Halloween in Xiamen

Yep, now that Christmas is over, I'm finally getting around to posting Halloween photos...time flies. Xiamen International School had a special day of celebrating, even though there are less than 15% Americans at the school! We had a hard time finding costumes here--all we could find were the same two or three witch-type outfits--so we were thrilled when our friend Pam offered to lend us a bag full of costumes that her children had outgrown. Amanda was very relieved. First up at school was the costume parade. As we see at home, there were tons of princesses and witches, which was fine with us as it was better than party-pooper noncostume-wearers! At first I couldn't locate Amanda's teacher...
and then I spotted him! What a great sport! Even though it was the last week of October, it was still quite warm so I couldn't believe he could stand to wear that mask. I guess he was one of those wrestler guys like in the movie Nacho Libre. Funny.
Amanda nominated herself for "most interesting" costume in her class vote...and won! This will likely be the only Halloween that she wears flip-flops without freezing.
Lining up all the pre-K through 5th graders was quite a challenge and getting a photo of it all without filling the frame with the backs of other parents' heads was equally hard! Next came the trick-or-treating!
Each child was asked to send in a bag of treats so that there would be enough to share. We didn't mind helping supply the candy (it certainly cost less than the 10+ bags I usually hand out at home!) Notice Amanda has a cloth reusable shopping bag for her treats--some things never change. I tagged along with the class as they went to 5 different offices around the school. I think the other parents had left by now (we had already attended the middle and high school-sponsored haunted basement, listened to some scary stories and played Halloween bingo--I even won a round!) but I couldn't miss the trick-or-treating.
The evening celebration was more for Liz and the other older kids. A bunch of parents in the PTSA organized a school dance for them. Liz and I had found a picture of a "Harajuku girl" of Japanese teen fame online and had a similar dress made at a local tailor shop. I'm not sure if the other kids know what her costume was, but we thought she looked fabulous!
Liz and two of her friends, waiting for the school bus that will take them to the dance.
We celebrated again on Saturday, with a special Halloween party at the local PCD department store. I had swallowed my pride and called the mother of Liz's friend (on the far right) who is a buyer for the store and organizer of the party to beg our way onto the guest list...the things we do for our kids! I also asked if our friends could come along with us; the parents are originally from China but studied in the US and lived in NM for many years so the girls were both born there. They moved here in March when the dad took a job as the dean of the energy department at Xiamen University (he's a nuclear specialist). I used one of the on-loan costumes but got really hot in the felt jester's hat!
Amanda and friends making a ghost craft. The party was fun but so crowded...we left a bit early to get going with the store trick-or-treating. The department stores here are different than ours in that each section is a separate store with each brand in its own area. We formed a group of expats and made a spectacle of ourselves...
some more than others! Our friend John did us proud by dressing up like a bathing beauty. He found a kindred soul on the sales floor...and got a good many points and stares. He's obviously not shy.
How many times have you trick-or-treated at Gucci?! Or Hugo Boss? The list goes on and we had so much fun!
The main entrance to the store opens onto the most popular pedestrian shopping street in the city. There was a large pumpkin display that we posed in front of...and a hoard of Chinese people grabbed their cameras and cell phones and took pictures. The spectacle continued!
I think the store had 4 floors, but we got tired out after two...and thought we better leave some candy for the other kids who were still upstairs in the bridal section at the party. By now it was getting late and we were ready to get to our next party, this time at the beach! Our friend the bathing beauty agreed to give us a ride with his driver but we had to wait for him to return for us since there wasn't room for both families. We got lots more stares and photos snapped as we walked and waited. Liz opted for Pocahontas this time, again from the loaned bag.
Once at the beach party, we discovered that Amanda's teacher was in the band! Read his guitar carefully--no bad words, I promise! The band was set up on the sand and there was a big patio with tables and food and drinks for purchase...and lots of fun-loving people. We were glad to be with good friends and ran into more after we got settled in.

The girls spent most of their time running around in the sand with their friends and watching the bonfire. These two days of fun were most certainly a bright spot in our fall; the first few months had many hard days and we were so happy for the escape!