Rotary October Monthly Report

This month was very exciting for me because Halloween is my favorite holiday and October is my favorite month of the year. Although it was a bit chillier than I’m accustomed to, I really enjoyed getting to witness the leaves change color.

The other exchange student at Joto High school (Savannah) and I got to plan the school’s annual Halloween party. Since Japan doesn’t really celebrate this western holiday, only the classes with foreign exchange students had the privilege of donning costumes and getting candy. We really wanted people to get in the spirit of Halloween and I have to say they went above and beyond what we had expected. Many kids put on ‘scary’ makeup or wore some sort of costume to celebrate. As planned we all participated in playing Just Dance on the projector. Unfortunately, the class period was very short so the party didn’t last an ideal amount of time, but it was certainly enough for the students to enjoy the snacks and beverages we’d provided.

Another Halloween party that took place this month was the one the ALT (Ms. Brittany) threw for the ESS Club. As a committed member, I brought in some candy and helped put up the decorations. Everyone wore a funny hat or wig and we played Just Dance again. Since ESS Club has such a limited number of people, I think it was a really good bonding experience between us all.

Finally, there was one more Halloween party at my host family’s house. Ted (the English teacher that works closely with Mrs. Okabe) throws an annual party for each individual class throughout the last week of October. He really goes all out with the spooky decorations, the amount of various sweets he purchases, the fun traditional games he prepares, and his costume. It was so much to help out with the little kids; and having the opportunity to teach them some new English words in the process. Everyone wore a costume and learned some new western phrases like ‘trick-or-treat’ and ‘black cats cross your path’ that children commonly use on Halloween.

And I was also invited to my future host family’s house to make crepes with my host sister and a friend from school. It was really nice and fun

Overall it was a really fantastic month and I’m so glad that after getting to learn so much of the Japanese culture, I had the chance to share some of mine with them.