece of that North Korean flag back to South Korea.  Not sure who’s funding that competition though.

The super tall North Korean flag pole and heavy flag

o   There was once a meeting between the North and South that lasted 11 hours straight because no one wanted to get up to use the bathroom in fear of looking “weak” to the opposing side.  Now there is a rule that there is a mandatory break every 2 or 2.5 hours (?) during meetings.

·      The South Korean soldiers stationed directly at the North Korean boarder are hand selected from the Korean military.  They have to be above a certain height (in order to look more intimidating), have a certain physical athletic ability, and be black belts in Taekwondo.  Their uniform is also chosen to make them look more intimidating towards North Korea, and their stance they have to hold adds to that as well.

·      There have been multiple skirmishes over the years between North Korean soldiers and UN soldiers in the past that have led to several deaths on both sides.  From what the stories said about the incidents, North Korean soldiers were always starting it.

·      At the Bridge of No Return, the POWs from both sides were allowed to choose which side of the line they wanted to end up on, but after they made their decision they could not go back (hence the name).  Many of the UN Forces’ POWs opted to stay in South Korea (1- because they had been forced to fight in the first place, 2- many were Chinese and didn’t want to go back to China, and 3- North Korea executed many of it’s returning POWs because they shouldn’t have gotten caught in the first place and might have told the enemy secrets.

·      We weren’t allowed to take pictures of certain areas of the South Korean side of the line for security reasons.  We could see things from our vantage point that the North Koreans couldn’t.  If those pictures were put on the internet, the North Koreans could piece them together and use for their advantage in case of an attack.

Bridge of No Return

Site of Ax-Murder Incident

Kick-butt South Korean solider (standing on North Korean side) as described in blog post.

There’s probably lots more I could say on the visit, but I don’t wanna make this post any longer than it is.  If you have any questions, shoot me an email or comment on this post and I’d be happy to talk to you about it!

Conference table for North and South negotiations. Everyone else is standing on South Korean side. (which means we're in North Korea)

Day 10:

Fly home.  Early.

Seoul was fantastic, and is truly an incredible city.  The subway was clean and efficient, the food was great, and it’s easy to get around without knowing any Korean.  And it was cold.  Which was a relief from the 80 degrees in December which has been Taiwan’s weather (although not everyday, but you get my point).  Much to my own surprise, now that I’m back in Taiwan, it feels like I’m returning home.  Kinda weird to be “coming home” when it’s still a foreign country.  Maybe it’s not so foreign anymore!

Momma Bear, Papa Bear, What do you see?

To summarize the end of the Summer/Fall/Winter semester (yes, literally I sweated from every inch of my body, walked comfortably around in long pants and t-shirts, and froze every bone in my body.... all in one semester), all I can remember was a deep realization into child psychology.  Small children's worlds exist in their own bubble... they have their favorite toys, their favorite people, and their favorite thoughts in said bubble... but no other children's needs can penetrate this bubble. And it is only with maturation and growth do they finally come to realize that if they have a question they should raise their hand or wait in line.  And that LITERALLY hanging off my arm pleading "Amanda Teacher! Tell me the answer!" does nothing but make me want to assist in anyway what so ever.  But comedic events aside...

Towards the very end of the semester many of the ETAs here realized one of 4 situations was happening: A] our patience was about 1/4 of what it had been at the beginning, B] the students' patience in class had dropped to about 1/4 of what it had been at the start of the semester and restlessness had increased 2x, C] our tolerance for "bad"/rowdy behavior had dropped to about 1/5 of what it had been, or D] (and this is what I like to think was the case) some combination of B and C. Fortunately, my co-teacher informed me this is perfectly normal and many teachers experience this at the end of the semester so it's ok!

But I was very touched and honored to have so many students coming up to me, with pitiful eyes and somber looks to ask me, "Amanda Teacher, will you be back next semester? Or will you go back to America?"  And after I smiled and happily told them I would be back, they cheered and gave me a hug and then went back to playing with their friends since they didn't have to deal with our imminent goodbye just yet.  Overall though I'm very excited for next semester. As I wrote in my mid-year report, the first semester is all about learning how to teach and getting to know your students, and the second semester feels like when fun things really can get rolling!

