my first halloween

So, my new American acquaintances. Other than being (somewhat) pleasantly surprised when I tell them about how hot and humid Malaysia is all year round (responses mainly summarized into one word/syllable: eww... >.<) they've also been interested to know that there's no Halloween back in my (sweaty) homeland.

I know it's unbelievably prudish/conservative/narrow-minded/rigid/no-fun of me to be wary of the concept of Halloween, all ghoulish and non-Christian (yeah yeah, Grace, yeah) but yeahhhh to some extent, fine, it's how you look at it I guess.... I was so against dressing up as anything scary, lol I absolutely refused to put on any garment/decorative item that was a least bit satanic.... (roll your eyes at me, go on, I don't mind)

Went for a MaSa halloween party in one of the upperclassman's apartments on JPA. I should be more creative, but I was tired so I just put on a random dress (uncreative I know, go on, chastise me) and walked to the place (freezing omg) and....

...totally squealed at the above when I found him at the bus stop. :D Turned out to be Jun Liang (or Ryan, if you don't want to challenge your brain to remember chinese names.... omg why am I so sarcastic today, shut up Grace) and it is MOST FUN to walk down a dark road and have this guy chasing you going yaaaahhhhhhh....!!!

HAHAHAHA! :D MOST FUN!!! That was actually scary! :P Haven't laughed that hard in ages!!!!

Extra set of gleaming teeth between the... gleaming teeth...

Jing Yong tried to dye his hair blond as icing to the cake of his Bieber outfit... didn't work. He bought the cheap non-permanent dye.

Mop of stubborn jet-black hair...

Sad Biebster.

Carlos, the expressive Guatemalan kid and Ashlie the pirate.
Ashlie's from Subang.

My 'MIX' mentor! HE'S A REESE PEANUT BUTTER CUP! ^^

***

So, the 31st of October fell on a Monday. Mugged for calc quiz in the Study Center with Nihao's pork dumplings (Maggieeee I love theseeeee!!!!!). Beautiful afternoon.

Spot the chili oil!

Apparently it's an age-old tradition for families all over Charlottesville to bring their young kids to the Lawn in UVa for trick-or-treating! As soon as I saw how the place was absolutely infested with furry little baby animals (a.k.a. young children), any harsh feelings I had towards Halloween immediately melted away.

Massive pile of leaves!!! I was SO tempted to jump in myself.

AAH SO CUTE.

This absolutely melted my heart.
The young mother was playing with her baby elephant... throwing it
into the air... catching him again...
OH COME ON, A BABY ELEPHANT!!

I see you, Buzz!

Mini pumpkin paintings!

A little piggy (haha literallyyy!) grabbing candy from the Comm students...

Bubbles!

Amphitheater! They gave out free Ben&Jerry's!

Had dinner with Margaret, my bubbly core group leader, in Runk that night before MNL, cuz they had a themed dinner. 

Runk was a madhouse. Way too many people.

Their gnocchi was absolutely heavenly though!

One out of two 'escaped criminals' that night!

"How was your first Halloween?"

I don't know. It was definitely interesting. :)