Year Three, Almost Free 9: Early Halloween and Mom at Work

Greetings, Tim!

The temperatures these days have gone down at a remarkably fast pace. In the early morning, when the sun is barely out, you would probably shiver in your blankets when you wake up. My case, however. Was quite different. I managed to untangle from my blankets and cast it away from my bed, sending a pillow not far behind. It’s been a while that this kind of tossing and turning had happened, but why did it have to be today? I am sitting in the metro, with my jacket zipped up to the chest and the hood is on as well. Facing the sun, I’m typing out this letter, sniffing my runny nose and living in the prospect of catching a cold.

Halloween Season!

There is one person in my class who’s visibly more excited about this festival of distinct characters, and that is Allison.

I recall her telling me about her happy memories in America and how she used to celebrate Halloween here and there. She kept trying to subtly suggest that we hold another Halloween costume party in school like how we did in the previous two years, but much to her dismay, no one was in the high spirits of Halloween celebrations with the tests so near.

On Saturday morning, not long after I had awakened, I received a message from Allison to check out the Halloween parade/fun fair that is held across the street our houses are on, in a park.

I looked out from the window. There were already parents bringing kids with some Halloween costume on, walking over for the park. I squinted a little, letting my eyes travel down along the roads and then located some workers setting up poles and cones on the road, cutting off half of the wide road for the Halloween parade to pass through.

This is just a part of the small crowd, some distance away from the park.

At around one in the after I got a call from Angela, who was also in the area at the moment. She was looking for a study buddy, but that evening, I had something else to go to, so instead, I asked her if she wanted to check out the park with activities together.

Before I met Angela, I saw a little boy dressed as a bag of jelly beans and was taking pictures. He was so cute that I felt the need to take a picture of him. Afterward, I had my phone in my hands at all times, always ready to take pictures. Along the swarming crowds Angela and I went, we pointed out some outstanding and/or adorable costumes the kids had on. The best one we saw, as we both agreed, was a green traditional Taiwanese electronic steamer that used to be the kind of appliance that is present in every household. It looked like this, but neither of us had the time to take a shot at the boy who apparently has innovative parents before he disappeared into the crowds.

Focus on the jelly bean kid. NOT on the Annabelle girl on the left hand side.

We were convinced that you couldn’t find a place more crowded than the streets were than the Saturday afternoon Tianmu streets, but we were proved wrong by the even larger crowd crammed into the park that is more often empty than not. There must be over a thousand of kids in it, all of which were dragging their parents, either quite reluctant or looking at their children with loving, smiling eyes as they obligingly followed in the warm afternoon sun.

When the Incredibles meet the zombie family

We understood that the holders of the event really gave the best they got when we saw there was a small area rounded up on the grass fields, with nylon ropes. The area was reserved for pony riding! I don’t know whose idea it was, but it was brilliant. We already had Halloween in the afternoon; why not add several horses?

This one deserved mentioning. I was just wondering if there will be a kid dressed as a horse and he went right in fron of me!

One of the perks about living in Tian-mu is that this is one of the several parts of Taiwan where you can actually describe as cosmopolitan. This is the place where Taipei American and Taipei European School are located, and being international schools, international students are all living around this district. It would be weird if you don’t see over ten foreign-looking faces a day. This is the reason why this large Halloween event is held here.

Halloween isn’t officially here yet, but Happy Halloween, everyone.

End

Too soon? Sorry, I feel like I have just crammed a whole semester’s worth of textbook into my head, and it is kind of swirling now. I think I need a rest. I planned to write another entry about checking out Mom at work in her new workplace at nine in the evening, but I think now I can only put up the pictures:

 

Mom at work

Sorry again about the halt.

Sincerely,

Hugo