This is Halloween

This is Halloween, this is Halloween.

A blog post about Halloween must include a lyric from the Nightmare Before Christmas, it would be criminal if it didn’t.

All my life Halloween has been the biggest holiday of the year. Not only would I every year get to dress up and receive enough candy to last me until the next Halloween but it was also my best friend’s birthday. Long story short I have always started celebrating Halloween on the first of October.

All my life, every year I have looked forward to walking around and seeing all the houses decorated, the cobwebs hung in the stores, and the carved pumpkins on everyone’s doorstep.

They don’t really seem to do that in England.

I’ve seen a few decorations yes, but not to the calibre that I am used to, that I have anticipated for the majority of my life.

I think Halloween has been the closest I have gotten to homesick since being here. I would probably file it under my one big complaint about the culture of England. And I do specify culture because the weather here is terrible.

I woke up in a good mood Wednesday morning, despite the fact that my stressors earlier in the week had gone pretty badly they were over, it was officially out of my hands and I did my part well, everyone else in my group better learn quickly how to swim.

Despite my cheery disposition and my extreme excitement due to the holiday my flatmates weren’t feeling the same amount of joy. I think that they all felt the same way I did, they had too much work and the level of excitement that they were used to just wasn’t there. I think that also looking at the photos posted on Facebook of the Halloween fun that has been occurring at High Point University put a downer on their spirit as well because people in England just don’t celebrate Halloween.

I decided the day before when I was frantically trying to force my group members to get me their work and then having to do what they didn’t two hours before we were due to present I told myself that I would not do any work on Wednesday. Wednesday would be completely devoted to Halloween fun and shopping, oh and also Dr. Forsyth’s class.

I slept in till about eleven. Not fully awake I made myself iced coffee and then began to watch the Fifth Element. I didn’t end up getting out of bed and dressed till two. I have no regrets.

At three I finally got myself out the door and hopped on the bus to the city centre to spend entirely too much money.

My first stop was Primark, my goal; find a red sheet so I can make a cap for my little Red Riding Hood. The challenge? Make it in and out without spending all mu money on clothes. I sort of accomplished my mission. Aside from the sheet I managed to only get a bag, shoes and nude tights. I swear to you they were all necessities.

Not being able to resist and justifying my purchasing on the fact that it is getting a lot colder and what do you need when it gets cold? Sweaters. I went into Apricot and bought a black dress and a big warm sweater with this really interesting geometric design. Oh, also, they were both 75% off, you can’t say no to that type of deal.

Cutting it close to being able to arrive back in time for Dr. Forsyth’s class I began to head towards the bus stop. I hate the rain. The bus was late and every minute that it didn’t show up past due it seemed to begin to rain just a little bit more until my hair was wet. My wet hair combined with the fact that I was wearing my glasses I must have just looked so attractive.

I could barely sit still in Dr. Forsyth’s class; I wanted to get back and begin to work on my costume. It wasn’t going to be hard, just a few cuts in the right place and scrunching the fabric right to make a hood and I would be done. But people were due to come over at eight so that would only give me an hour to do my hair, makeup, pick out what I was going to wear and make my costume. I needed to start as soon as possible.

With Halloween music playing in the background I used Justin as my manikin to help my figure out where and what to cut on the red fabric for my cape. He made a very pretty Little Red Riding Hood.

I was done, and for about a half hour of work with just a pair of scissors and a sheet I made I really nice looking cape, working hood and everything. I’m really proud of that cape actually. My sewing teacher would probably have a heart attack if she saw it but from what I had to work with it turned out really well.

When everyone began to arrive, I finally started to feel like it was Halloween, everyone was dressed up, there were oopaloompas and Willy Wonka, Clint Eastwood, John was some sort of Harry Potter meet the Karate Kid, and of course zombies and witches and even another Little Red Riding Hood. Seeing everyone in their costumes, having gone all out and really gotten into the holiday spirit and whimsy lifted my spirits ending what I thought would be the worst Halloween ever on a really fantastic note.