Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everybody! Although there are parts of this holiday we aren't particularly fond of (we love the season!), because we are English teachers we must make an acknowledgment of its existence. Thankfully, since nobody here is very familiar with the holiday we can spin things to the way we like them, and that's exactly what we did! Today has been quite a fun day for everybody, from us to the students and even our teaching assistants. This entire day has basically been a game day for all. Games and candy. The candy sold here isn't quite as sweet and much of it wouldn't be very pleasing to an American palette, but sometimes different can be a good thing every once in a while. It's nice sometimes to just relax on days like this with the kids and have some fun - they already consider our classes to be the "fun class", but at least it's more relaxing for us when we don't have to plan a lesson.

But for those of you who know us very well, relaxing just doesn't seem to be a concept we grasp. That's why we decided to give ourselves the added stress of hosting a Halloween party for all of the teachers at our apartment! The stress was more than worth it, however, as we had a great time. We played a few games you may be familiar with - pumpkin bowling, mummy wrap, candy jar guessing game, and Mafia, and we rewarded ourselves with wonderful food INCLUDING American cookies! Yes, you heard us right, we made American chocolate chip cookies in our little toaster/oven from a Betty Crocker mix we found for an exorbitant price in Chengdu - and boy was it worth it! I don't think the Chinese people cared for them much (too sweet maybe?), but me, Tiff and our fellow Americans the Edminsons had a hey-day.

We've attached pictures of our little get-together with the teachers. The first is a picture of them playing mummy wrap - which they enjoyed. The second is a few of the teachers with their Halloween masks on. I think they really enjoyed their time here - Tiff did a wonderful job planning everything - and I think it was also good to get to know these teachers outside of the school setting. You all know how different we can be away from our work, and Chinese people are no different.

We wanted to make this quick post just to say Happy Halloween and let you know that after having already finished celebrating we can assure you that your Halloween will be good too! Our thoughts are with you all!