Jack O'Lanterns Part 4: Citizens on Patrol

Well, this is it. Tomorrow is the big day. Starfish High's Open School (v 2.0).

Where the hell did the week go? With Monday as a day off (not complaining!), we were left with only four days to prepare for v 2.0. With all of the other general craziness going on, Friday got here REALLY quickly.

Today was insane. I had one class in the morning, then a double class of pumpkin carving in the afternoon, followed by a big cleaning effort in preparation for Open School (v 2.0), followed by more pumpkin carving, band practice, helping the choir with some English pronunciation, yet more pumpkin carving, a run-through of tomorrow's set, and back to the pumpkin carving/cleanup.

All told, we have 20+ pumpkins set up in different areas around the school. And yes, I KNOW, it's not Halloween yet.

I don't think I've ever been this glad that Halloween only comes once a year.

Here are some of the results of today's carving efforts:

The students really did a fantastic job of carving up those pumpkins. It would have been nice if more of them had stayed around to clean up, but what can you do? At least one student hung around to help me out. Good guy, he is.

The guy from Japan Agriculture brought us those pumpkins around a week and a half ago, so there was something I was a bit worried about: THE ROT.

We were lucky. Only two pumpkins had bad mold/rot problems, so we chucked them. The others will make it through tomorrow, and then we can chuck them too.

"How many pumpkins could a high school chuck if a high school could chuck pumpkins?"...Naah, doesn't quite work the same way.)

Group photo!

After several hours of stooping over low tables (see also: built to Japanese specifications) to work on pumpkins, my back felt like it was going to give out. I had no energy left at all. I don't think I was a very fun person to be around. But then , I got a phone call from Katie, one of the other English teachers here in Muroran. "Dinner and a movie at my place? There will be a few of us here."

The magic words: dinner and a movie. "Do I need to bring anything?" "Nope, don't worry about it." Sweet. So I drove on out to the edge of town, hung out with some English speakers, ate some good food, watched "The Wedding Singer" (Sandler at his finest), and had a generally good time. And then I trucked on home. Or Minicarred on home, I guess.