Halloween

Although Halloween is obviously not historically a very important holiday in Spain - or much of Europe, for that matter - it has been gaining popularity here over the past years thanks to the influence of American media and pop culture. It was still, sadly for us, a far cry from Halloween back in the states, but we had fun nevertheless!

Perhaps the best part were the Halloween celebrations we had at my school. The coordinator told us we could do what the other assistants had done in the past and decorate one of the classrooms with some paper pumpkins, laminated skulls, cardboard ghosts, and other fun decorations they provided, and then prepare some spooky-themed activities to do with each grade level. While the kids were apparently not allowed to dress up, we came in costume, and our coordinator gave us candy to hand out when the kids first arrived.

Charlene wanted to come in and help out, which was awesome, because she had some great game ideas and, since the kids were completely out of control, it was helpful to have an extra person to try and keep them in line!

When the kids first came in, I was hiding behind a fake coffin in the corner of the room and Charlene and Katherine (the other assistant at my school) told them a ghost story about how we had all been at school late the night before, decorating the Halloween room, but that I had decided to stay after the rest of them left. The neighbors had then heard strange noises and seen weird flashes of light, and when they got there this morning, they hadn't been able to find me...

At that point, I started shaking the coffin and knocking on the chalkboard, and then sprang out in my bird mask shrieking at the petrified children. Some of them jumped back a foot on the mat to get away from me and were shrieking in genuine terror. It was hilarious!!!

The rest of the activities were much more harmless - watching videos from Youtube, playing games that involved moving like zombies, ghosts, cats or witches until the music stopped and you had to freeze. I was sad before Halloween came because I figured I'd be missing out on all of the festivities and decorations that make up the Halloween spirit in the States, so getting to do this was a wonderful treat! It also brought back many memories of the joy of being a kid during Halloween in the States.