Common Talk Weeklyshuang yu zhou kan
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A spooky Halloween
November 5, 2003
By Jean Chen
Photo by Yao Fan

图为时代语言培训中心与万德福英语茶座共同举办的万圣节派对
Black cat, evil witch, good choices for Halloween

One of my friends once suggested that one reason why Chinese people can't properly express themselves with foreigners is because they don't understand foreign humor. If my friend had attended the Halloween party at the Wonderful English Chatting Pub, she might have changed her mind.

Halloween pumpkins, evil witches with a pointed hats and broomsticks, ghosts, black cats, Jack-o-lanterns and other scary creatures could be seen everywhere. The Times Language Training Centre（时代语言培训中心） and Wonderful English Chatting Pub（万德福英语茶座）, organized the Halloween party and made great efforts to get everyone into the holiday spirit.

The main part of a Halloween party is the costumes and surprising masks. Quite a lot of attendants chose to dress as witches, black cats or ghost— the scarier, the better. One three-year-old boy chose to come as a famous Japanese robot. The question on everyone’s minds was which costume would win the prize for the most grotesque and gaudy. The host of the Halloween party, Paul, from England, gave an unexpected answer—the shrimp.

When asked why she chose to make such a strange shrimp costume, Nova, a Chinese trainee from Times, said that she and her friend ate shrimp two days ago. They then took one day to make the outfit with plastic water pipe and wire. “It is a bit hot in the helm. Do you want to try it on? ” Nova warmly invited.
 
Two cute Hello Kitties were the most popular costumes. Everybody wanted to take photos with them. “It shows that you have done a good job when you can shock people at a Halloween party. ” said one of the Hello Kitties, Sarah, a Canadian who has been living in Xiamen for about three years. Sarah spent a lot of time making the costumes herself.

The most exciting moment happened when two teams competed to see who would be the winner of the horrible face-making contest. It really was a tough job for the judges. With a strong torch light, the majority of contestants succeeded making their faces ferocious in the dark.

Mr Lin Yongqing, the manager of the Wonderful English Chatting Pub was very satisfied with the party, “Yes, it is very crazy but everyone is happy, which is what we planned to achieve tonight”, he said.

厦门市时代语言培训中心
地址：厦禾路汇成商业中心4楼
电话： 5852605
万德福英语茶座
地址：合佳酒店（文园路）
电话： 8878285