Halloween and other things this week...

I know that Halloween isn't as big here in Spain as it is in the US, but my school is most definitely an exception. I have never seen a school go all out like mine did today. Not even in the US.

First of all, everyone here dresses up as something scary. Whether you are a child or an adult, you have to be scary. So a majority of the teachers dressed up as the girl from The Exorcist. But there were other costumes such as zombies, demons, witches, and basically anything that included blood all over. On top of everyone dressing up, there were decorations all over, music blaring all day in the halls, and a pretty legit haunted house. I spent three hours this morning scaring little children. And adults. I found a scream mask in my apartment so I just dressed in black and wore the mask all day. Alex and I were at the end of the haunted house, where the students had to put their hands into three boxes that were labeled as "Zombie's Brains", "Vampire's Stomach", and "Monster's Saliva". We had 6th grade students who thought it was "lame" and 2nd grade students who nearly peed their pants. However, it was the definitely more fun scaring the adults. 

When the students entered, they had to knock on the door and say a riddle. A couple days ago, the English coordinator asked us to come up with a riddle in English that the students could say before entering. Alex and I Googled a bunch of riddles and jokes but couldn't come up with anything simple enough for the students to understand and say. So that's when we created our own:

"Trick or Treat

I'm so sweet

I want to see more

Please open the door!"

That's right, we created that in five minutes on our break. Whaddduppp. 

Okay, I know it's not that great, but we were pretty proud of ourselves.

all of the students' pumpkins

in the haunted house

in the teacher's room... about to start the crazy day!

The teachers wanted Alex to be the "scary woman in bed"

Seriously, everything was gory.  

The boxes at the end of the haunted house

The teachers who worked in the haunted house all morning!

And of course a video of me scaring the poor children...

More Halloween stuff - Last night, Alex and Alex came over to carve pumpkins. The only pumpkins we could find were little ones, but it still worked! The night before, when Diego and I were having an intercambio, I was telling him about carving pumpkins and he said he's never carved a pumpkin before! So he joined in on the fun, too. 

Diego's first pumpkin!

Alex having a great time

Our finished pumpkins!

Last weekend was my first real "fun" weekend since I got here. On Friday, Alex came over and we went to the Irish Pub across the street from my apartment. There was a free live band that played cover songs. Then we went to a club around the corner with Diego and his friends. We were true Spaniards that night and didn't go home until 5:30 in the morning. On Saturday (after sleeping very late), I went out to meet Grace, a girl from Illinois that I met on Facebook. She and I went to Tapapies (the same festival I went to with Alex and Alex last week). Some of her friends came and some of their friends came so we had a big group of about 20 Spaniards and Americans going from bar to bar trying tapas. I even met a girl from Omaha, Nebraska! 

Alex and I at the club on Friday night

Grace and I had a lot of fun on Saturday night, so we decided to meet up again on Sunday afternoon to go to El Rastro Market. It's a big flea market that happens every Sunday afternoon near the La Latina neighborhood. I went to meet her at 2:00pm and couldn't find her and I couldn't call her because I'm out of phone credit, so I waited for a half hour, then came back to my apartment. When I walked in the door, she started calling me and asked where I was. I had completely forgotten that Spain went through Daylight Saving Time the night before. Whoops. So I went back to La Latina and she and I walked around for a little bit. She bought a scarf and I bought some slippers, then we went to an overly crowded tapas bar to get some lunch.

Grace and I after El Rastro and tapas... with our coke cans that have cool names.

It has been a successful week! I even got my "empadronamiento" today, which means I am one step closer to becoming a resident in Spain! You wouldn't believe the process I have to go through to get a green card here! Oh! And other good news! I got my first paycheck yesterday!!!! Yeahhhh! After spending the entire summer all over Europe with Pia, this paycheck is definitely needed. 

Happy Halloween!