Summer isn't even completely here yet in New England, but I am already thinking about the fall as I drive by the cornfields, which are already beginning to shoot up, on my way to work. Around Halloween every year, the Warner Farm in Sunderland, Massachusetts, which is the town that I live in, creates a maze in one of their cornfields. They call the maze "Mike's Maze" and people can try to solve it for a relatively cheap admission fee. It costs $10 USD per person, $9 USD for seniors, and $8 USD for children. Although many parents bring their children to this event, seniors, college students, locals, and even people out-of-state also try to solve the maze. Every child is given a free pumpkin to carve a Jack-O-Lantern out of or to paint its face. They also have a petting zoo there for children to interact with the animals and a pretty killer snack bar where you can get fresh apple cider, pumpkin pie, etc. Maybe I sound like such a hick right now for even mentioning this place, but doing Mike's Maze is really fun and as we say in America, "Don't knock it, until you've tried it."

The designs they create in the maze can be very intricate actually. I have no clue how they create them but it is pretty amazing. There are many photos online of the designs they have carved into the cornfield in previous years. To see some of these designs, you can also check out the Tumblr post that I created to showcase some of them. The Tumblr post is at http://italkilessons.tumblr.com/post/86308685156/mikes-maze-in-sunderland-massachusettts-every For more details on Mike's Maze, you can check out their website at http://mikesmaze.com/

Halloween isn't only celebrated in America, but man, do Americans love this holiday, and what better way of celebrating Halloween is there than solving a corn maze and sipping some apple cider on a joyous Indian summer day in New England?

Vocabulary Used:

shoot up : to grow rapidly out of the earth (in the context of plants and cornfields)

people out-of-state : people who do not live in the same state. So when speaking about the state of Massachusetts, someone who lives in Connecticutt would be consider a person out-of-state.

pretty killer : awesome, cool, really great, etc.

hick : a person who lives in the country and typically is considered to be uneducated because they don't know anything about Starbucks, fashion, and "city problems". This word is very derrogatory.

Don't knock it, until you've tried it. : Don't judge something unless you have tried or experienced it yourself at least once.

Indian summer : A heat wave that occurs in the autumn, especially in New England. As an adjective, it means to be hot in the fall. I believe the word derives from how the Native Americans used to rely on this part of the year to finish their harvests. For more information on Indian summers, see the Wiki article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_summer