Hanguk Halloween and Expat Elections

You'll note that I've made some changes to the format at the request of some whose eyes are too aged to read light print on a black background with ease. I'm not sure I like what I've done with it, so I might be dinking around with the settings for a while. Feedback and suggestions are welcome. 

Since my last post, there have been two events that were very strange to experience outside of the U.S. I think I'll write about them according to both chronology and importance. 

So the first event up to bat is . . .

HALLOWEEN

Halloween, as you probably know, is traditionally a western holiday, with its origins in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (thank you Wikipedia), though it has more recently become popular in many non-western countries thanks to the glorification of American pop culture. So, as you can imagine, I was very interested to see Korea's take on this spooky pastime. 

My hagwon originally planned to have a Halloween party for all of the students, but, like so many other plans at Hanyang Oregon Language Institute, no one ever followed through. An unfortunate situation, but I still feel a bit new here to start running around and demanding that the other teachers set up a haunted house, make caramel apples, and create a pin-the-tail-on-the-monster game for the students. 

Still, most of the students managed to come to school in some fantastic as well as inscrutable costumes. 

This is one of my favorites. Who wants to take a stab at what Dorothy dressed up as? It's okay--she didn't know either. It reminds me of a blue version of those muppets on acid in Labyrinth who take their heads off and throw them at Jennifer Connelly. 

I lied a little bit earlier; the kindergarten teachers actually did manage to plan a nice party for the four kindergarten classes, which somehow involved handing out wrapped presents to the students, but the kindergarten is sort of separate from the rest of the school, so that was a bit different. 

The problem with throwing a Halloween party for kindergarteners is the very essence of Halloween: it's supposed to be scary. The older children enjoyed themselves immensely, but when I arrived, several of them quickly ushered me into a classroom, where I found little Tommy cowering under a desk, refusing to come out on account of the creepy decorations and the scary costumes some of teachers were wearing. 

I was eventually able to coax Tommy out of his lair of safety, at which point I witnessed

something not generally associated with the spirit of Halloween: the compassion of children. Sure, my students frequently punch and hit each other, say things in Korean that make the other students cry, and refuse to share the toys, but every once in a while I'll spot an instance that proves that they actually care about each other. In the picture to the right, you see Paul and Danny, some of my oldest kindergarten students, comforting poor Tommy, which they proceeded to do for the remainder of the party. Tommy, as you may have surmised, is the one in the middle with the expression of pure terror on his face. 

I myself put together an unimaginably lame costume, composed entirely from a cheap witch hat that I found at a grocery store and a scarf that I tried to pass off as a cape. At least all of my students understood what I was supposed to be. 

Annie's usually much livelier than this, I promise. It almost looks like we color coordinated, doesn't it? 

After the kindergarten party, the rest of the Halloween teaching day involved me drawing deformed versions of haunted houses, pumpkins, vampires, and ghosts on the white board in order to teach my students these words in English. A well-experienced teacher would have had the foresight to bring in pictures of these glorious symbols of Halloween, but alas . . . well-experienced is far from the correct adjective to describe my skill level. 

I also had one heck of a time explaining exactly what trick-or-treating actually is. I believe, though cannot confirm, that some of my students understand the concept of trick-or-treating, but the rest of them appeared to think that the phrase is English for "give me candy! NOW!," and can be said at any moment, in any situation. So, in each class I would try to demonstrate the practice by running outside of the classroom, knocking on the door, and shouting "Trick-or-Treat!" when a student opened it. Despite my best efforts, most of the students would just race up to me with their hands out and very adamantly exclaim, "TRICK. OR. TREAT!" I would give them a piece of candy, at which point they would hold out the other hand and repeat the phrase, as if I may have forgotten that I just gave them candy. 

It was a fun, if distorted version of the Halloween I know and love. 

On to more serious matters:

THE ELECTION

I cannot accurately describe how bizarre it was to be outside of the states on November 4th. It would have been strange during any election year, but, as we have been made painfully aware of by the media, this was a historic election, and it was the first time I regretted coming to South Korea. Not for long, of course, but where on earth is teleportation technology when you need it? I could have zipped right back to Portland for the announcement of the results and the subsequent raucous celebration and been back in time to teach my morning classes. 

