Can you handle more pumpkin?

When I brought my internet-ordered pumpkin to my little school (Maezawa) last Wednesday everyone went crazy over it. I had carved a simple face on it (see previous posts), but I guess when you've never seen a Jack-o-lantern before it's a pretty cool thing. Much more effective than showing a picture or flashcard.

Well, my principal was also interested. And when he found out I got it from the internet and had paid around $20CDN for it, he looked at me and said, "You know that Nyuzen is becoming famous for pumpkins, right?"

I did know that, but when there's a language barrier (and a cultural one), it's not so easy to go knocking on people's doors asking for pumpkins. Besides, the pumpkins grown here are NOT the same as the pumpkins we use at home for Jack-o-lanterns. Their skin is much paler and the rind (rind?) is much thicker. They kind of remind me of the little gourds or 'fancy' pumpkins you can see at home, just on a bigger scale. They don't have that vibrant orange color, nor do they seem all that pumkin-like to me.

Back to the principal...he told me he knew a guy who knew a guy - and before I knew it, he was one the phone with 'the guy'. Half way through the conversation, he cups his hand over the receiver, and in perfect English leans towards me and asks, "How many?" I paused, made a quick calculation: 3 schools = 3 pumpkins. "Three," I answered, hesitantly, not really knowing what the right answer was.

He took his hand away from the receiver and told the guy, "Five."

Within the hour, a little white truck rolled up to Maezawa Elementary School and 2 guys jumped out and unloaded 5 pumpkins. They told us, somewhat apologetically, that these were the smallest they had:
















So now I had two extra pumpkins...and I couldn't even lift the first 3 myself!! This is where my two favoritest neighbors came into play!! It helped that they both work at elementary and jr. high schools too, so I knew they were also teaching halloween lessons. Whew. I would have looked pretty ungrateful had I not been able to take all 5 of them. I'm not sure what Johnny did with his, but I know Sista K managed to carve one up for her school festival last weekend.

Yay for pumkins!!

p.s. I lit the little guy and put him on my balcony all night. When I got up this morning he was still burning bright!