Halloween

This Halloween I actually went to two parties on the same evening. First my friend Paul, who is an English teacher here, invited us to come to a KTV (karaoke) Halloween party with his students and other teachers. I’d met a few of his students before, they are all a lovely bunch, so I was thrilled to go. I had also heard there would be free food and drinks for us…

I dressed up as a cat (I even made a yarn tail!) and we headed off to meet up with everyone and get on the coach for 50 minutes to the KTV place. The other teachers turned out to be from Australia, London and some other places and it was nice to meet other foreigners. It’s always exciting to hear their story, why they are in China and how long they have been here. If they speak Chinese, have a Chinese partner or is just single living the travel life in China. ‘Are you a student or teacher here? Where are you from?’ – instant ice breaker.

The KTV place was so nice! It must have been one of the fancier one in Wuhan, they had decorated it from top to bottom and even the staff wore Halloween costumes. Since it was a school party (with over 18s) they had arranged games like Twister, pumpkin carving, make-up sessions, karaoke, and even wrapping the teacher up in toilet paper. There were free shots and food for us too. Why were we even allowed to come to this school party? We’re foreigners. That’s the main reason. Chinese people are curious about us, and since this was an English class it gave them the opportunity to practice their English and for us to practice our Chinese. It was a great party and I met so many lovely people!

The second party I went to was in the basement of our dorm. Funnily enough, on the subway back home we met a group of girls dressed up and we asked where they were going. Turned out they were going to our party, they knew our friends too! It was a classic drunken, beer-pong, messy Halloween party. To be honest it wasn’t that much fun so I only went there to say hi to my university friends and then headed off to bed around 2am when they all headed out to the bar.

China is on good way to adapt this holiday, and I had a great time!