ACTIVITY OVERVIEW

“Knock Knock!”

Laughter and inconsistent cheers and applause replaced the usual silence and filled the lobby with joy. This is a night when students show their creativity by organizing a range of events during the gala for the participants, fusing them into this upcoming memorable Halloween.

SPLENDID ACTIVITIES

Summary

From the Babel Tower Club’s “Art Gallery” to case investigations, from The Big Eater Challenge competition to scavenger hunts, eye-catching and diverse activities undoubtedly elevates the entire eccentric and lively atmosphere of the scene. The two most popular activities are “Werewolves of Miller's Hollow” as well as the case reasoning. As student’s joy linger in the dense shades of the night, the zeal and the enthusiasm illuminated every corner of HFI.

The horror of Halloween mystery remains

“Bizarre fire, eight years ago the mystery, behind this case in the end hidden how confusing the truth…”

This activity mainly focuses on students’ reasoning abilities. The “police” in the game will explain the basics of the case to

the players, and the rest is up to the player's strong reasoning skills.

Scavenger Hunt

“Everything you see can be a clue…”

In this game, players are required to complete 5 missions in 15 minutes. Firstly, the participants have to draw a hint at the booth and collect feathers while looking for the targeted location based on the known information. The participants need to return to the booth each time after successfully collecting a feather until the collection is complete with 5 feathers in hand. The players are allowed to ask assistant students for clues and the ultimate participant who finish the task in the given time can get a prize. Players can experience immense pressure and exhilaration since time flows consistently while they have to maintain a clear logic on how to find the next clue. This imposes both intellectual as well as physical challenges to the participants while bringing joyfulness through the thrill of the game.

Candies And Blessing

“Halloween is not only about trick-or-treat, but also about romance and warmth.”

The Candies and Blessing event was inspired by traditional Christian church practices. This activity encourages the communication and harmony between people through sending sincere blessings to others while receiving tasty sweets.

INTERVIEW

In order to have a better understanding of this year's Halloween activity, as well as teachers and students' feelings about it and their expectations for future activities, we interviewed several activity organizers and participants.

Event planner

1）Moore Lan- the student council's director of activities

Firstly, we ask about the innovations of this year’s event compared to that of the previous years. Moore says that in order to update their program, they dropped the haunted house event to allow more opportunities for new people to organize creative activities. Among those splendid activities, the ones he most recommends are the “case reasoning” and “Werewolf”.

We are also curious about the value of this event. Moore says that HFI Halloween is mainly an opportunity for students to take a short break from their intense study and prepare for overseas life in the future.

Lastly, we inquire about the difficulties encountered in the preparation of the event and how they are solved. “The lack of personnel is a serious problem,” he mentions. Moore tried to find some volunteers from CLAP, another organization responsible for preparing events. However, CLAP probably met the same difficulty. In the end, they recruited volunteers with time on their hands online through student groups and pull through the difficulty.

2）Zhiyuan Zhang- the Minister of the Advertising Department of the Student Council

Zhiyuan Zhang gave detailed explanation on the difficulties he had encountered during the process such

as the damaging of the goods during transportation, numerous classrooms that awaited to be cleared in a limited time and the significant deficiency in the working facilities. In addition, he conveyed that he felt content of tacit cooperation between organizers as well as the high productivity in the process of cleaning up.

Teachers

For teachers, Toby, the teacher of Pre-AP English, says that he really enjoys this activity. The teachers are really involved, almost every teacher is dressed up, and the students enjoy this atmosphere as well.

Yoee, the teacher of English Communication and Composition, remarked that the biggest difference in this year’s activity compared to the previous ones are the changes in the teachers’ costumes since they are more colorful with plentiful high-quality photographs produced. She proceeded to the whole review of the Halloween gala by praising the variety and well-functioning of different activities, stating that huge progress has been witnessed compared to the past.

Students

We randomly pick some students to share their experiences and suggestions.

One student says that they attended a lot of activities on the Halloween night. Not only participate in the activities organized by other students, but also contribute to the activities they are responsible for. It’s a unique and unforgettable experience for Chinese students like her. When we talked about the gains of this activity, they pointed out that as one of the organizers of this activity, they had accumulated a lot of experience in the process of planning, implementation, and operation. Meanwhile, as a student who participates in this event, they get familiar with more people, and she thinks it is a good social platform for every student.

Another student mentions her favorite activity is from Babel since participants are able to try out different events such as making mobile phone cases and dried plants specimens. She expresses her immersive experience when making phone cases through adding a diversity of elements on the samples while appreciating the outcome. She also talks about her amazement of the multiformity of HFI’s students when watching clubs’ performances in the hall and refers to her gratitude for holding this Halloween activity as a fantastic opportunity to relieve her stress and give her sufficient time to replenish herself.

The autumn breeze murmured about the delight of the Halloween’s activity. The ongoing chattering of students adorn this pleasant night as excitement and the eagerness to embrace next year’s Halloween activity were expressed incessantly. Let’s wish the expectation towards next year’s events can be weaved into our sound dreams.

Writers: Morgan Lin, Florence Yin

Editors: Mary Zhou, Annie Liu

Photos by: Amy Xu, Eric Mo, Edward Lin, Jesia Yu, Sean Ye, Tracy Chen