halloween abroad

Friday was our celebration of Halloween here with a party at school immediately followed by trick or tricking up in the row houses. the party was outside in the school yard (75 degrees here) with fun stations where you could pin the nose on the witch and stick your hands in boxes of goo and spiders. your typical Halloween fun. they handed out maps as a guideline to trick or treat by so you would be aware of which houses were participating. we went together with a group of friends and headed up the hills to the row houses. the row houses are built up into the side of a mountain, have 2 levels, their own front door and a small backyard. it is about a 5 minute walk to the school from there and you pass a park, the admiral hotel, the bakery, foreigners club and little grocery store on the way up. it is the only area i have come across that is like a little neighborhood and did i mention, this is where i want to live. we are working on it...

so things on noticed on our trick or treating were as follows: the walk up the hill is moderately steep. doing this twice a day would guarantee a good work out for me. hey, i may even build a butt. come to Korea, build a butt. i could get a shirt that says that. next, its nice to have your own front door. people decorate and get to hand out candy for Halloween. the families live here. lots of bikes out front and scooters too. and last, you can garden here. little flowers in the front or back, feels more like home. i like it here, hope it works out.

anyway back to trick or treating. rick brought beer, which is standard in our neighborhood back home, but i wasn't sure if this would go over in Korea. it was fine so on we went. rick was really set on following the map because he is such an engineer. one of my jobs in life is to take the engineer out of him when possible so i encouraged him to deviate from the map. he was clearly shaken by this, but complied anyway. its like when we grocery shop, rick is the grocery list Nazi because if its not on the list, rick thinks we cant by it. his mind just does not work this way. some of the guys from ricks work dressed up in spooky costumes and scared the kids from up on the side of the mountain. it was cute. the wives handed out candy. some American candy, some Korean. trick or treating did not last as long as home and ended (according to the map) at the foreigners club. when we got to the foreigner's club we decided not to stay. the club is broken in two sections with a bar on one side and a restaurant on the other. there are dart boards and a pool table when you walk in and a small kids play room off to the side. i noticed that when we were coming up the stairs that most families seemed to be coming back down and here is why. you walk into the foreigner's club and Korean candy is spread over the pool table, next to an ashtray and some expat guy, smoking a cigarette who says "just take one kid" . trick or treat. hey he was trying right? the whole place is filled with men, drinking and smoking. not a good place for kids. rick and i would love to hang out kids free, but that is not tonight. so off we go. Ethan proclaims it one of the best Halloween's ever and rick tells him maybe we will come back next year...hey, you never know. if you would have told me last year that this year i would trick or treat with the kids in south Korea on the side of a mountain, well, you know. anyway happy Halloween everyone!!