There are a great many things I don’t understand about Americans. I never quite get their sports, although the attraction of ice hockey (more of a Canadian game really) is obvious to all who know my love of watching a good biffo. The way nearly everything is sunny and bright, even when it is palpably not, the proclivity to assemble and “have a conversation” in the most outrageously loud voices and the strange preferences and combinations they order on sandwiches (the ordering of which could be an English test for the average second language learner). Nothing, however, comes close Halloween.
I suppose if an alien life form took a good hard look at Christmas, they would note some pretty bizarre practices as well, but that can wait for another time. The celebration of all things witchy with kids is very, very creepy. Those ghouls and goblins and other scary entities that haunt the subconscious mind of your average kid, are actively, outrageously and shamelessly celebrated on this day. Even though it has been explained to be innumerable times by very patient people, “Oh shucks, Dave, didn’t I explain this to you last year buddy? Never mind, it all started when….”, I still can’t embrace the concept. The even more frightening sight of grown men and women pouring themselves into witches outfits bought at the local two dollar shop and made for the rather more svelte Taiwanese and the strange desire for people to look like the most ridiculous image they could possibly conjure up, defies belief. I really do not need to see mature gentlemen dressed as Tweedledum and Tweedledee or adults raising their arms up in a pathetic imitation of scariness, covered in a white sheet and moaning “wooooooo!”. I will however, condone the return next year of those lovely young mothers of the Kindy kiddies who thought it might be appropriate to wear micro mini skirts, long black boots and very revealing black tank tops: perhaps this could be encouraged?
Much against my better judgment I was convinced to be “part of the team” and wear a basketball uniform with my six colleagues on the 3rd grade. It could have been a whole lot worse: the original version called for gigantic fake afros, headbands and long socks, but mercifully, these items could not be found on time. I love the photo here of the Pirate and the Punk: I was chuffed to see a couple of the girls breaking the mould of the pretty princess type and getting original. The pirate is one of my favourite kids this year, a real spark about her.
Cass had a pretty scary time on Thursday and Friday as well, seeing and conferencing with lots of parents. In the main, everything went very well and some of the parents were very complimentary and grateful for all the work she does. She even got some comments about her lengthy and timely feedback, one of those necessary evils of teaching that is rarely acknowledged, but cool when it is. The creepy stuff was when she had parents sitting across from her looking like a brewing storm, so severely disappointed that the kid is getting just an “A” and not an “A+”! These are the people who are really scary so maybe we should just send them into the parade as themselves: they freak me more than some moron with a sheet over his head!
Ross and I had one of our very worst surfs ever on Saturday, probably in the top ten worst surfs in Taiwan and that’s setting a pretty low standard. The sea was a cauldron of rips and currents, rain lashed our faces as we waited, sets dumped on our heads and we were generally quite miserable. Later that day, it was sad to farewell Raj, a good friend over the years here, as he heads to China to run his family business. My colleague on 3rd grade, John, organized a golf day (which I didn’t attend) and then a get together at the green bar. He arranged for April to cater and she produced the most sensational food, it really was restaurant quality. Raj brushed back a tear or two when watching a very moving PowerPoint one of the guys had put together and he flew out this morning.
We saw “The Constant Gardener” on Sunday and were quite overwhelmed by the poverty and hopelessness of many of the Kenyan people. It really was a masterpiece and I can’t quite bring myself to be flippant again about Halloween as I remember this film.One thing though: if you want to see really frightening, truly creepy and total evil, the companies depicted in this film would be a good place to start.