Le Halloween

Halloween in France is definitely (and unfortunately) not like Halloween in the USA. I was looking forward to making jack o' lanterns with Gaby and his mom. It's my favorite part of Halloween. We went to three big supermarkets and couldn't find pumpkins anywhere. No Jack o' lanterns. :( Sad face.

Even worse, we didn't buy candy this year, mainly because the stores don't sell the big promotional bags of it. I kept putting it off because I didn't want to spend 3-4 euros on a tiny bag of lollipops that I would probably end up eating myself before Halloween night.

We were not off to a good start, but I supposed seeing people in costumes could still be a possibility. No. The only people who dress up in costumes are the North Americans and the Brits. That's not to say that the French don't try to get into the spirit of things. Some of my students told me they were going to costume parties. Fabulous! Then they told me they hadn't decided what to wear and admitted that they might not dress up after all. Well, okay....I can't be too critical. I don't like to dress up that much either. At least they were having parties.

And the cute little French kids would be dressing up, right? That would be good enough. No. Here, even the kids don't usually dress up, but they still go trick or treating. They might put on a little wig or eye mask and that's it. They ring the door bell and basically say, "I'm CRAZY wig head! Give me some candy."

Okay, okay, they really just say, "Give me some candy."

If you don't have candy, watch out. When the French kids go "trick or treating," they go *trick* or treating. We informed a small group of girls that we had forgotten to get candy. They yelled at us phrases that I didn't know could come out of 7-year old girls' mouths. Five minutes later, they came back and overturned all our trashcans (trash, recycling and glass). When Gaby caught them, they lied and said that some "black kids" had done it. And then when he didn't believe them, they said they would come back and do it all again and egg the house. Because we hadn't given them 2 or 3 pieces of candy. *&^$*@&% &*^*&%%$$!!!! WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE????!!

Apparently, they "trick or treat" the whole weekend. o_O

A French Halloween horror story if I've ever heard one. They won't ever be getting any candy from me. GRRRRR....

So what will this poor disappointed American be doing tonight? I'll be curling up with Gaby, a bag of popcorn and the classic Halloween horror film. That will be a good enough Halloween for me.