Halloween, China Style

I want to start this post off by saying: I LOVE CHINA. and here is a super cute picture of me and Jimmy and a picture of me being kissed on the cheek by Rebecca and Spencer. After flag ceremony, I was sitting on the stair way and I pointed at my cheek when Spencer walked by, he leaned in and I thought he was just going to give me a little peck on the cheek.. boy was I wrong. He kissed me long and hard for a good minute, about 5 seconds after he started to kiss my cheek, Rebecca decided to join him and she started kissing me on my other cheek. It was the cutest thing ever. Thank goodness Autumn had her phone nearby so she could capture the moment. After that, 4 the kids grabbed onto my hands and arms and led me to class. They are just too cute to handle. Seriously, the cutest kids in this world!

Anyways....
Halloween has always been one of my favorite Holidays. Celebrating it here in China was a blast. After Vacation, these past 3 weeks has been soooooo crazy busy. We had to prepare for all the Halloween festivities, which was actually a lot of work. We also had to start getting our student profiles done and inventory done to prepare for mid-semester visits coming up here in 2 weeks. All of that on top of the normal every day lessons that we have to do and be prepared for. Although I do not teach everyday there is still A LOT that I have to do and have to take care of as well. Long story short, it had been an extremely busy past 3 weeks. 

However a few fun things we have done include: Getting Chinese massages, having a rooftop party, celebrating Nicole's Birthday and exploring People's Park. 

The Chinese massage was amazing and only $10. I was kinda nervous because anyone that I ever talked to about China massages have told me that they are ridiculously rough and that I will basically come out of it in more pain and with more bruises than before I went. Also, when I was living Weihai early this year, I got the Chinese cupping Massage where they take a jar and light some sort of fire in it for a second then they twist it onto your back... it is suppose to help remove the toxins from your body.. but IT HURT SO BAD. The welts left on my back looked like elephant hickeys. I was miserable for the following few days after that experience. Here is a picture of my back: 

Day 1 and Day 2. 

Regardless, I decided to give a normal Chinese Massage a try. It felt AMAZING. My lady was hilarious and only knew like 2 English words which were "head and turn". Those were at least helpful and thankfully, she wasn't too rough and I left feeling relaxed and better than when I had come in.  

The rooftop party was held at the other ILP school near by. It was to celebrate Kelly moving into their complex. The roof top was gorgeous with great views of the city. It was the perfect place to have a party. We had soda and chips and some goodies as well. There was music playing and it was so great hanging out with the other ILP group who we have loved seeing and hanging out with on numerous occasions. We also got to hang out with some British people who work for BOND (BOND is the main institute that hires English Teachers for lots of different schools around Zhongshan, and is also who ILP works with to have their teachers here in 7 different schools around Zhongshan). It was nice meeting them and hanging out for a bit. 

Old couch we made our own

Shelbie :) 

Brecia :) 

Nicole, who I have talked about before, is one of our coordinators who is simply, AMAZING. She is always there and so helpful. Her birthday was on October 24th and we bought a cake and celebrated with her. Happy Birthday Nicole, This picture is of Kelly and me making a birthday cake out of our hands for the birthday girl. :) 

Last Saturday, the 26th of October, my group and I decided to get out and to go explore People's Park. We took a rickshaw there and then enjoyed a peaceful walk through the park. It was so beautiful. There was so much beautiful Chinese architecture and even a waterfall. After wandering around the peaceful and relaxing part for a bit, we came across a mini amusement park. There were a few rides, one really small roller coaster, a rocking boat type ride, a carousel and even some bumper cars. There was also a big cage with some monkey's in it. It was really random to find but still pretty neat. Of course to top off the amusement park feel, I just had to buy some cotton candy. :) 

Now onto Halloween festivities... Leading up to Halloween we set up lots and lots and lots of decorations. We were a part of 2 Halloween Parties. The first party, was at our Kindergarten and we did a few different games; fishing, musical chairs, making pumpkins, trick-or-treating, and some face painting. The party at our school was so much fun. It was nice being able to enjoy having fun with the kids while still getting some language out of them instead of trying to keep their attention during normal classes, or in my case only really talking to the naughty kids who get multiple strikes throughout the lessons. Even though the kids were a lot crazier than normal it was an enjoyable time. Plus, the kids were all dressed up and they looked so stinking adorable. 

Some of the Decorations: 

Trick or Treating: 

Fishing: 

Making Pumpkins: 

Musical Chairs: 

Some of their cute costumes: 

Cocoa and Twinkle: BFF's

Nicole and Lin: Disney Princesses

Charlie and Angel: Devil and Angel

Joshua: Spider man

Andrew: Cute pumpkin

Oscar: Swooping in as Superman to save the day.

Later that night was our second Halloween Party. BOND was hosting it. My school and the other school near by were in charge of the Haunted House. We again set up lots and lots and lots of decorations. It was so much fun to set up and even more fun to run. It took a lot of time to decorate the inside of this creepy old abandoned building but it turned out great. It was so great scaring the kids and their families. Whenever a really bad kid from our classes would come through me and a few of my girls would shout the rules at them. That was funny, haha. Not to mention, pay back for all the times I've been kicked, spit at, or hit... I promise most the kids like me though. ;) Also, I don't know if I mentioned this earlier but the Chinese love to have us perform for them. So we danced to The Nightmare Before Christmas' Theme Song: "This is Halloween". It was a lot of fun putting the dance together and the Chinese loved it. 

Haunted House: 

I decided to be a Black Cat.. The Chinese LOVED it. It was so fun on the way to the Haunted House we had to walk for a bit and then take a rickshaw. As we were negotiating prices for the rickshaws some taxi drivers near by where looking at me so I "scratched" at them and acted like a cat. They dieddddd laughing and then decided to take a million pictures with me. It was so much fun and I love making people laugh.

My group: 

Me and My Amazing Coordinators: Witch Nicole and Zombie Kelly

The last thing we did this Halloween weekend, was go across Zhongshan to the Kayin, which is one of the other schools ILP has here. Us and I think all the schools in Zhongshan were present to watch some fun ILP videos. ILP recently hired some people to make new ILP videos for advertising, training videos and the like. They had come to our school for a day and got some great pictures and videos of us teaching and of my sweet kids. It was fun working with them and this party was put together so we could all see a few rough drafts of the videos that they have been working on. We also got free pizza, which was really really nice especially because pizza is pretty pricey here in China. It was a fun time seeing the other ILP groups and just hanging out. 

Next weekend I am heading to Sanya for my third and final ILP Vacation time. I am pretty excited to hit up the beach and enjoy some fun in the sun. I love China.