Ninja's Kidnapped My Family

Happy Halloween (Kind of)! Hope you all have some spooOOooky plans set up to celebrate this fun filled holiday! This week at Little America, we had our monthly Birthday party combined with a Halloween party for the students. Thursday night after classes finished, the teachers stayed late in school to begin transforming the classrooms and hallways into a Halloween wonderland! The classrooms were covered in crafts made by the students throughout this month as well as any other decorations we could find. My students made some amazing balloon spiders that actually really creeped me out.

Over the few days leading up the party the students were beginning to show their apprehension with regards to the haunted house. I hadn't experienced the pitch black maze of black sheets and hanging skeletons either so I couldn't say I blamed them when they said they did not want to go inside. Setting up the haunted house was a whole process that the other teachers have down to a science. Fishing wire is hung up in a grid pattern from the ceiling and then once a path is taped onto the floor, black trash bags are hung from the wires and taped to the floor. The maze includes a few tables for students to crawl though, glow in the dark skeletons, and teachers who hide and pop out at them at random points in the maze. Sounds fun...not.

taping down the maze

Attempt at an above view of the maze

Using Shanna for her height

Each classroom had its own theme such as musical corners, scary stories, and my room which was the dissection room. I had SO much fun with this one. To introduce the activity I made up a story about how on my way home the other day I walked through the park and saw a body on the ground. I decided to take some body parts back to show the kids. While most students put on their brave faces and stuck their hands into the dark unknown, several students shook their heads violently when their turn came up. For some of these students I told them I would reach in with them to show them that nothing would chop off their hand or anything, while others I could tell they were close to tears, I told them to sit down and wait for their friends to finish. I wasn't trying to scar any children! In the boxes was spaghetti, a wig, corn kernels, peeled grapes, and a glove filled with water and covered in lotion. I didn't tell them what body part was in that last box just to add to the fear factor. Once all of the students were finished I turned on the lights and showed them what was actually in the boxes. A lot of students who refused to touch the body parts then wanted to try again after they knew what was actually inside! As they left the room for the next activity I reminded them to tell the next classes coming in how they felt eyes and teeth and guts. They enjoyed scaring their classmates just as much as I enjoyed scaring them a little bit!

After they went through all of the activity stations it was finally time for the Birthday party/song performance. My class has a reputation of screaming their hearts out in class and then acting like they've never heard the song before when they perform in front of everyone and this day was no exception. I decided to give them a little bit of an incentive to balance out the fact that I game them a very difficult song to sing this month. I told them if they sing as loudly as they can (correct lyrics optional) that I will eat lunch with them one day next week! They all seem willing to sing whatever words come to their heads as long as they are loud!

Well, barring a few awkward silences in the middle they started and finished strong! I was still proud of them, and I will obviously be eating lunch with them this week sometime. Come on now, did you really think I would say no to lunch either way? The other classes' songs were great! Katrina's group of boys did an excellent rendition of "Ghost Busters" complete with backpack ghost zapping guns. Shanna's group had cute little spider hats, and Amanda had some enthusiastic little ones singing about ghosts and other spooky Halloween things. Now that my terrible choice of song is complete it's time for a much better and easier song for November, "From Me To You" by the Beatles. The kids already know most of the lyrics and I have some fun ideas for the dance! November's Birthday party is going to be here before we know it.

With every birthday party comes with the kiss for the birthday girls/boys. This month my student, Sua, got to choose her romantic kiss giver. She chose a strapping young lad from Alaska class who grabbed Sua around the middle and kissed her cheek with gusto. She was a bit surprised I think, because the majority of boys are too shy to even get close to the birthday girl let alone allow his lips to touch her face. 

heart breaker

 The students then got a chance to carve out a pumpkin! I traced the face on the pumpkin (I know, thank you, thank you very much)! Many ditched the spoon provided and decided to scoop out the insides with their hands. Their reactions were hilarious. While some enjoyed the gooey mess, others did one tiny scoop then ran to the bathroom to wash their hands.

Squishy!

Don't think he liked it very much

Wizar

The kindergarteners all left that day with bags full of candy and smiles (or some without smiles who were still feeling the effects of the haunted house). Next, it was time for the Elementary students. The teachers changed some of the activities to more age appropriate options and we got started right away. My new station was the musical corners room. We danced to Halloween music and then when I stopped the music they had to run to a certain corner of the room marked with a Halloween icon (mummy, vampire, Frankenstein, witch). I then picked an icon out of a bag and if students were standing there they would get candy. It was fun to see the students dance around to these songs. Mainly practicing their Psy Gangnam Style moves to songs like Thriller and Time Warp.

