Halloween in Taiwan Part 3: Pei Cheng

Funny faces, everyone!

When planning out Halloween activities for Pei Cheng, I was told to wear my Halloween costume on Wednesday and Thursday and that all of the English teachers would tell their students that, if they dressed up on either day, they could go trick-or-treating in my classroom. However, the school decided at the last minute that there were simply too many kids who wanted to participate so we had to move trick-or-treating to the courtyard because the principal was afraid it might become a safety hazard if all of the kids tried to come my classroom at once. That's right, we had to adjust our plans in order to avoid a candy-driven riot of adorableness. I love my job.

In the end, the way the Halloween festivities at Pei Cheng ended up going down kind of made me feel like a mall Santa (okay, more like a twisted Nightmare Before Christmas-type mall Sandy Claws in a bat costume).

Getting ready to see all the good little boys and girls

It was a two day extravaganza. The school set up a whole display stage on which the students could (between classes) come up and trick-or-treat with my co-teacher, David, and I. Instead of helper elves, I had the 6th grade hall monitors (in the purple vests) working as my bouncers all day. They had to set up little orange cones for crowd control. We even set up a festive holiday background for kids to have their pictures taken with me in front of.

My bouncers getting ready for action as the class bells ring and the kids run
to get in the trick-or-treat line

We were a popular attraction

Posing with the Halloween background board.
Note: I don't think Christmas boy's parents really understood the whole
"Halloween" thing when they were dressing him this morning
(which only made him all the more adorable)

Perhaps the free candy had something to do with it, but Halloween at Pei Cheng was a big hit. The kids loved it (some of them even switched costumes with their friends and tried to come back 4 or 5 times over the 2 days we had trick-or-treating) and even the principal got involved. He dressed up as a "killer" and helped hand out candy. One of my Taiwanese friends later informed me that this is very unusual (her actual word was "shocking") since, in Taiwan, principals are known for always being very serious and professional. I guess I'm just lucky to get to work with a principal who likes to have fun!

Hanging with spiderman and Pei Cheng's "killer" principal (heh heh heh, puns)

Candy for everyone!

Long story short, teaching in Taiwan has given me just one more reason to love Halloween. For more pictures (including close ups of some of the kids' adorable costumes), you can go to the school's photo album at: http://140.111.143.8/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=30606

Happy Halloween to all and to all a good night!