PARENT VISIT

My parents came to visit!  As I told my parents while they were here, you really don't realize how much you have changed/how much you missed people/how much a place has affected you until someone who has been there your whole life (aka parents) comes to see you in your new environment.  I mostly spent a lot of time showing them my life in Taichung (my school, gym, shopping districts, and favorite eateries of course), but we took 2 mini vacations: one to Kenting and one to Taipei... and then they had to leave :(

My dad's favorite performance at the End-of-Semester Show

Kenting!

This is the Florida/Hawaii/awesome vacation spot of Taiwan. It was beautiful, it was the first time I had thawed out in months, the food was great, but the best part was... the hotel room.

Smokey Joe's... had a spunky, old-America style to it, and I highly recommend it. I managed to get us a great deal online and we had a suite with free fruit cups every day and tons of free drinks (wine + others).  2 separate rooms each with queen bed, 2 bathrooms (one with a huge tub)... and check out that pool! But it was too cold to swim :( Oh well... guess I'll just have to go back \^-^/

Pictures of Kenting natural beauty...

Taipei!

Parents and I got to see a lot of cool things that I have never done in Taipei before (mainly because I've never really spent days there to just go around and see stuff).  We found an amazing pizza restaurant, an amazing Chinese style restaurant, a really cool old-Chinese good street, saw Taipei 101, saw Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, and went shopping :)

 

To summarize it was a beautiful trip, and I've missed my parents a lot. They are the greatest, and I feel so blessed that they were able to make the trip out here so I could share my life with them. I love you guys!

It's not looking much like Christmas...

Considering it's been over a month since my last post, I think we can scratch off "blogger" from the list of Amanda's future employment options.

First things first... Merry Christmas! For the first (and hopefully the last) time of my life, I had to go to work on Christmas.  Weirdest feeling ever. Luckily though we were just doing classes with 1st Grade, and they were amazed that Santa knew all their names to send them candy canes.  But then when I reminded them how we wrote letters to Santa in our last class, they simply felt special that Santa took the time to respond to their letter... and send them candy. Some of you might be wondering how we handled writing letters to Santa in class because what if they don't receive the present they asked for on Christmas morning?  Well according to my fellow ETA's co-teacher, in Taiwan Santa is more of a symbol/figure of happiness.  He doesn't have the 100% direct correlation to present delivery like he does in Western cultures.  Some of the 1st Graders even asked Santa in their letters for health and happiness for their family.... talk about mature! I didn't get to that point until at least 3rd Grade. 

Now that it's hit a steady fluctuation between freezing cold in the morning/evening (honestly it's only about 54 degrees or so) and slightly chilly in the afternoon (probably around low 70s), Taiwan has a lot less mosquitoes and a lot less sweating going on. But now it's a lot more shivering. Since low 50s are about as cold as Taiwan gets, Taiwan buildings/apartments/schools/etc do not have heating. Any sort of heating. If you want heating, layer up and/or buy a space heater. I've opted for the former.

It has actually hit about the halfway point of my journey in Taiwan.  There are lots of wish-I-would-have's for the first half, but I plan to improve on that in the second half.  But to celebrate the completion of the first half of my adventure, I'm going to make two lists.... 1- Where was I naive about Taiwan? and 2- My goals for the second half....

What I didn't know about Taiwan

1. It gets really really cold here.  People from northern USA are probably reading this and thinking, "50 degrees? Girl, you don't know cold." Well let me tell you something.... you don't know survinging in "cold" until you don't have heating. Not in your house, not at your school (which is actually constantly open to the elements- the classrooms nor the office is insulated from the outside), not in restaurants, not in cars, not ANYWHERE. When you have to rely solely on layers, scarves, and gloves (that you didn't think to bring because everything/everyone says "Oh it's so warm in Taiwan").... all day long... all night long... then you know surviving in the cold.

