Wow. Cancelled last year at the last minute, this November 1st, 2007, Saramen Chuuk Academy once again hosted its famed “Hallowe’en Night.” The fame is well deserved.
Saramen Chuuk Academy, if you have yet to see any pictures (check out the link to the right), is a three story, “L” shaped building that has hallways which are open like balconies to an inner courtyard. The students took the desks out of one of the freshman classes (1st floor), the two sophomore classes and one junior classroom (3rd floor), and one senior classroom (3rd floor). These they transformed into a restaurant, a scary movie theatre, a game room (think “carnival”), a haunted house and a dance room, respectively. They also created a snack bar out of the conference room.
At around 6:00 pm people started showing up. Many, many people. Thank God there was power, although we did have an intricate system of wires and lights connected to the church’s generator, just in case. You paid 50¢ at the stairwell for entrance to the 2nd and 3rd floors. You then could buy tickets, for 25¢ each. These got you into the different booths. Three for the haunted house, one for each game you played in the game room (complete with prizes), etc. It was run on an extremely low budget, but people were more than willing to pay – and they pay again!
And there were so many people! It reminded me of dances in high school. No uniforms, so everyone was either in crazy costumes or dressed up to look good. Everyone was young, except a few parents (who spent most of their time trying to win prizes in the game room or eating at the restaurant). And everyone was having a good time.
The restaurant was an all you can eat buffet, with breaded chicken, taro, drinks, sashimi (delicious raw fish), and, of course, spam, among other things. The senior girls were in charge of that one, so it was well decorated and had classy tables and chairs (where they got so many identical sets is beyond me).
The movie theatre had two movies going on at once, so you had your choice. They just put some TVs up high and you made yourself comfortable. The game room had dart throwing, ping-pong ball tossing, card games, and a number of other activities. You had a chance of winning a prize with every game you plated. There were always a myriad of people in and out of that room.
The haunted house is the prized room, and went to the senior boys. Marcos, Jessie and I waited in line together, getting nervous together (there were loud screams coming out of there!) for a while before finally getting our chance. They set it up so that we had to crawl our way around the room in darkness, while they slammed onto the walls on either side and above us and used amplifiers and their voices to generally freak us out. Unlike what you see in North America, once we finished, they turned on the lights and smiled and asked how we liked it. We talked, laughed, then went out so the next set could go in. Nothing compared to a Jonathan production, but worth the 75¢.
After eating a delicious meal at the restaurant we trekked up to the dance room, paid our three tickets, walked into the room and BAM – we were hit with the wall of hot air that was being produced by this oven of a room. In a split second we were sweating, before we had even started dancing. There were so many people, and everyone dancing! Someone had a keyboard, and a couple guys were singing, and everyone was grooving. Near the end, they busted out some solid hip hop, a circle formed, and people streamed in and out pop-and-locking and break dancing. Unfortunately, our star student dancer, Franky, didn’t make it in before the music stopped. We wanted to see him dance, so after we kicked everyone out at the end we closed the door so we could do some “cleaning” – and then proceeded to seriously rock out with the loud music and the now spacious and cool room. Sick dancing. Not a bad way to end a night.
And so, by about 9:15 everyone was clearing out. People streaming out to cars (I’ve never seen so many!), lounging around with friends, pushing the envelope for how late they could stay, smiling, laughing, and saying goodnight to their friends and classmates. Rooms got locked up, lights turned off, and SCA was slowly put to sleep. We had heard that it was a good night, but this “Hallowe’en Night” exceeded all expectations. What can be said, but simply “wow?” Maybe the equally informative exclamation of “awesome.”
Congratulations to the students of Saramen Chuuk Academy on an amazing night.
1 comment:
Good post.
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