Happy Halloween!

Yes, they do know about Halloween here in China. They don't do it up as big as we do in the states, but they understand the concept, and the young people especially want to embrace the tradition. I spent the last fifteen minutes or so of every class this week explaining Halloween to the students, and giving them ideas for costumes.

We got invited to a party Saturday night at this pace called the Cross Culture Club. It was started by this Chinese fellow named Wenjie who studied Business and English for six years in Australia. He thought the best way he could help other students learn English was by giving them a place where they could hangout and speak. He's a really nice guy, and he really appreciates us coming around and giving the students someone to talk to. Plus it was the only Halloween party we knew of - so of course we went.

Saturday afternoon, Cletus, Chris, and I went out shopping to secure materials for our costumes. Cletus was going as a ninja, Chris was gong as a member of "Team America: World Police", and I was going as Paul Bunyan. I already had my lumberjack costume: I had been growing a beard for a month and it was finally filling out, I had a red and black flannel shirt, and I had hatchet from when we went camping in early October. All I needed to buy was suspenders. Cletus needed black cloth and some ninja weapons, and Chris wanted to buy camoflauge pants and a vest. So we headed out to the local Orange Market and got our bargain on.

I found my suspenders right away, and Chris found himself a black vest, but we had the hardest time buying black cloth for Cletus. We found the cloth easy enough, but getting a reasonable price on it was another story. The ladies kept giving us what Cletus likes to call "the white price." Finally we found a little old lady who was willing to bargain with us, and we were set. We all went our seperate ways, and then met back together around 6:00 for dinner. We also invited along Akiho, a Japanese teacher who teaches at Beihua and lives in the appartment complx next to Cletus and myself. Akiho borrowed my fedora, I made him a bullwhip out of rope, and he went as Indiana Jones. We took a bunch of pictures and as soon as I get my camera working, I'll download them all for you to see. After we took all the pictures and were getting ready to leave, Akiho astutely asked why we all had weapons. I looked around and realized he was right. Akiho had his bullwhip, Chris had a dart-shotgun, Cletus had a ninja sword, throwing stars, and nunchucks, and I had a hatchet. I laughed and told him, "That's what happens when four guys dress up for Halloween."

We got ourselves a taxi and scared the poor driver half to death. He didn't know what to think when a ninja, a guy with a shotgun, guy with a rope, and a guy with a hatchet climbd into his cab. It made for fun ride.

When we got there the party was in full swing. There was a good mix of foriegners and Chinese people were there. A bunch of my students showed up, and it was fun to see them outside of the classroom. Some of the costumes were really good. Wenjia (the owner) was dressed up as a boxer, this Australian girl we know, Hannah, went as a Chinese soldier (complete with machine gun and grenades), one of the Canadian girls we know painted herself red and went as a devil, another Canadian went as a houswife, complete with apron and cookie sheet. I think the scariet costues, though, belonged to two Canadian guys we met for the first time. They both dressed as women; or hags to be more specific. It was pretty funny, ince they both are built like football players.

But the party was a lot of fun. We talked and danced and listened to good music (aka: not chinese music) and played cards and darts. A good time was had by all.

Next stop, Thanksgiving!