Halloween (Last Year)

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. When I was little, I used to maximize my candy by hopping in the car between houses. Halloween in VT was quite cold, so it helped when you had a father who would drive you the short distance to make sure you didn't freeze in your devil outfit. Or, sometimes to stop yourself from freezing, even a costume that traditionally used a skirt suddenly had the addition of ski pants...

Anyway, even after trick or treating ended (at quite a late age, I am proud to say), I was almost as excited with college Halloween. I mean, did you know you can have 4 costumes in college and it will be normal? This was the stage in my life when I realized that rather than getting free candy, I would lose money through Halloween. Unfortunately, those 10 dollar Charlotte Russe heels that you NEED for a costume (that you will totally wear again) still costed 10 dollars. Oh, and of course, you can't reuse heels from costume to costume. Yes, this might be the most girly thing I've really ever written...

So when I arrived in Korea, where they have a holiday dedicated to giving free chocolate on 11/11 but NO HALLOWEEN, I was presented with the challenge of how to properly display this holiday to my students. How could I accurately present this amazing and important holiday of gluttony and trashy costumes?

Well...I'm not sure how well I taught my kids about halloween, BUT they certainly got a lot of candy out of the bargain and (I think) they had a lot of fun. Basically, I created what I called, "The Halloween Games." Luckily, there was no systematic murder of students. Then, I would have called it Battle Royale.

The games started with everyone's favorite Christmas/Halloween mashup, the "Nightmare Before Christmas." I showed it in both English and Korean because...screw it, trick or treat. They got points for how many words they could write down about Halloween. And, I was generous when regarding what constituted as "about Halloween." Throughout the entire lesson, I was throwing candy at my kids. I am never surprised at how motivated students will get for sucking candy...but then I think about my reaction when anyone offers candy to this day and and surprised by my surprise.

Then, we did a costume guessing game. I scrounged the internet for some SFW Halloween costumes and used some of my A-OK ones. At first, they were skeptical and a little bored. Then, we got to the Ash and Pikachu costume. They were so mad at me when I wouldn't accept "Pocketmonster" as an answer. Nor would I accept "Chi-Yu," which is Ash's Korean name. I just wish I had found a LoL costume because that would have been HILARIOUS.

We did a few other fun games involving speed quizzes and charades (...woohoo...) Then, my favorite part. The mummy wrap. Some students got creative. Some kept it PG. All students seemed to have fun. 

Yes. I did get paid to watch/encourage my students to wrap themselves in toilet paper. No, I did not have to pay for the toilet paper, my school paid for it for me.

And, I didn't even have to clean up. See, my school doesn't have any toilet paper in the bathroom. The students collected it to reuse for...well when nature called. Bonus: Now, I have a secret stash of toilet paper that I can give to students so they don't have to barter with their friends when they run out.

Oh, I almost forgot the best part. While the "Halloween Games" ran throughout the week, I only dressed up for one day of the week. I was a Baeyoung High School student for Halloween. The reactions of the students/teachers were hilarious. I had the principal ask when they started accepting female students. One of my students called me his boyfriend. One student just demanded, repetitively, that I take the wig off because it looked too strange. My favorites were the students who came up to me and called me, "friend" and then invited me to the PC bang. Or to buy them bread. Or called me their "punching bag" because I was now their friend. 

Korean students treat each other strangely....

The friend comment - In Korea, the only people that you use the word "Friend" for are people that are your age. Anyone who is older or younger is brother or sister. For this reason, another student asked me what grade I was dressing up as, because it is important in Korea.