my students are bloody amazing and also, the brighter side of Halloween
dragonwire made a thought-provoking post about Halloween, and it made me think of things that i hadn't before, except sort of peripherally.
over the last decade, Halloween has become my favorite holiday. it has no religious affiliation for me, and it's in fall, with its colorful leaves and first frost, the feel of harvest-time and possibilities of hayrides and woodsmoke. then there's the endless potential for awesome in coming up with a costume that is somehow recognizable and yet clever and original.
it was introduced to me at age 9 as a day when i basically ran around with my cousins wearing a skimask and got candy. by the following year i had explored and latched on to the concept of costumes and being anything i wanted to be. i created a toga out of a bedsheet and a brooch--i was Kassandra from Firebrand, which i had just read and fallen in love with, towards the tail end of my Greek mythology phase. (i've gone through a phase of mythology for pretty much every culture i could read about, the more obscure/previously unknown to me, the better.)
since then i've been an astronaut, a space explorer, various Star Wars characters (do we see a theme here?) and characters from folk/fairy tales (mostly deshi, and various mishmash of what i'd come across in America) or ones i had created for the stories i was constantly writing or creating in my head. as i've gotten older, i tend to go for more funny things--jokes and metaphors and political satire.
this year, i taped printouts of Jell-o pudding boxes to my knees, and said i was "weak-kneed."
as a child i was too isolated to notice other kids' costumes (honestly, i don't remember anything about this beyond talk of princess dresses and animal costumes in two years of elementary school classrooms, and the adamant pretense of being too cool and old for trick-or-treating during three years of middle school when really, when it came time to take out younger brothers and cousins, i ended up getting some too, until high school, when i really did look too old and no one would give me candy).
i'm rather self-centered so if i bothered to notice other people's costumes (when it was cool to dress up again for parties) beyond what struck me as really awesome, it was the whole college-girl-slut-chic thing, which was in a long list of weird-lack-of-self-respect-or-feminism type things that college-age people did that i did not understand and largely ignored for the sake of my sanity unless the opportunity arose where i could tactfully point this out to the offending party. (re: "Why is it funny that you're dressed as a girl? Why is it degrading to be called one?")
i didn't notice racial/cultural trends--but i had pretty limited contact with and attention span for the larger crowd of college students, so i guess i'm lucky. among people i knew, costumes were more about the character than about a cultural group/stereotype/etc.
just got back from the Halloween party for students a couple hours ago. (i really wanted to have a party, so Summer (the concierge) planned one for the teachers, and then realized that students would like one too, but it was too late to organize it all in the same weekend so they had theirs tonight.) i had gotten them all excited about it last week--Halloween is my favorite after all.
i was so taken with my costume idea that was keeping a secret from the other teachers, i couldn't contain myself. i told my students (and turned it into a bit of a vocabulary/grammar/culture lesson) so they were really looking forward to seeing me in it at their party since they couldn't go to the teacher's party. this is actually rather ironic because i didn't have it to wear tonight for students who would've appreciated it more than the sort of lackluster (lame) group at the teachers' party where the atmosphere was different and no one really asked so i couldn't really explain/share the awesome. i think the maid (yes, i know, maid. *shameface* cleaning is hard here with the weather and the wildlife and there are lots of women desperate for some form of paid work, especially with us foreigners who can afford to pay them much more than the usual rates) threw it away this morning. :(
anyway, the students were lovely--they really took in all the things they learned about trying to be scary (there was a pretty intense costume contest), and like college students everywhere, were all over the opportunity to dance the night away. i'm just so proud of them sometimes. they work so hard--they've worked hard to get here, to get their scholarships, and put themselves forward for the leadership roles and positions not usually encouraged or offered to them in their cultures--and they're so wonderful about melding so many nationalities and cultures, learning about each other and to speak to each other. it warms my heart to see them let loose and have fun like this, especially as women from cultures where they're not usually (if at all) allowed such freedoms often. the Afghan girls slowly warming up and showing their hair, the girls who normally wear hijabs and borquas dressed as boys, or in tshirts and salwars, breaking it down with a combination of hip hop and belly dancing. they were especially keen on trying to learn more male dance moves (i helped, i have a tendency to dance both male and female parts from traditional dances like bhangra) with lots of leg and shoulder movement. was it because of the freedom of physical movement, the new-and-possibly-otherwise-taboo aspect, or something else entirely? food for thought.
i ended up dancing with them pretty much the entire time i was there (there's an embarrassing amount of photos and footage out there now--but they were so expectant and enthusiastic i couldn't turn them down. got pushed onto the stage after the costume contest. i coped by dragging up the other teachers with me and making Seema, who bellydances, start the dancing.) i got a lot of "I love you, Ma'am!"s, etc, and when i took breaks, they wouldn't let me get my own drinks and kept bringing me snacks. i finally had to stop right before the last song was over because i couldn't move anymore and realized that i wasn't breathing properly and my asthma was starting to be a problem. heh
alright, this is now epic length and i'm not sure what all i've said. time for sleep. gonna go on a boat-ride towards Burma tomorrow in 6 hours. not sure if we're going all the way to Burma (they asked for passports?) but hey. funtimes ahead.
