These are the mascots for the 2008 Beijing olympic games. I'm not really sure that the olympics always have mascots, but they do for 2008.

The five "Friendlies" or "FuWas" are the Fish (BeiBei), the Panda (JingJing), the olympic flame (HuanHuan), the Antelope (YingYing) and the Swallow (NiNi). These were all chosen based on China's geography to include something from each region of the country. The names combined, Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni, say "Beijing welcomes you." So, 2 or 3 years ago China released these chosen mascots to the public and ever since they have become a mass marketing campaign in promotion of the olympics. You can't go anywhere in Beijing without there being some tribute to the olympics with the Fuwas.

So, in light of all of that.....

Since there are five of us here this year, we decided to be the five fuwas for halloween.

Joel created our head-dresses....


and we even went to the canteen for lunch dressed like this and made quite the scene and received endless comments since we were the only people dressed up during the day....


this was one of the best halloween outfits i've ever been a part of...    thank you beijing olympic games for your help!