Actually, that's not in any way true because of the 17 hour time difference (yes, it used to be 16, but apparently daylight savings time isn't very "in" here), but since the technology still doesn't exist (I'm looking at you, NASA), I feel I have the right to make hypothetical claims here.

So, like any anal-retentive, terrified American, I spent the weeks preceding the election consuming every tidbit of information I could find from any news source I deem reliable--The New York Times, CNN, The BBC, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report . . . 

I watched. I waited. I annoyed my coworkers with my constant babble about American politics.

And then. 

Early afternoon on November 5th at Hanyang Oregon, I saw that Barack Obama had won Pennsylvania. And Ohio. Projected to win in Florida and Virginia. I hadn't wanted to believe it until that exact moment, was sure some terrible Bradley Effect would come and pull the rug of hope right out from under my feet, but suddenly all that built up stress from watching the campaign unfold just dissolved. I didn't start screaming or crying like I expected I would; instead I sat quietly smiling at my computer screen, unaware of anything else going on around me. And I couldn't wipe that smile off my face for the rest of the day. 

I felt a bit like a brain-washing imperialist when I spent the rest of the day teaching my classes to chant "O-bam-a! O-bam-a!," but I couldn't help myself. The entire kindergarten now knows that if they come up to me and say, "Teacher! Obama, very, very, very good!" they will receive an extremely enthusiastic high five. 

But it's not all imperialism. It's easy to forget how much more informed other countries are about the rest of the world than America is. Almost all of my students already knew who Barack Obama was, some even exclaiming, "Teacher! I see Obama TV! Very good!" High five.

If the vote had been up to the entire world, Obama would have won in a ridiculous landslide. Somewhere along the campaign way, I heard a conservative pundit remark that "other countries aren't afraid of Barack Obama, but they're afraid of John McCain." Is this a good thing? Shouldn't we be hoping to work together with other countries rather than to strike fear into their hearts? In The New York Times, one columnist wrote that Obama was ahead in the polls because he has a similar mindset to Ronald Reagan, who said, "Whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears." I think this perfectly encapsulates the difference between the way McCain ran his campaign, and the way Obama ran his.  

Now, I don't think John McCain is a bad person. I was pleased to hear he gave a very decent, gracious concession speech. I feel a bit sorry for him, really, because I think he compromised so much of what he used to believe in in order to run a very Republican campaign. On election day, as the final numbers came in, he looked much older than he did just the day before. 

Sarah Palin, however, I have no pity for. But that's another long rant waiting to happen. 

I've never been a very patriotic person, but, like so many others, this is the first time in my life when I can say I really am proud of my country. I'm not so naive and idealistic that I think Obama's going to pop into the White House and sweep away the nation's problems with a wave of his hand, but I do think that, for the first time in 8 years, we will have a president who is intelligent, rational, and well-spoken. A president who has the best interests of our country at heart. 

Almost more important than the president himself is what this election says about the evolving mindset of the American people. The majority didn't vote out of fear, they voted out of hope. Race is still an issue in our country, but it wasn't enough of an issue to stop us from electing a biracial man to our highest office. We're making strides, people, we're making strides. 

The only damper on this election for me was the passing of the gay marriage bans. I mean, California? Really? We thought you were a blue state! As Jon Stewart pointed out, some of the black voters in California who helped elect Obama must also have voted to ban gay marriage. So you're just going to turn it right around and take away the freedoms of others? That just doesn't make sense to me. 

The gay rights movement clearly has a much farther distance to travel than the civil rights movement at this point, but there are such strong parallels between the two that I can't believe it's not pointed out more often. Let's not forget that interracial marriage was still illegal in 16 states until 1967. 

I could go on and on, but this post is already extraordinary long, and I think it's time that I stop playing make-believe political columnist. 

Happy Halloween and Gobama.