Halloween at Beanstalk

Friday, October 31, 2008
A memorable warm, sunny day in Beijing and a school Halloween Party like I've never experienced before. No, not a party, carnival is a better description. Every child in the school came dressed to the nines, most of them wore costumes that were probably hand tailored since the cost is so low. Teachers were also expected to dress up. I had planned to go shopping for something to wear Thursday night but I realized I was getting a sinus infection so decided not to go. Friday morning I still didn't know what to do for a costume when I noticed the kimono I had brought from home to use as a bathrobe and suddenly I knew what I would be...a Geisha girl. I had a bright orange floral fabric recently purchased at the kwai store that I could tie around my waist and fashion into a bundle. A little extra eye make-up, dangling pearl earrings and little fancy hair styling and I was set. The children were impressed and so sweet. I heard, "You are so beautiful, Miss Sue." over and over again throughout the day.


Mr. Ryan was the mastermind behind the big day. Here he is explaining all the venues to the children. The biggest one was Mr. Dave's scary stories. Mr. Dave looked about as scary as anyone could possibly look. This wouldn't have taken a lot of work to begin with, but his clown make-up finished the job. The Sixth Grade class had a Haunted House, there was a fish pond, mummy wrapping, Feed Frank (bean bag toss into Frankenstein's mouth) pumpkin decorating (not carving), t-shirt painting, face painting, mystery boxes, musical chairs, caramel apples, hot chocolate, worms in a pie, and Mr. Kreeps. Thechildren were told a story called Meet Mr. Kreeps. The guy died and left his body to science in hopes that someone could figure out what he had died from. Kids put their hands in bowls of things like cold noodles that represent veins, and cooked whole mushroom that represent eyeballs.


I volunteered to be in charge of Pin the Tail on the Cat. I knew how to do that and since the event was outside, I hoped it would be in a nice warm spot. As it turned out, the location was as warm and sheltered as it could possible be. I was plenty hot. To my amazement the children kept coming and coming to be spun around and around until they could barely stand up. Then I let them lose to try to find the cat. I sang a little song about spinning round and round, where you stop NOBODY knows...this in English. But, it wasn't long before I heard behind me zhuan, zhuan, zhuan "turn, turn, turn". After that I incorporated zhuan, zhuan, zhuan into my little ditty.