Ok, so this is a week late, but I thought you might enjoy a brief recap of the Halloween festivities at our school last week.

First off, let me say this:  KJC does Halloween BIG.  The rest of Korea–not so much.  They don’t trick or treat, they don’t buy massive amounts of candy, and the stores aren’t really stocked with costumes.  In fact, as we discovered this year, if you want a Halloween costume in Busan, you pretty much have to go to a costume shop.  It’s kind of nice that way–keeps your grocery shopping free of most holiday clutter.

Our school was covered in Halloween decor:  balloons, streamers, lanterns, origami wreaths, you name it.  A popcorn machine in the corner spouted buckets of candy corn all night long (my personal favorite part of the evening).  There was a costume contest for the students with the prize to end all prizes: Brownie.

For the uneducated, this is Brownie.  She’s the star of a Korean children’s TV show called “Gag Concert”.   For a week leading up to the costume contest, Brownie was displayed in the front office of our school.  Children stared.  They took pictures of her and with her. In their sweet, halting English, they told us of their plans to have the best costume ever so they could win Brownie.  They salivated over this animal.

Now, Ric and I thought that maybe “Gag Concert” was an animated show and that Brownie was a friendly dog who took viewers on gleeful adventures each afternoon after school.  We were wrong.

The TV show Brownie is on is a live action, sketch comedy show for children.  The actors are all adults, all men who dress like women and enact a variety of scenarios that are apparently really funny if you’re ten years old and understand Korean.  Brownie is, without a doubt, the star of “Gag Concert”.  When she appears on stage, the crowd goes wild.  People stand up and scream and shout for this adorable little dog, being led out on a leash.

You’re probably thinking, yeah, so?  Dogs are cute.  Kids love dogs.  Any actor will tell you animals steal scenes.

But here’s the twist.  Brownie is a stuffed animal on the show.  The guys come out, dressed as women, dragging a plush Brownie doll behind him on a leash.  Brownie then participates in a variety of scenarios where the actors pretend she’s a real dog.  Hilarity ensues…or so we’ve been told. It’s all in Korean.  Brownie even has her own music video where she ruminates on the high price of fame.

So, there you have it.  The star of South Korean children’s TV is a stuffed animal, folks.  Not a cartoon. Not a playful puppy.  In this country, a freakin’ stuffed toy can ascend to the lofty heights of children’s show celebrity.

Maybe these kids study too much.

But anyway, back to Halloween.  Since Ric and I are nothing if not a good time, we dressed up, him as Zorro and me as Pocahontas in a costume I made at midnight on Halloween Eve.   The kids played games and scarfed mass quantities of popcorn and sugar.  A good time was had by all.  And, at the end of the night Sevina, one of our very favorite students, took Brownie home to live at her house.  This week, she confided to me that Brownie currently sleeps in her bed.

What a lucky girl.

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