Trick, but no Treat...

 "When hinges creak, in door-less chambers. And strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls. Whenever candlelight’s flicker, where the air is deathly still, that is the time when ghosts are present. Practicing their terror, with ghoulish delight!" Welcome! Foolish Mortals, to the haunted mansion, I am your host, your ghost host. Hmmmm. Our tour begins here, in this gallery. Here where you see paintings of some of our guests, as they appeared in their corruptible, mortal state. Kindly step all the way in please, and make room for everyone. There’s no turning back now... Your cadaverous parlor, betrays an aura of foreboding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis. Is this Haunted room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination, hmm?? And consider this dismaying observation; this chamber had no windows, and no doors. Which offers you this chilling challenge, to find A WAY OUT! HAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!!! Of course, there's always my way..."

 

I love the Haunted Mansion. My Gina and I used to be able to recite the entire script along with the ghost host. I am sure we drove other riders crazy, but it wasn’t as if we actually knew any of the other riders. We would even scream on cue. It is a shame Disneyland doesn’t award acting trophies, because we would have been a shoo in for sure.  “And the Emmy for acting scared and aiding the Ghost Host, goes to (pause for dramatic effect) Jing-Xi and her Gina! “Who, us? (acting shocked that we actually won) Oh Oh…Thank you for this honor... You like us… You really like us!”

Who doesn’t like Halloween? I love the time of year when the weather turns cool at night, but warm during the day. The leaves begin to change colors and eventually float almost magically to the ground. The smell of autumn permeates the air and every child knows Halloween is close at hand. Being in the Far East I expected Halloween to be celebrated differently, if celebrated at all. In Taiwan the smell of autumn does not exist and there are no real leaves to turn colors. I have been informed numerous times palm tree leaves do not count towards this endeavor. With the disappointment of the absentee autumn still weighing heavily on my heart Halloween was a hop, skip, and scream away.

My fellow English teachers and I were asked to decorate the Kid’s Happy Land for the big day. I believed the request to be odd, but presumed the decorations were for the benefit of the students. I was confident we would be asked to not hang any witches or devils, this being a Catholic school. However, no such demand was made. In fact we constructed two separate witches to the utter delight of our superiors. I probed my fellow teachers about how odd I found it to be a Catholic school celebrating the day dedicated to things that go bump in the night. The teachers told me Halloween is a colossal ordeal in Taiwan. Every child dresses up and participates in “Tricks or Treets”. I smiled and nodded, chalking this oddity to “That’s the way we do it in Taiwan”.

On the day of Halloween first thru third grade came down to Kid’s Happy Land to play games and be given candy. Once inside the kids recited the following for the Happy Land teachers: “Tricks or Treets, smeeal my feets, give me somephing goods to eat, if you don’t, I don’t care, I will gibes you underwears.” I nearly wet my pants laughing. I thought this might be a fluke and only one class would say the Halloween rhyme for us. But to my shock and pleasure every class recited the rhyme for us. It was one of the funniest sights I had ever watched. This was even funnier than time Scott Landis set the roof of his mother’s house on fire one 4^th of July. I took pictures of the students decked out in their Halloween garb. Enjoy!

 Do you see Snow White?







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Angels in front... Demons in back.

The girl with the huge yellow bow is named Elaine. She is in 1st grade and very sweet. She told me that the bow was her crown.

 Jing-Xi’s Thought of the Day: Learning about another culture and far away land via the Internet, is not enough. One misses key subtleties learned only by visiting these places in person. This is clearly the case when one gets asked if every American marries their 1^st cousin and has the middle name Bob. Trick or Treat?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         

This girl is dressed up as a piece of candy. Wrappers and all.

Power Ranger, witch and some type of demon.

Superman throwing the peace sign.

Batman and Spiderman all in the same room. Who is out saving the day and catching the bad guys?

An angry bird and friend. I wasn't sure what this girl was dressed up as, but I know what she looks like. She is no older than the 3rd grade, in case anyone was wondering.

These are very white old students. Not really... This is Petier and Adrain, dressed as "Pumpkin Brothers". The one on the right is Petier, the slutty pumpkin. The one on the left is Adrain, the idiot pumpkin.

Not students. This is Rachel and Alexandra. The one on the right is Rachel, from the great state of Missouri. The one on the right is Alex, from Georgia, but her parents are Greece and Italy. All I have to say is WOW when it comes to Alex. :)  They are dressed up as Taiwanese single women. This is how the women dress here in hopes of wedding a foreign man.