On Monday October 29 we held a Halloween party in one of our classes. First we told them some scary (not really) stories - do you remember "the Girl with the Green Ribbon" and "the Ghostly Hitchhiker" ? They're children's versions of scaryish folk tales. The girls weren't too impressed. I'm not sure they quite understood. We also told them the origin of the Jack o'lantern - Stingy Jack. They didn't seem too thrilled with that either. Any way, with the mandatory lesson out of the way, the girls performed their Halloween skits. I have them on film but I don't think I'm allowed to post it for safety reasons. They were great though. There was a dance from Rocky Horror Picture Show and the other group recited 5 little pumpkins and performed the Trick or Treat sing we taught them. Hahaha. Corrupting young minds. After that we broke out the candy, there was lots of that, the teacher made pumpkin pudding ( sooo delicious) and then we carved pumpkins!!
The pumpkins we carved were Japanese pumpkins, green in color with bright orange insides. Very tough. We had to microwave them first to make it easier to carve. It was so cute, everyone planned a pumpkin face and then we voted on the best two. They were then carved into the pumpkins.
They pumpkins turned out marvelously. We lit them up and then ate our candy and pumpkin pudding. It was a good cultural experience for the girls, perhaps next year they will celebrate Halloween, the proper way. Hahaha.
The pumpkin on the right, with the glasses is modeled after one of the science teachers. Everyone has a crush on him. The other ALT and I can't figure out why... Maybe he's particularly charming in Japanese, but he hardly says a word to us. Too shy I suppose.
I took the pumpkin guts home and saved the seeds. That was what I just finished doing. Cleaning and roasting pumpkin seeds. My apartment now smells like pumpkin seeds and it makes me nostalgic for home (natsukashi in Japanese). *sigh*
Now, I don't have an oven. I have a microwave (no oven function) and a gas stove with a broiler. Not without fear, I cooked the seeds in the microwave! There was no need to worry though, they turned out perfect!
First I cleaned and separated the seeds. Next I seasoned the seeds. I used season salt and pepper for most of them, but I also tried cinnamon and sugar for a few. After that I stuck them in the microwave. I cooked them for 2 minutes at a time. Each plate took about 4 minutes in all. They are delicious, though not as good as mom's. They'll have to do though.
This evening, before I undertook the pumpkin seed roasting, I went to get candy for tomorrow and some groceries, it smelled like jack o'lanterns outside!! That made me really miss home. I hope everyone is having a good Halloween season at home.
Also, yesterday I had another ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) class. It was Halloween themed. This time we didn't do traditional arrangement but we made a festive Halloween decoration instead.
Tomorrow is actual Halloween, we will have trick or treating in the ALT office, it's bound to be fun :)
Happy Halloween everyone!!
No comments:
Post a Comment