Helloween🎃 [79th day]
Hi. It's Illinois Panda.
Have you been excited about Halloween? In America, Halloween is a big annual event. It's not more significant than Christmas or Thanksgiving but as popular as them. Halloween day this year was Sunday, and the last weekend was called Halloweekend and very hyped. I went to a Halloween event in English Corner last Thursday and visited a haunted house with friends from English Corner last Saturday. I'm gonna share these events with you in this blog.
Last Thursday, as a usual weekly meeting, a Halloween event took place in English Corner. We had conversations about Halloween and heard Halloweens in countries from people from different countries, and played some Halloween games. I learned every country has Halloween in its style. Still, in most countries, especially Asian countries, Halloween was not so popular as in America, and Japan is a country where Halloween is respectively popular. Some said that the Japanese seem to like wearing costumes of manga, anime, and game characters, and it's uncommon in their countries. After sharing Halloween situations with each other, we played some Halloween games that are popular in America. The most interesting one is The Mummy Wrap Game. This game looks crazy. The rules are simple. First, a person of a team stands up. Second, the rest of the team wrap up the standing person with toilet paper and make the person a mummy with limited time. Last, compare mummies in every team, and the best mummy determined by vote wins the game. I think it's easier to understand if you look at the pictures.
This is The Mummy Wrap Game. Doesn't it look funny? That was definitely funny. You should give it a try if you have a chance.
Last Saturday, I went to a haunted house near the campus. Frankly speaking, I don't like something scary, and in particular, I hate haunted houses because they surprise and horrify me with malice. However, I thought trying any experiences at least once is important to me, so that I tried to go there, covering the fear into my deep mind. It was packed, and I've waited in line to enter for almost two hours. I entered the haunted house in a group of eight. We walked through the house for about 10 minutes. The time spent there was terrible! Too scary!!! There were many gross objects in the dark, horrifying us with sound and light. Besides, many scary "real" people such as crowns, zombies, and Jason moved crazy, screamed out like killing us in our faces. It was too horrible. I regretted I underestimated the haunted house and went there. I felt the importance of my life seriously as existing the house. It was a good experience, BUT I swear to all of you that I will NEVER go to any type of haunted house for good.
お化け屋敷に一緒に入ったアメリカ人の人が、とても怖がりで列で待っている間もずっと震えていました。彼女に冗談で「もし倒れたらすぐに救急車呼ぶよ」って言ったら、「私が死んでも救急車呼ばないで」って冗談で返されました。どういうこと？と思って、よくよく聞いてみると、アメリカでは民間の保険に入ってないと、救急車を呼ぶのにも高額な費用がかかるらしく、救急車に高額な費用を払うくらいなら死んだほうがマシだというジョークだったみたいです。なるほどアメリカならではのジョークだなあと思いました笑 アメリカにいると医療格差の問題をよく耳にします。アメリカには国民皆保険がなく（オバマケアも頓挫しましたし）、貧困層は十分な医療を受ける事ができないという問題がかなり深刻みたいです。アメリカは、世界一お金を持っている国でありながら、世界一格差の大きな国です。（あくまで僕の感覚ですが）アメリカは一人当たりGDPが世界一でも、中間層の生活レベルが高いとは決して思いません。むしろ日本（東京）の方が、中間層レベルで生活インフラ・医療・食べ物・家電や生活用品の質がずっと高いと感じます。国家としてどの状態が良いかというのは一概には決められませんが、国家全体がいくら巨万の富を得ても、国民間に機会の不平等がある限り、その国で安定した自由の社会が実現することはないだろうなと、、、自由と平等を標榜しながら実現には程遠い彼の国で感じます。ではまた。Have a nice day!
