Halloween in Mexico...my first ever! +giveaways

Not my first Halloween in Mexico, my FIRST EVER halloween! Typically, we don't celebrate it in Australia, although some folk are trying to bring in it. It definitely wasn't done when I was a kid anyhow!

So... honestly, I wasn't looking forward to doing it here. I just wasn't. I predicted sugar-crazed children and you know what? That is exactly what I got! Typically Halloween isn't celebrated in Mexico either, but my English school wanted to share a bit of English-speaking culture this year. So I tried my best to bring it!

Today though, I was totally and utterly knackered, with a killer headache. Is that normal for the day after Halloween? Thank goodness we had a teachers-only marking day today (for the Monday and Tuesday exams), and tomorrow is Dia de Muertos, so I have two days (and a weekend) to recover from three very full on days.

Are you ready for photos?

I have six different groups of students, and they all helped with the spiderwebs and creation of bats, spiders and skulls in my classroom. Most groups are teenagers, so they were more than happy to climb onto the tables to help extend the spiderwebs into high places!

Unfortunately the lighting doesn't really do the webs justice. Anyway, they were all over, and there were bats and spiders dangling from threads.

Because I wasn't really convinced about the whole Halloween business, I decided that I would find the cheapest and easiest costume. Toilet paper mummy! I had the paper in my bag all ready to go, but then I started making zombie brains (super simple by the way: cornflour, cooked spaghetti, green food colouring and styrofoam 'eye balls')...

And had a much better idea! Inspired by The Walking Dead, I present you with... Zombie Teacher!

We had a mountain of candy in my room donated by my wonderful advanced students...

But what are those apples for?

Well, one of my students brought in a chocolate fountain, which we filled with chamoy instead. Chamoy is a very red sauce that is part chilli, part sour, and a tiny part sweet. Lots of Mexican candy has the same kind of flavour combination (which is very odd for my Australian tastebuds!) Anyway, apples cut into slices taste very yummy dipped in chamoy.

My blood stains? Also chamoy. My costume was totally edible!

OK, so I admit that I did enjoy myself just a tiny little bit. But mostly it was super hard work! In addition to my room with zombie brains, where the kids had to dig in and fish out the eye balls if they wanted candy, I had a scary movie set up with the data projector in another room for the big kids (English, plus English subtitles, can't miss a learning opportunity!) I do not know what they did in there, but at the end of the party it was the messiest room in the entire complex! They had popcorn and chips, but nothing much else for ammunition. How mysterious.

Oh, I should also mention that here in Mexico, you put Valentina sauce on popcorn (it's a really common chilli sauce). Is that weird or WHAT?? I ragged on the idea for about a year until I tried it for myself, and you know what? It's not so bad! I actually prefer it that way now :s

So as you can see, I have been crazy busy with exams and halloween this week, (so no blogging) but I  still wanted to share with you some giveaways I've come across:

Danielle at Classroom Cupcakes has a brand spanking new blog and is having a giveaway to celebrate. There's a $25 Lakeshore Gift Card available!

It ends tomorrow.

Nichole at The Craft of Teaching is having a 100 Follower Giveaway. There are some great teaching products, plus, if you are the winner you get to choose which $25 Gift Card you would like to have! 

I would choose TpT card, because I have a Wishlist a mile long :p

It ends on Friday too.

You've probably heard about Sara's Giveaway already; it's been popping up all over my Blogger newsfeed! If not, make sure you head over to Miss V's Busy Bees to enter the five Rafflecopters in celebration of her 500 followers.

There's still another week before this one closes.


Tomorrow is Dia de Muertos and I've asked the Mister to take me to the graveyard. No cameras though, as it is disrespectful. No matter, I'll give you the rundown tomorrow in words!

Hasta manana!