2. Teaching 20 hours a week does not mean working 20 hours a week.  If a teacher ever says to you "I work X number of hours, always rephrase your question to how many hours a week do you work?"  Coming into the program, we were told we would be teaching 20 hours a week.  And that's true... but we actually work more like 40 hours a week.

3. (To jump off my last statement) I imagined working half days at school, having lots of time to travel around Taiwan, having lots of time to practice Chinese, go explore the community, etc.  Not true.  After coming home from working a full day teaching 6-12 year olds???? You just wanna sit, and eat, and not think.  I'm not nearly adventurous as I originally thought I would be, but I suppose that's ok.

4.  I'm not a huge fan of bubble tea after all.  There! I said it! Bubble tea here... or should I say the "real" bubble tea is actually not for me after all.  The American style now also sounds very.... processed.... and when I go back I probably won't drink it nearly as much as I did before.

5.  They don't have pepperoni here.  I've been to a few legit pizza places, and when we ask, they all say "Yes, we have pepperoni pizza. It's this one."  It's not.  It's salami or some other form of circular sausage type meat.  So needless to say, that's what I want as soon as I get back to the States in July.  Oh, and Chipotle.

My Goals for the 2nd Half of the Taiwan Adventure

1. Travel more around the island.  I need to not be so afraid/hesitant to take weekend trips to places.  Maybe it'll help now that I have a better grasp of getting around the island now with buses, trains, etc.  But I planned to see more while I'm here, so that's what I'm going to do.

2.  Make more of an effort to improve my Chinese.  Many of the people here actually have a really good grasp of English, and it's easy to slide into speaking English.  But I need to force myself to concentrate on attempting to speak more.

3. Dress a little more put together.  At my school, more than half the teachers walk in in work out clothes or a very relaxed cold-weather set.  Not to say that I'm not enjoying following their example, but (to quote a friend of mine from Taiwan) "as a foreigner, you are always on display.  How you present yourself and your behavior is always on display."

4.  Cook at home more.  I need to be a little more adventurous with my cooking and sometimes it's hard to know here what is healthy and what's not.  So I'm going to try and cook more to learn how to cook with limited access to ingredients.  Or even better, learn to cook with a new set of ingredients.

5.  Be happier.  This past few months (mostly spurned by the holidays I'm sure) have left me pretty depressed at times.  I've been going through quite the emotional roller coaster some days as some can attest to.  But I need to remember who I am, and I'm not one of those people who is "not happy." Sure I have my down days like everyone, but I think I've let myself have too much of a pity party these past few weeks and it's time to make the best of things.

Side note: I think everyone should experience not celebrating Christmas in the States at least once. Or not with their family.  I know that sounds depressing, but it made me appreciate Christmas so much more.  The atmosphere, the traditions, being with my family to celebrate... I really didn't know how much I loved Christmas until I was on the other side of the world.

We are not so different, you and me

Wedding! I got to go to a Taiwanese wedding thanks to the generosity of my coordinator here in Taizhong.  One of her elementary school friends got married, and she invited me and another ETA to go to the wedding.  Since weddings in Taiwan are not necessarily based on religious practices, they typically have a small "wedding" where they dress up with close family and friends and go sign their official government paperwork.  Then they have a "reception" of sorts later on (not necessarily that day... the reception we attended was 3 weeks after they were officially married).  The reception is more like a presentation of the couple to everyone they invited. 

In Taiwan, it's customary to get really elaborate, fancy photos done of you as a couple before the wedding (there are stores for this EVERYWHERE).  We're talking several meetings before the actual photo shoot and it is just that... a photo shoot. With elaborate dresses/costumes, sometimes destination sets, and really amazing quality photography.  It's not pictures you have taken before/after the ceremony or before the reception... these are done before you get married.  And that way they can all be on display at your reception wedding. But wedding photos in Taiwan are the best opportunity to wear the most ridiculous, poofy, and elaborate dresses that almost every young girl has fantasized about since childhood. They even do the same thing in a non-wedding manner and call them "glamor shots".... hmmm.... this might be in my future.... (see some examples in below pictures in the background).

