Halloween in Kazakhstan

There is no Halloween in Kazakhstan or maybe I should say Aktau. One mother told me that on New Years they celebrate and dress up in costumes, but not on Halloween.
I am so glad that I brought stories and songs about pumpkins from the US. None of my kids had ever been to a pumpkin patch and there is NO farm land around Aktau to have a pumpkin patch. Every year I have taken the class to the pumpkin patch and had a big Pumpkin Day, so I was very disappointed. However, I was determined to have Pumpkin Day with or without pumpkins. I was delighted when a dad told me that he would bring in a few pumpkins. When he saw my expression he said, "Don't get too excited. They will be ugly pumpkins." And they were indeed ugly - not an orange pumpkin at all and very hard and bumpy. The other US teachers came in to see and just started laughing and taking pictures of the Russian pumpkins. We had so much fun with our 2 pumpkins. I divided the class into 2 groups and we completed a little book about our pumpkin. We counted the lines, drew pictures, figured out the color (light green/gray), cut strings to measure around the pumpkin, and then I cut the top so we could take all the seeds out. I broke the knife. I could barely cut through the hard shell. I was sweating when I finally got the top off. The kids went wild! I have never seen such a thick pumpkin. No wonder I couldn't get the top off. The seeds were beautiful - big and brown. I had planned to have the kids take turns drawing the face, but there was no way I was going to try and cut out the face. I just had them take turns painting a face on it.
Earlier that morning we had done a pumpkin sequence project with 3 of the older classes helping each one of my kids. (It took 3 classes to have enough students to pair up with my 9 kids.) If any kindergarten or first grade teacher from Stanwood, WA is reading this you will know the project I am talking about. We started out painting 2 paper plates orange. I used the last of the paper plates which are impossible to find here. I wish I had hoarded more at the beginning, because I ran out and some kids had to paint styrofoam plates. Don't ever do that!! The paint chips and curls away and leaves a mess! Can you imagine that paper plates have to be ordered from the US? I am bringing a stack back with me at Christmas and everybody better stay away from my stash!!!!! I'm smiling when I'm saying that, but I am also serious!!
I do have a fall break and decided to save money and hang out here for the week. Everyone was telling me that on Monday a cold front was coming in and it would be 0 degrees. I wouldn't believe it! It couldn't change from our sunny days to 0 degrees just like that. Just today I realized that it was 0 degrees C. which is 32 F, so now I am a believer.
I have spent the last 2 days of my vacation stressing out about money to buy my Christmas ticket home. I have the money sitting in my US bank and am finding it impossible to get at. I had a big meltdown about it and felt so ashamed of myself especially after watching the world news and seeing all the starving people in Ethiopia. And here I am crying because I can't get money out of my account. Two credit cards put my account at risk when they found out that I was in Kazakhstan and closed down all my credit. Not one penny will they give me!!! I have always depended on my debit card and since I haven't used it for 3 months I TOTALLY forgot the pin #. You can't believe how I wracked my brain for 2 days and then finally gave up and had to call home and get another card sent. Anyway, enough of my problems. I ended up buying one section of my ticket and will get the other later.
Happy Halloween to all of you. Celebrate for me. Love, Rachel