After dancing I was in charge of scary stories. Here is where I found out that I am completely useless when it comes to scary stories. Granted these students were a bit older so maybe it takes more to scare them but it was a tad discouraging to see blank stares when I finished my story...I told one about a boy locked in a room of a house who would kill people who lived there, but no reaction. I added blood and gore whenever I could, but still these students looked like they were watching a documentary about knitting. The last group gave me a little something when I made up a wild tale about playing the Ouija board and talking to a ghost whose mom killed him, but there weren't any satisfying gasps or cries of terror. If anyone has any helpful hints about how to tell scary stories let me know? It's a bit sad to end stories with..."and well...that was it...". I'll practice and be better next time or maybe I will be demoted to the human mummy game room next time.

Finally at the end of the day it was time to go into the haunted house! Crawling into my spot right in the middle of the maze I was actually a little scared myself as I am not one for dark places and loud screaming noises. Although overall I enjoyed being the "scarer" rather than the "scaree" (these are now official words). With the last shift comes the older kids who pretended they weren't scared when I grabbed limbs or jumped out in front of them. I only got hit once, which was much less than I expected and only one student managed to sneak in a light to use as they crawled through. During the time between groups of students, the haunted house was actually pretty relaxing. I laid on the ground next to a glow in the dark skeleton and rested my eyes until another group of clinging screaming kids were led into the dark.

As soon as the last group of students finished their activities, all of the elementary kids were sent into a room to watch scary movies while the teachers began ripping down all of our hard work from the night before. Hours of work on the haunted house and classrooms was taken down in about 45 minutes, stuffed into boxes, and put away. I am keeping up some of the creepy crafts my students made until the official Halloween day though! 


After the long day, the three Ninjas and Amanda decided to head out for a night on the town in our costumes. We headed to "The Park" which is a western bar nearby. Other foreigners trickled in with their Halloween costumes including a viking and Mary Poppins. The best costume had to be this guy though...

I apologized for stealing his family but told him that they were all very sweet and helpful around the house! We staged a couple fight scenes and obviously became life long friends with this guy (aka we will probably never see him again). Throughout the night more and more people arrived to get ready for the Halloween costume contest. It was great to see a whole group of grown men and women enjoying the holiday together. Overall it has been a fun and spoooOOoookyyy Halloween!

Next week is going to be a normal week at school, no field trips, or birthdays, or ninjas. Many of my students have their Korean school tests, so stress levels and anxiety will be high. We have been instructed by the Korean teachers to be a bit more relaxed on homework and other assignments. These students have to go through so much with their schools, parents, and other outside activities! I will definitely try to make this next week fun and relaxing for them. They need a place to de-stress or I feel like they might explode! Any ideas? Darts with pictures of tests on the bulls eye? punching bags shaped like pencils?

Next Saturday, Katrina and I are going on our kindergarteners' graduation trip! Our youngins will be graduating in March, so naturally...the graduation trip is in November...I just don't ask questions anymore. Anywhooo we get to go to a cheese making place...? I will let you know exactly what that entails, especially with a group of kindergarteners and the limited variety of delicious cheese in this country. Whenever I think of this field trip my mind brings me back to my Costco trip where I saw "Joli Candy Type Cheese" and I turn a slight shade of green.

The weekend after that trip, however, will be incredible (Sorry cheese makers)! Katrina and I are heading off to a Temple Stay at Jeondeungsa Temple, located on Ganghwa Island. While the weather will be a bit chilly we will be able to experience the life of the monks at the temple and complete meditation sessions as well as our 108 bows! This is something I've wanted to do since I chose to come to Korea. When will I ever get the chance to do it again? We meet the monks and get to ask them questions. We have our meals all together in silence, and wake up at the break of dawn to walk and see the sun rise. Not only will we probably meet other foreigners on our trip, we will also change the way we look at our own lives. What do we really need and what do we just "want"? It will give us an in depth view into an ancient and peaceful lifestyle. While we can take pictures there we have to be really stealthy about it. We can't pose with peace signs sitting on the lap of the head monk or anything. I will try to document it all the best I can with my camera and a journal to remember everything!

Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeeen! xoxo

Korean phrase of the post: 호박 (Hobahk) "pumpkin"