It's also customary for the bride to change dresses 3 times at the wedding.  Her dresses were beautiful although one of them reminded me of a prom dress.  All of them were Western style dresses, the first being a ball gown style wedding dress (see in pictures below). 

But the wedding/reception itself... it was family style sit down? Is that even a style? In typical Asian style they brought the dishes to our big round table (there were many round tables that everyone was assigned a seat at) and we all shared from the dishes at our table.  There were lots of "what is that?" type dishes, but the dessert was good :D (there was no wedding cake that I could tell...)

It was very much a Disney show for a wedding than what westerners think of as a wedding reception (with dancing and cake cutting ceremony, etc).  There was a movie of their marriage ceremony and their love for each other, a light show before the food was brought out, dry ice smoking for when the bridal party came out (and the food too for that matter... Taiwanese love their food), really epic music that we might play in an action/dramatic scene of a movie (maybe not so much a wedding), and even a platform that came from the ceiling bringing out the bride when she presented her second dress.  The bride was the princess who everyone wanted a photo with and who gave out small favors to the children.... and adults for that matter....

Another Taiwanese custom... the bride and groom do not eat at their own wedding reception.  They go around to EVERY table and thank everyone for coming and do toasts.  And then take more pictures with guests.  According to my coordinator, the wedding we attended was quite elaborate and expensive for a typical wedding, so I'm curious to hear stories from any other weddings that my fellow ETAs go to. 

Thoughts on teaching continued....

These kids are doing what my friends and I did in elementary school as kids. It's kinda freaky actually. I first noticed it when the boys started doing the thing where they put their hands under their armpit and pumped their arm so it makes a farting/popping sound. My co-teacher was weirded out and even more surprised when I told her that boys my age did that back in the day. Yes, I feel I can now officially use "back in the day."

The next happened the other day when a girl called me over to show me something. She then proceeded to do that "heart beat?" thing where you connect your sleeves together in the front, bring one arm inside the main body of your sweatshirt, and proceed to pump your fist up through your shirt through the circle that your sleeves make with your body. I was stunned. I hadn't taught her that, so it blew me away that something I used to do 10+ years ago is still around, and in Taiwan no less. 

Other quick observations.... The 6th graders want to grow up too fast and be super hip/cool (see below).  Girls still team up against the boys... And win \^-^/. Kids still like to hide from other kids so they can't find them and then jump out and scare them (this happened with kids trying to scare me and girls wanting to scare the boys). And food is still the easiest way to take a lesson from ok to fabulous. 

Happy Halloween!

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Seeing as Halloween is not a holiday commonly celebrated in Asia, my school had me do a Halloween lesson with my students.  When lesson planning, I didn't want to just teach them grammar/vocab.  I wanted them to experience what an elementary student in America might in the process of celebrating Halloween.  However, it was a little unfeasible for me to get all the students to come to school in their costumes and for us all to have a big Halloween party in class.  And since it's not a major holiday in Taiwan, many of the kids might not know how Halloween works or what happens on Halloween (aka a candy truck arrives at your house).