over the last decade, Halloween has become my favorite holiday. it has no religious affiliation for me, and it's in fall, with its colorful leaves and first frost, the feel of harvest-time and possibilities of hayrides and woodsmoke. then there's the endless potential for awesome in coming up with a costume that is somehow recognizable and yet clever and original.
it was introduced to me at age 9 as a day when i basically ran around with my cousins wearing a skimask and got candy. by the following year i had explored and latched on to the concept of costumes and being anything i wanted to be. i created a toga out of a bedsheet and a brooch--i was Kassandra from Firebrand, which i had just read and fallen in love with, towards the tail end of my Greek mythology phase. (i've gone through a phase of mythology for pretty much every culture i could read about, the more obscure/previously unknown to me, the better.)
since then i've been an astronaut, a space explorer, various Star Wars characters (do we see a theme here?) and characters from folk/fairy tales (mostly deshi, and various mishmash of what i'd come across in America) or ones i had created for the stories i was constantly writing or creating in my head. as i've gotten older, i tend to go for more funny things--jokes and metaphors and political satire.
this year, i taped printouts of Jell-o pudding boxes to my knees, and said i was "weak-kneed."
as a child i was too isolated to notice other kids' costumes (honestly, i don't remember anything about this beyond talk of princess dresses and animal costumes in two years of elementary school classrooms, and the adamant pretense of being too cool and old for trick-or-treating during three years of middle school when really, when it came time to take out younger brothers and cousins, i ended up getting some too, until high school, when i really did look too old and no one would give me candy).
i'm rather self-centered so if i bothered to notice other people's costumes (when it was cool to dress up again for parties) beyond what struck me as really awesome, it was the whole college-girl-slut-chic thing, which was in a long list of weird-lack-of-self-respect-or-feminism type things that college-age people did that i did not understand and largely ignored for the sake of my sanity unless the opportunity arose where i could tactfully point this out to the offending party. (re: "Why is it funny that you're dressed as a girl? Why is it degrading to be called one?")
i didn't notice racial/cultural trends--but i had pretty limited contact with and attention span for the larger crowd of college students, so i guess i'm lucky. among people i knew, costumes were more about the character than about a cultural group/stereotype/etc.
just got back from the Halloween party for students a couple hours ago. (i really wanted to have a party, so Summer (the concierge) planned one for the teachers, and then realized that students would like one too, but it was too late to organize it all in the same weekend so they had theirs tonight.) i had gotten them all excited about it last week--Halloween is my favorite after all.
i was so taken with my costume idea that was keeping a secret from the other teachers, i couldn't contain myself. i told my students (and turned it into a bit of a vocabulary/grammar/culture lesson) so they were really looking forward to seeing me in it at their party since they couldn't go to the teacher's party. this is actually rather ironic because i didn't have it to wear tonight for students who would've appreciated it more than the sort of lackluster (lame) group at the teachers' party where the atmosphere was different and no one really asked so i couldn't really explain/share the awesome. i think the maid (yes, i know, maid. *shameface* cleaning is hard here with the weather and the wildlife and there are lots of women desperate for some form of paid work, especially with us foreigners who can afford to pay them much more than the usual rates) threw it away this morning. :(
anyway, the students were lovely--they really took in all the things they learned about trying to be scary (there was a pretty intense costume contest), and like college students everywhere, were all over the opportunity to dance the night away. i'm just so proud of them sometimes. they work so hard--they've worked hard to get here, to get their scholarships, and put themselves forward for the leadership roles and positions not usually encouraged or offered to them in their cultures--and they're so wonderful about melding so many nationalities and cultures, learning about each other and to speak to each other. it warms my heart to see them let loose and have fun like this, especially as women from cultures where they're not usually (if at all) allowed such freedoms often. the Afghan girls slowly warming up and showing their hair, the girls who normally wear hijabs and borquas dressed as boys, or in tshirts and salwars, breaking it down with a combination of hip hop and belly dancing. they were especially keen on trying to learn more male dance moves (i helped, i have a tendency to dance both male and female parts from traditional dances like bhangra) with lots of leg and shoulder movement. was it because of the freedom of physical movement, the new-and-possibly-otherwise-taboo aspect, or something else entirely? food for thought.
i ended up dancing with them pretty much the entire time i was there (there's an embarrassing amount of photos and footage out there now--but they were so expectant and enthusiastic i couldn't turn them down. got pushed onto the stage after the costume contest. i coped by dragging up the other teachers with me and making Seema, who bellydances, start the dancing.) i got a lot of "I love you, Ma'am!"s, etc, and when i took breaks, they wouldn't let me get my own drinks and kept bringing me snacks. i finally had to stop right before the last song was over because i couldn't move anymore and realized that i wasn't breathing properly and my asthma was starting to be a problem. heh
alright, this is now epic length and i'm not sure what all i've said. time for sleep. gonna go on a boat-ride towards Burma tomorrow in 6 hours. not sure if we're going all the way to Burma (they asked for passports?) but hey. funtimes ahead.