::A Geek in Korea::

I deemed my “Korean Security Guard” costume too ironic to use for students. I didn’t want to have to explain my costume to everyone in the school I ran into, so I decided to keep the glowing directional light stick and wear an Alien mask. The light up stick was my “probe“, lightsaber, or whatever an alien might carry. The students loved it.

The first class was with the little students that really love Halloween for the candy and monsters. I did Halloween Bingo, which was a huge success. There is this weird phenomenon everyone has experienced around kids while wearing a costume. You could be walking around normally, but as soon as you put a mask on your face, students will grab your clothes and try to rip everything “costume” related off you. I was grabbing my attendance folder with my mask perched on my head when a dozen students saw me and decided that they ALL had to grab the back of my shirt and be dragged around. If I removed the mask, they left me alone and went back to not touching me. What the hell is that about?

Anyway, after the little kids and their fun, I went on to teach two more Halloween themed lessons with elementary school classes. We did a fun Halloween story exercise where they had to end the story. The story stopped with the writer and their friends sitting in a scary house eating some candy bars. My favorite ending of the story was, “We ate some candy bars. We got fat. The end.”

The health consciousness of students continues rain on everyone’s Halloween fun in the middle school classes. Any student that told me, “Trick or Treat” got a handful scooped from my candy bag. Two middle school girls actually said to me, “Oh, teacher, I don’t want this candy bar. It has too much melamine. Please just give me some other candy instead.”

GAH!

It reminded me of my father always “testing” my candy bars for “poison” after we returned home from with our Halloween stash. He claimed he was being chivalrous. Never did I think a student would turn down FREE CANDY because of food safety fears. Yes, children take care of their health here much more diligently than in the United States, but sometimes it feels like I’m surrounded by pod people.

Just have fun on Halloween for once!

I had a good time, and since I teach different students tomorrow, I get to do the whole thing over again.