Halloween Escapades

I was invited to a Halloween party hosted by some Americans this past weekend. The party was a fun mix of Germans, expats, students, professionals, etc. We dressed up in crazy costumes, brought creepy snacks (I made "mummy" hotdogs), and later paraded through town as a strange entourage with a Roman, zombies, vampires, a genie, a tiger, a ninja, a nerd, a murderous clown, and more.

I think that this was one of my favorite costumes. It was one of those small backpacks that organizations give away and the guy wearing it wrote the Pi sign on it. I laughed because it looked like a last-minute costume, for sure.

After we left the party and headed to the bar, we experienced the craziness that is Kaiserslautern on weekend nights. Usually I'm out of town so I don't head out to the bars. We passed by the American police from the Air Force. They help police the area because half of the problems (at least) come from the Americans who live here. Fair enough, eh? They didn't need to intervene on this situation, but it was definitely a bunch of drunk service members acting stupid: some guys started doing pushups in the street.

At the bar, I was talked into a light saber battle. My opponent had a few to drink and was narrating the fight in German (he's not German though). Later we had a conversation and he recited his schedule in German. I teased him and told him that I just did all of this in German class. I'm not sure why we were having the conversation, but I'm sure it made sense to one of us.


Batman showed up and was interested in the light saber battle so we gave him a turn.

Batman vs. "Rub Me for Luck; I'm Irish."

I then talked to his friend, Superman. I told Superman that his costume looked a bit like kids' pajamas.

Most of our group had enjoyed enough fun so we started  home. A bunch of German guys we passed were offended that we were celebrating Halloween already. I think they had that idea confused with the German rule for celebrating birthdays. In Germany, it's considered bad luck to celebrate your birthday before the actual day. Since Halloween is an American holiday, I think we can celebrate it whenever we feel like it. The guys said it wasn't Halloween yet and our German friend told them that at the bar we visited it was. Everyone has an opinion here and isn't afraid to share it with strangers! Sometimes it's hard to get used to, but if someone is being obnoxious, you can just flap your hand at them and ignore them.

It was a fun night and a bit wild and silly.