I spent my Halloween at school for a fair chunk of the day unfortunately, but I did manage to celebrate even though this is not exactly a holiday here.
I had promised the kids I tutor that I we would celebrate and I would allow them to dress up. So when they asked, I told them I would dress up with them and wanted something easy and cheap. After classes were over, I changed into black pants, a black shirt, and black flats. Then I used a ponytail holder to tie off a piece of my shirt, used lip gloss to "paint" my nose pink, used loads of eyeliner to outline my eyes, put on mascara, drew eyeliner dots on my cheeks, and added whiskers. For the finishing touch, a headband with ears. And voila...a black cat costume. Easy, $0, supposedly cute (according to my friends here).
Yeah...as I got on the metro to go to the kids' house (side note...they had both the 31st and the 1st off...talk about lucky!), I felt super duper silly...NO ONE else was dressed up! I had seen a few kids in costumes on the streets, but not on the metro...and since I am older, it could only be assumed that I was dressed up really early to go out later that night (which was not the case), so EVERYONE looked at me...so awkward!!! Then I walked past a group of 60-somethings (men) who called me guapa (cute) and thought the costume was great and were almost flirting with me...even more awkward but quite amusing!
That day, I was to spend my time with all 3 kids that day (L, G, and little sister J - C [L's friend who I also tutor] could not come). When I got to the house, I found L and J already dressed up (L as a devil and J as...well I'm not sure what she was...the Spanish dictionary says chick but I don't think that's correct...). G had chosen not to dress up.
So I came in and pulled out the American candy I had brought - m&m's, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Skittles, Nerds, a pixy stick, and candy corn. Both the kids and their mother were delighted to taste the new candy and liked most of it...but J just kept eating. Poor thing...bet she had one major stomach ache afterward because I have never seen a 3-year-old eat that much candy so fast! In 1/2 hour she had had several skittles, several m&m's, an inch of a pixy stick, a bite of a Reese's cup, a little candy corn and half a pack of nerds! And she wouldn't let you take it away from her.
Anyhow...after we had all eaten our fill of the candy, Mom had me explain what American children do and say on Halloween and the traditions and such. Then she and Dad left to go grocery shopping and I took the kids trick-or-treating up and down the building. Interesting experience...since almost no one whose door we knocked on knew at first what we wanted, since they do not traditionally celebrate Halloween here, since most people were not home, since J had on shoes with no traction and so I had to hold her hand the whole time so she would not slip and we went very slowly while the other 2 raced up and down the floors, and since they kids wanted to bring candy they had to share with anyone who gave them candy.
We ended up catching about 3 people home, all of whom invited us in for a minute, which I was comfortable with since we were in their building so these were their neighbors and they knew many of them. These people all gave them some candy but would not take any of theirs in return. This whole 6-floor endeavor lasted maybe 1/2 hour. Then we trekked back upstairs.
There we found the cuidadora already at the house to watch the kids after I'd leave. But since we still had some time left, I pulled out more Halloween coloring sheet and we colored and painted them. But L was not in the mood to do this and she and G argued about colors a bit and J kept getting bored of one picture in the middle of it and wanting to be done and get another...oh brother. The first half of the session was much more fun. But afterward I went home happy to have had a chance to celebrate at all.
Happy Halloween to you all! Hope everyone was happy, safe, and rolling in the candy :)
Peace and Blessings,
Melanie
Spanish Word of the Day: chuches = sweets, caramelos = candies, disfraces = costumes, fantasmas = ghosts :)
3 comments:
I guess it's really hard to feel the real spirit of the holiday (greed!) when you're one of the few celebrating. And dining on candy sometimes makes kids cranky. Oh well. I'm sure they enjoyed it.
Hola Melanie. I've been reading your blog via email so have not commented--until today's. First, remember that Hava Nagila is a transliteration from another alphabet (Hebrew), so the spelling is never exact. But you got the gist of the song; it's a general celebratory song, that is common at weddings and Bnei Mitzvot, among other events. An question: did the kids have the off days because of the Catholic holiday that Halloween? And about the older guys flirting: Asi es la vida!
Mom - I sure hope they did!
Uncle Rich - Thanks! I was so surprised to hear Have Nagila randomly played on the street...that's not a common one! And actually the Catholic Holidays are November 1 and 2 so they were just off for Halloween and then off the 1st of Nov. for the Catholic Holiday. And yes it is! How amusing...but the only guys that have flirted with me so far or danced with me when I went out were at least 40 (minus the creeper who was probably like 28 and wanted to date me 2 mins after meeting me).
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