Halloween, or, um...Book Week?

Last week at our school was Book Week.  There were various activities throughout the week to celebrate books, and on Friday there was a costume parade where teachers and students chose a favorite book character to dress up as.  About a month ago a tailor came to our staff room during the lunch hour (we have an hour for lunch!) and took measurements and pictures of costumes the staff had in mind.  She also took a lot of money, around 50 US Dollars on average, which is why I didn’t get in the line.  I was talking to a colleague at lunch about how much I enjoyed dreaming up a hand-made costume with Sister #1, and told her who I wanted to be  She quickly said I should just wear a sweater and sweat pants of grey,, and make a cool mask.  I already had a two-dimensional mask of this character (Gerald the elephant from Mo Willems’ wonderful books of Elephant and Piggie), so I was in business.  However, the colleague across the hall took one look at my flat mask, and whisked it away for some improvement.  Two days later, I had an enormous paper mache trunk, supported by a head-gear like apparatus over my head.  In my defense I did paint 3 toes on all 4 of my “feet”, and did a respectable job.   You can see the result of my friend’s efforts here:

As regards the non-Halloween Halloween-like celebration:  it was quite different from a U.S. elementary school celebration, mostly because many students sported plastic knives, swords, machetes, guns of all makes, and the occasional cross bow. The Americans on our staff were rather appalled, but then a Korean friend said perhaps it didn’t register with them as something alarming because when they saw a plastic weapon, they just saw it as another type of toy.  I didn’t jump into a harangue about the domino effect to a less-than-cautious attitude toward weapons , but she had a point.  

I held a “real Halloween” party for 3 classes of ESL students, and I have to report that Ed Emberley still rocks, and that orange Halloween book is a classic.   The students loved drawing witches, bats, and haunted houses, and so did I.  I think I have one more school Halloween in me, but I believe that will be sufficient.  I’m ready to hang up my capes, fangs, and ball gowns for some comfortable shoes and a pair of jeans.  I foolishly purchased tickets to the Chinese Opera for the evening of the 31^st, and I made it about 10 minutes into the production before I woke myself up when my head fell off S’s shoulder.  Halloween is a younger gal’s sport.  PICS HERE:  https://flic.kr/s/aHsk5gGcW5

As you look at some pics I took of the people on parade, note that being a princess is still part of many girl’s dreams, and the boys still love any super hero or monster they can find.  Some things never change.