Taking Candy From Strangers.

Halloween is by far one of the most amazing and coolest American holidays. What is there not to like about eating candy, dressing up in costumes, bobbing for apples, and bumping in the night? At first, I was rather sad because I would be missing Halloween, but instead of being sad I decided to bring Halloween to China.

… And boy was that a good idea! Lucy (Kiwi Girl) or Luc (pronounced ‘Luce’) was my partner in crime for the Halloween planning. We have actually started to refer to each other as Luc and Los cause we make a really good team. We can even have conversations in Chinese! Anyway, the first challenge was finding a legitimate pumpkin to carve. Our search started at the supermarket, but they only had some really long, off brown pumpkins, which they called ‘south melons.’ You can image my panic when I couldn’t find jack-o-lantern quality pumpkins for my Halloween party. I was devastated and decided to substitute watermelons for pumpkins – as soon as I made this decision the Halloween goblins were watching over me cause Luc and Los went to another supermarket and found the most amazing ORANGE, REAL pumpkins! Although, they were a little too small, they would satisfy my pumpkin dreams.

The pumpkins were done and the invitations had been sent. After an early morning panic call to Whitney (party-planner extraordinaire from America), I decided that we would also bob for apples, play ‘pin the wart on the witch,” have a costume contest, and dance all night. All the invitations were beautiful and indicated that COSTUMES WERE REQUIRED! I was actually quite surprise by the effort and the awesome costumes the delegates put together. We had pirates, vampires, fairies, pandas, women (yes, at least two boys decided that they would be girls for Halloween – typical!), trolls, skeletons, and many other scary creatures. There was a tiny Halloween shop we found at one of the market with over priced Halloween items. I negotiated with the lady and told her that they face paint she was trying to see me for 30 Yuan (about 5 dollars) was worth about 1 dollar in the USA and that she was ridiculous. After some haggling and more conversation I got the face paint for about 15 Yuan (2 dollars). Yes, I know that five dollars doesn’t seem like much, but you can always get things cheaper in China – you just have to be really good at the art of negotiations (Which I am!).

Originally the party was going to be hosted in my dorm room (Highly illegal), but then Julia (Foreign Affairs Office) got involved and a room at the International Legend Hotel was booked for the party. Luc and Los arrived at the party to find Julia with her daughter and niece running wild and yelling in the microphones. We decorated the room with pumpkins, flags, balloons, and candy (I found some Snickers!). The guest started to arrive and everyone brought food, drinks, candy, and more drinks. The party was off to a great start with the pumpkin carving and the Chinese guest really enjoyed it. After the music started playing everyone forgot about all the other activities that I had planned and ‘cut the rug’ (There has been some debate about what the proper idiom is for this, but I don’t really know). After some Waka Waka, Party in the USA, and Dynamite the party ended and we were off to GAYA (Refer to my previous post for information on Gaya). Got home around 2 am and it was one of the best nights in L.Jo by far!

PS: My costume was a panda! I had bought an awesome Panda hat in Beijing so I just added to the already awesome accessory. I wore a black sweater and then cut a shirt to make it look like a panda belly. I stuffed the shirt and looked extra GIANT, but I still didn’t have black pants. I was going to buy some, but then Theres said she had a pair I could borrow. Yes, Theres is a woman and I borrowed her black Nike sweatpants. Let’s just say that my booty looked extra juicy at the party, but still panda like!

PSS: I had so much candy left that I started to and it out to strangers. I just went down the halls of our dorm building and many people took the candy. Some how in China they were not told to not take candy from strangers. Although, who wouldn’t except candy from me?

Updates on L.Jo.

Nothing too exciting (besides the fact that I am living in China) has happened in my life here in Lanzhou since my last blog post, but I thought I would update you on a few interesting happenings.

1. Singing and Zumba! So, there is going to be an international student festival where we are suppose to perform something. The University has decided that we learn a song to perform – little did they know that everyone in the program has no singing skills at all. Also, as class leader I was instructed to come up with another performance because as Iris (Chinese teacher) said “one song just isn’t enough.” Then, my hips spoke to me and said, “You should teach some Zumba!” So I did, a total of six delegates are learning a zumba routine to Shakira’s waka waka and it’s amazing.

2. Halloween! I’m going to miss Halloween, but I decided to make up for it by throwing a Halloween party here. Costumed required! I can’t wait to see what everyone will wear because I set some rules on costumes already. (1) No dressing up as a person from your country, such as, “I’m a Romanian.” (2) If you don’t wear a costume then I get to paint your face however I want and dress you however I want. (3) Don’t be lame cause I will be so upset.

3. THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE IN OKLAHOMA AND I WASN”T THERE!

4. We are going on a weeklong trip next week to explore the Silk Road and other parts of the Chinese desert (desert, not dessert as much of the other delegates refer to it) area.

5. It is so hilarious to hear everyone speak English. I am constantly correcting people because it’s so funny. Here are a few examples of common mistakes:
-- The pronunciation difference between ‘corpse’ and ‘crops.’ You can image my surprise when Theres informed me that the villagers keep their ‘corpse’ on the roof of their house.
-- The Amazon verses Amazon. There is a restaurant named Amazon that we go to when we are tired of Chinese food cause they have Italian food. Well, many of the delegates refer to it as ‘The Amazon.” “Do you want to go to The Amazon tonight?” “No, I hear that jungle is dangerous these days.”
-- Persons and people. Do persons really use the word ‘persons’ ever? Thanks to Whitney for the clarification on this subject.
-- Have you ever been to the “obstetrician” to get your eyes checked? Last time I checked that was the “optometrist.”

Love you all and miss you so much! Happy Fall!