Halloween!

Halloween is not celebrated here, but at our school it is an excuse to dress up, put some creativity into making a costume and going out and dancing and having a good time. At 9 am I stopped by a market to see if there where pumpkins, only squash. At 4 pm I met up with Sara, another American first year and we went shopping for costume parts, scarf, pantyhose, sparkly traditional shoes that remind me of a fairy. 5pm building fairy wings –hangers + pantyhose + pink paint. 7pm getting dressed and also outfitting others, swapping wardrobes since each of us has only part of our own with us. After some makeup, hairspray, tons of safety pins, some running and costume swapping later, pus in boots, witches, ninjas, fairies, Shrek, evil clowns, shot up hooligans, and mad scientists left the residence. We walked 20 minutes to the party receiving many odd looks from the people on the streets. The party was held in a basement of a restaurant and was decorated with candles and little orange pumpkin shaped lights. We danced and danced sometimes in character, sometimes not. It was really cool the see the amount of effort and creativity put into each costume, especially with limited resources and local language skills, we were all able to come up with something to celebrate a holiday not celebrated in this country.

In contrast All Saints Day is very much celebrated here; you can see a shine to all the tombstones in the cemeteries. Candles and flowers are being sold all over on the streets and then are bought and place on the graves of loved ones.