Here are a few images from last week's Halloween.

I revived my pirate costume from two years ago, but updated it with a sword to the stomach, eye make up and a for the 1st grader's class, a mask. The pumpkin next to me is one of 5 carved by the English Elective students.
The witch eats lunch, and apparently enjoys it. :) The office lady, the accountant, the librarian all turned into witches the morning of Halloween. It was quite fun.
The first grade students posing in the masks they made during their Halloween lesson. They came to trick-or-treat, but got asked to pose. :)

This weekend i was one of the judges for the All Okinawa High School English Debate Contest. It was my first time and I signed up just to see what an English debate in a non-native language is like and also I really wanted to be impressed by students' English abilities. And was I ever! Those kids are amazing. I chatted with a few of them, and they all could hold a pretty relaxed English conversation. The ones I talked to all studied in an English speaking country for a year and are now continuing their studied at academic schools, some of which are immersion. Some of the debates were tough to judge because I was constantly being impressed with their ability to think on their feet in English during Question/Answer sessions and wasn't sure where I was supposed to take off points, if any. My fellow ALT's team from an immersion high school took first place, and we even took one of the team members out to dinner and ice cream after. He is a wonderful kid with a great sense of humor whose goal in life is to be rich. ha ha :)

I think that'll be it for this post. Am off to bed, as I feel that I am getting sick and I really shouldn't be considering how much vitamin C i've been eating.

love
-e