I'm now going to share with you my Halloween lesson plan because I was quite proud of it (if you don't want to read it, skip to next paragraph)....
Opening: Watch the clip of the song "This is Halloween" from A Nightmare Before Christmas (I thought this clip/song set the tone for Halloween really nicely being both a little spooky and a little silly... not to mention it had pretty much every "Halloween" related concept in the book).
Trick or Treat Skit! My co-teacher and I did a skit where I sneaked out the back classroom door and knocked on the front classroom door so the kids couldn't see me (I was also wearing Minnie Mouse ears with a pumpkin bag for candy).  She opened the door and I jumped out at them and yelled "Trick-or-Treat" (they got increasingly more surprised the younger they got).  I then got some candy from my co-teacher and "left" aka snuck back around to the back-door and scared/tried to scare them again.
Halloween Vocab: We talked a little bit about Trick-or-Treating and I let a few kids try trick-or-treating (and they got to keep their candy... as you can guess after the first brave volunteer soul went, EVERYBODY wanted to try). We also talked about dressing up in costumes, and using that, I introduced "Halloween vocab" using pictures of costumes of the vocab so they could see what it meant to dress up on Halloween.
Fun stuff: Then we did an activity to see how well they remembered the words (1st: Vocab freeze game... act like what I call out and the team that freezes when they hear "freeze" the best gets a point), 2nd Grade: Draw a line from vocab word to picture and color to your heart's desire.... 3rd Grade: Unscramble vocab word, draw a line from word to pic, and color to your heart's desire.... 4th Grade: Vocab crossword puzzle with LOTS of assistance from teachers.... 5th Grade: Vocab crossword puzzle with some teacher assistance) (side note: 6th grade did not get to do Halloween lesson because they had an extra lesson to get in before the big test so there was no time)
Then we did arts and crafts!
1st: Color a mask
2nd: Color a pumpkin face and put a stem on your pumpkin
3rd: Learn "Trick-or-Treat smell my feet" song (they were very excited to learn the "or I'll pull down your underwear" verse for the first time)
4th: Color Ghost face on piece of paper to make hanging gosts
5th: Make origami bats with fake gem-stone eyes (they could pick red or silver... some got creative and did one of each)

Origami Bats and Unique-Faced Pumpkins designed by 5th grade and 2nd grade respectively

Ghosts with faces designed by 4th Grade

The scariest pumpkin faces you've ever seen...

Looking back,  (I won't lie) it caused me a lot of stress to put these classes together and I constantly was overwhelmed with all that I had to finish prepping.  I had approximately 60 orange circles to cut out, 70 black squares to cut out, 3 worksheets to design, 15 ghost tubes to attack toilet paper to, 60 ghost tubes to attack string to, 2 sets of power-points to make, and 90 masks to cut out the eyes from and actually cut out.... and assemble string to so they could wear them.  But it was so worth it.

I LOVE these kids. I never thought I would love a job this much.  Truly, every hour I spent prepping for the classes was worth it.  The kids seemed to have a lot of fun, some got really into it, and I think it was great for them to have a break from the textbook stuff.  And of course, they all loved the fact that you just say "trick-or-treat" and you get candy on Halloween.  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and it was really sad for me not to be in the States to celebrate it this year. And like I said, I wanted these kids to have a day like a student would in America, or at least as close as they could get.  Honestly, maybe I did go a bit overboard, but I had an epiphany as to why it was so important for me to do it.....

Handing out candy after hearing the magic words of "Trick-or-Treat"... (I was an Angry Bird for Halloween!)

Scared Face (or at least we were trying...)

Teacher Angry Bird posing with student, student's Angry Bird pencil case, and (on the right) one of the cutest 1st Graders

"Angry Face" with 2nd graders... Alan (to my right) is a champ

It's all because of you Mom and Dad.  Thank you for giving me the best childhood a kid could ask for.  I never wanted for anything and every holiday was something I started counting down to at least 2 months in advance.  I remember doing so many crafts at school and having them be apart of our family decorations for years (some even still are).  At school, we had so many beautiful parties that my mom helped to put together full of games and WAY more sugar than should be allowed in one elementary school classroom.  Thank you mom for busting your butt to make sure I had a stellar costume and I was all bundled up underneath before going out trick-or-treating.  Thank you dad for taking me to every single house I could go to in the space of 2 hours or so and pulling the wagon up and down the hills for when my Halloween bucket got too heavy to carry and needed to be emptied.  And thank you both for making me throw away at least half my candy every year.  These kids should be thanking you because I know what drove me to go as far as I could for these kids were the amazing memories I had of my Halloween days (and holidays in general) from all that you did for me.  So even if they don't look back at this memory as "oh I love Halloween because we get to do blah blah blah," I hope they look back and at least look at it as a beautiful, fun memory from English class or school in general. 

So in case I forgot to tell you once I matured a bit.... Thank you for all the amazing Halloweens over the years.  I'm doing my best to pay it forward.  I love you guys!