The temps are cooling, the leaves are yellowing, the witches are cackling—it’s fall, y’all. We hope that like us, you’re pulling out those thick socks for your chunky Docs, ready to slay Halloween as one of the *many* cultural references 2024 has blest upon us, and cozying up with a hot bev and your even hotter friends.
Leaning fully into spooky season, we prepared research papers about things that scare us for October’s gifted + talented.
🚨TW for this episode—things do get a little bit scary this month, so before you press play, please be advised. Open up those college-ruled composition books, take out your gel pens and take notes at your own risk!!! 🚨
Now without further ado, let’s dive in.
This month, Natalie was brave and confronted her biggest fear head on: BUGS.
Too scared to research bugs by herself (fair), Natalie takes us through the scariest infestations of her past, from p*lmetto bugs—the flying roaches (read: horrors) of the South—to a particularly harrowing experience with silverfish when she lived in South Korea—we will not be linking because again, we are too scared to actually look them up on Google.com. Through our discussion and 1 (one) NYT article, we discover the reason why we fear things that we deem disgusting (bugs, spoiled milk, random goop on the Subway).
Watch to learn more and see a bit of a role play between the g+t gals to help Nat get over her (completely rational) fears!
Meanwhile, Mariah called back to a few Easter eggs she’s been dropping throughout our past gifted+talented episodes and focused her research paper on three of the most horrifying stories of our childhood: The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Cold Feet, and The Girl in the Green Ribbon.
She unpacks each fable, some of which historians believe are based on real events (heavens…), and shares the lore behind the horror, answering the question: are these tales really appropriate for children?
For October’s field trip, we headed to the Queens Night Market in Corona Hills, Queens, to catch one of its last weekends of the season. Toddling through Flushing Meadow Corona Park and arriving at the market’s multicultural parking lot, we enjoyed a few ~life-changing~ culinary delights from places like Peru, the Philippines, and Portugal.
Watch to discover our absolute favorite bite of the day (tbh year?). We literally can’t stop thinking about her; Nat has already tracked down the brick and mortar, tucked away in a mall food court.
This month, Natalie spoke about the universal pain of wanting to do so many things all the time but simultaneously getting too overwhelmed by the thought of actually doing them (relatable!) For her homework, she decided to DoSomething.org about it and sign up for piano lessons 🎹 !
Perhaps we’ll see Noot tinkling on the keys for a future gifted+talented live show????
For her homework, Mariah decided to finally try ~solo crafting~ as a way to do something that 1) is with her hands, 2) is not work-related and 3) creatively fill her cup!
Following a rec by her lovely pal, Marissa, she decided to take a cake decorating class with the organization ReCreate Collective, taught by the absolute *iconic* baker, Morgan Claire of saintstreetcakes.
That’s all this week, and what a fun one it was! Thank you for getting sp00ky with us—we appreciate you so much for watching. 👻
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