Halloween at the Huis!

To set the mood, click on this link so you can listen while you read...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTcIgMzIa3A


          HAPPY HALLOWEEN errybodyyyy! It is tradition in the Loyola Nachbahr Huis to have a kitchen decorating contest between the different units in the house every year. Our house is divided into six different units with about 10 people in each unit. Each unit shares one kitchen and it is where we first came together to get to know one another. In all of the units there is a mix of Americans, Belgians, and other international students. Halloween is pretty big in the house because the Americans are in charge of getting all the other residents excited! Most people outside of the United States don't decorate, dress up, or trick or treat for Halloween like we do, so the end of October is a time for the Americans in the house to share their traditions with everyone else.
           For the decorating contest, each unit has to come up with an original but spooky idea! Unit 3 decided on a scary circus theme because we felt it was very original, being that it strayed from the usual witches and ghost associated with the holiday. Astrid, one of the Belgians in my unit, works at a summer camp that had loads of clown costume and props, so she was our MVP of the week! Once we got all of the supplies we went to work!

Unit 3 kitchen pre-decorating....

We started off by covering ALL of the walls with black garbage bags to make it more dark and mysterious than the usual white and yellow. There is Mayank (from India), Pavla (from Slovakia), and Stipe (from Croatia), hard at work! It got a little dangerous standing on cabinets, but it was all for the good of the unit!

We decided to name our circus Carn-Evil! Muahahah
We had to put on a little skit when DH and Christel came to judge our kitchen, so we went with the theme "Are you happy?" Earlier in the week, Stipe anonymously slipped sheets of paper with the message "Are you happy?" on it. A few days later, the day of the compeition, he slipped another note under eveyones door in the huis that said "You will be happy very soon." It was very funny to see everyone freak out about the anonymous notes, knowing exactly who they were from. Our story was that our old ring master was not "happy enough," so all of the clowns came together and killed him... gruesome I know, but its Halloween--so what did you expect?! Our new ring master was a clown who took control, Clara (a Belgian in my unit).

That is Clara decorating the kitchen (pre-costume of course), with ketchup...I mean, blood, on her hands.

There is Kristien (also from Belgium) putting on my clown make-up. 

There I am...not exactly fresh to death...but pretty creepy!
It was Halloween, so I didn't hate it!

        After everyone was all dressed up and ready to go, it was show time! DH and Christel came to judge our kitchen and I believe we did a GREAT job in completely freaking them out. We had scary halloween music playing and we all went along with the skit! It was so much fun to dress up as something really spooky! Back home, I never actually dressed up as anything "scary,"so it was a welcomed change!

(From left to right) Mayank, Tessa, Pavla, Kristien, Astrid, myself, Clara, Stipe, and Shayne as the bear!
What a good lookin' crew! 

Shayne, Cait, and I were the "Drie Blind Cats," this year. As much as I loved my clown costume, I thought I should redeem myself with something less frightening.  'Drie,' means three in Dutch, and we just thought it would be fun to put a Belgian twist on "Three Blind Mice,"....

         On the actual night of Halloween we had a huge Halloween party in the common room. Dr. Hughes & Sue came to announce the winner, and they told us that in 20 years, there has never been such a great display in ALL of the kitchens. There were a bunch of different awards given out for creativity, most frightening, etc. all leading up to the first place kitchen. And the winner is....UNIT 3!! (aka our unit!) We won a waffle maker! (So Belgian, right?) It was a great night. We introduced the internationals to a bunch of different American games, such as bobbing for apples and flip cup (yes, a drinking game, but what else did you expect?!).

Unit 3 with our prizes!

Cait and I bobbing for apples--an oldie but a goodie!

Halloween in the huis was fun, but next week...off to Spain we go!