Surprising Pumpkins

I had decided a couple of weeks ago to do a pumpkin carving activity with my English classes in order to teach them some fun new vocabulary and learn a bit more of tradition and culture of the US. So I went in search of Zapallo, a big greenish looking pumpkin, and in process I stumbled upon white pumpkins! I was overjoyed and bought three - one for each class. I prepared a teaching lesson on carving the pumpkins and taught the first class last night.
Now, I really should have learned by now that even though some things appear to be the same here as they are at home, they usually turn out to be completely different. I should have expected the same with my white pumpkins. After teaching my basic lesson, my students and I got to it - and after a struggle to get the top off, I was amazed to find that these pumpkins were not hollow inside. No indeed, they were full to the top with pulp and pumpkin meat (which is also why they were so dang heavy!). I immediately began to worry because my classes are only an hour long, and I didn't know if we would have time to scoop out all of the insides and carve the face. But with determination, my 11 year old student Joe made a nice hollow column inside the pumpkin, and we got to work drawing and carving the face. In the end, the lesson was fun, a little messy, and a unique experience for my students.
I also decided that in order to save time, I would go ahead and cut the tops of the other two pumpkins and take out the insides at home, leaving just the carving to be done in class. This will help with the time and mess problem. Still overall I am happy with how my first class went, and am hoping for even better results tonight and tomorrow!