A scary witch and a pumpkin...

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Hello loved ones! Hope you all enjoyed Halloween. For days we've been preparing ourselves to celebrate a non-holiday in Spain, but much to our surprise Halloween is definitely catching on in Andalusia.

As part of my job is to impart cultural tidbits from the US, Jason (the other American at my school) and I decided to don some traditional Halloween costumes and show the students how it's done. We tried to stick with ordinary ideas, a witch and a knight, because although young people here know of Halloween, they couldn't seem to understand that costumes don't have to be scary or of famous people. Everyone loved it. We got out of teaching our classes so we could walk from one classroom to the next explaining the history of Halloween and trick-or-treating. The school photographer followed us around like we were celebrities and all the teachers wanted to pose with us. You know that feeling you had as a teenager that everyone was always watching you and laughing? Well, yesterday they actually were. We would walk down the hallway as kids doubled over in laughter and yelled out comments about our costumes. It was great!

Then in the evening Sage's rugby team took manditory showers after practice and we all headed into the center of town in costume. Most of the women wore typical ghost, devil, vampire stuff, but two of the team clowns decided to be broomsticks (as in, witches brooms). They were the center of attention, in part because their gigantic foam costumes took up half the bar we went to and also because no one understood what they were. Literally every 30 seconds someone would pass them and ask, "What are you?" and then laugh hysterically when they said, "a witch's broom." Most people thought they were potatoes or shwarma. 😊

I was shocked at how many people were out celebrating Halloween. There was no one over the age of 30 (since the holiday has so recently caught on), but the center was packed with thousands of young people in full costume. Granted, at least 80% were devils, witches or vampires, but I saw a race car, a Johnny Depp pirate look-a-like and a pile of Post-Its. The funniest thing to me is that rather than trying to have to the most creative costume, groups of 5 or 10 friends would all wear exactly the same thing. So weird...

We had a blast, but the best part of all is that today is actually a Spanish national holiday, All Saints Day, so we don't have to work! Our big goal for the day is to try all the delicious pastries we've been hearing about. Sage is excited about trying huesos de santos, bone-shaped marzipan treats (gag!), but I have my heart set on a fried ball of dough coated in caramel. Yum... Oh, and since its about 80 degrees, I think we're going to ride our bikes to the beach to eat our treats. Jealous??

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