Finally. The end of the Hallowe'en goodness. It was a rather anti-climatic end. I was really looking forward to today cause I have some super great kids and they're lots of fun and I was looking forward to playing with them and seeing them dressed up all cute. I have to admit that I am just really, really disappointed. I guess that most of the parents forgot, or something, but the kids came totally unprepared and unaware of what was supposed to be happening. In my first class only 1 kid had a "costume", it was just a mask. And in the second class only one student came (10 minutes late in a 45 minute class) in a costume, and one other had a mask. It totally killed the energy. In other classes this week they were all excited and dressed up and couldn't wait to get in to the room to have fun and games. Today they all thought they were coming for a regular class so they just stood there in shock for the first bit. It was a lot of energy that I had to expend with absolutely no reaction back from the kids. Even the ghost races that were a huge hit every other day (except the teenagers, but they're mutants), totally bombed with the kids. The best part of my day was that my last class was cancelled so I only had the two kids classes and two private students (one of which I actually really like, she's a 14 year old fabulous girl who loves to learn English and talk with me). Super easy day. Some good times were seeing some former students of mine all dressed up and we had fun in the reception area. They even wanted me in on their pictures with their new teacher. They're super great kids and I miss that class. The other great picture was at the end of the day, again, not my students. Kiyoko is the nice lady who invites me to her house for "Mother's Club" so I had to take pictures of her and her friend who were waiting for their class to start.
Lame that I had down time for two hours in the middle cause it took twice as much energy to switch from planning mode back into genki teacher for a Hallowe'en party mode, but I really needed the easy schedule today as I'm going on half steam. I spent much of last night in shock on my bathroom floor with my head as close to the toilet as I could physically manage. I really did go into minor shock. Full on uncontrollable whole body shakes and teeth chattering, sweats then chills and back again, no physical strength (I literally crawled on the floor to get there), dehydration, and some serious nausea. I finally passed out around 6 am. I don't know what I ate last night, but something made my body very, very angry with me. At this point I would like to reiterate how much I hate the door on my washroom. So now I'm eating a little food, watching some Survivor and maybe even some Boston Legal. I am going to sleep forever tomorrow. No more Hallowe'en.
I have never "celebrated" Hallowe'en more in my life than I have this week. If I never celebrate Hallowe'en again it will be too soon. It's a silly day that has little intrinsic value, which is particularly enhanced when pared with American mass consumerism. It has little substance to it but spending money on costumes to out-do the other person to prove that you're better and mass consumption of refined sugar. I don't care about the monsters and ghosts and vampires. I couldn't care less about what the Conservative right-wing Christian sect says about it on a "spiritual" level (Trick or Treating probably stems from a Christian ritual from the 9th Century, but whatever, it's evil, right?). It's evil for completely other reasons. Reasons that, btw, those who condemn the day seem to be okay with when associated with something else, say, the birth of a Saviour God, or Christian Book Stores or Music Festivals or CCM minus the sugar. But whatever.
