It was a dark and wormy night...

I'm afraid I don't have a picture of this to share with you, but this morning as we left for school we were stopped in our tracks by a horde of black worms seeking drier ground – namely, our lobby. Rain all night long had driven them out of the yard and onto the pavement, and some, in desperation, had inched under the front doors and lay, still and dying, on the stone floor. It was Hitchcockian, a perfect start for Halloween. Cole and I shuddered and squealed – there were literally hundreds of worms between us and the car – while Nora kept pointing at them with her sandaled toe, saying, "Look at that!"


Our school doesn't make an event out of Halloween, which is probably best in a country where ghosts and spirits are not taken lightly. (Taiwan has more temples per capita than anywhere else on earth.) Here in staff housing, however, we had a great party Sunday night: dozens of kids roamed the seven floors of our building for treats, and then everyone descended upon our neighbors' house for apple bobbing (it's okay, we're all friends) and green bug juice. It was a graveyard smash.

The costumes were the best part of the evening. We had Neo and Trinity (of The Matrix), a hippie chick, two Mormons, a ladybug and a butterfly, a cleaver-wielding doctor, the Cat in the Hat... and that's just the grown-ups. The kids came as faeries and ballerinas, wizards and nerds, a sleepy-head (that would be Cole) and George of the Jungle (played by baby George, of course). Pictures don't do them justice, but I'll put up a couple.


We have a great mix of people in our community, and there are so many children! Cole made a good friend right away, and Nora has lots of little girls to play with. There's a babysitting co-op so the parents can get out once in a while on their own (that's been a real treat), as well as game nights and fellowship for evenings closer to home. We certainly liked all of our neighbors the first time we lived here, too, but there seems to be more going on this time around. I like it, and am looking forward to getting to know everyone more as the year progresses. Now, if we could just do something about those pesky Mormons....