Trick or Treat, Meet and Greet

First of all, Happy Halloween, and a shout out to Gordon! Happy Birthday! I hope you had a great night.
Halloween means a lot of different things all over the world. It's an evolving tradition of history mixed with new wave ideas. It can get complicated, and it can get skanky. In Italy it is pretty new and people are only starting to celebrate. Leo dressed as a ghost with the classic sheet over the head trick and went to a small party with some kids. They came here after and there was a witch, three masks of scariness and Leo. A note about Italian children: They are super spoiled and disrespectful. Not so much Alessandra's children, but the mother's often complain to her that she is very strict and cruel, although, she is a pretty normal mother for American standards. I know there are spoiled children everywhere in the world, but here it is the norm. I don't really like it. I saw a boy at the school who is at least 2 years older than Leo, around 10, who was crying as Sarah does because he wanted gelato. Holy. Cow.
Anyways, the night before Halloween, Alessandra and the children made some pane di sale, a sort of dough that they use often for sculpting and making crafts, and they put it around a balloon and made some eyes and a mouth, in hopes that it would dry around the balloon and we could pop the balloon and paint the sculpture as a jack-o-lantern with a candle inside! However, the balloon had other plans and popped on its own accord. On Halloween morning I took the dough and sculpted a pumpkin, cooked it and painted it after it was hard. The kids loved it! So did I. It was the same feeling as carving pumpkins because you have to concentrate and be creative about the face and make a mess.
I had seen an ad for a Halloween party at the college, when I was there with Michel for a sort of presentation that I just realised you don't know about so I will tell you later, and I decided to go.
It was at Makkia, the only discotec in Urbino. I figured, even if I cannot talk with anyone, it will be good for me to go out! I was super scared, though.
I dressed as a devil because, as I said, they don't understand such abstract ideas as being Batman or something funny like a lamp. Also, I have a lot of red. So it was easy.
I did up my face and made little horns with my hair and some red paper. The children loved my costume and Benedetta kept hugging me. I think maybe they connect with the devil. Huh.
Allora, after the kids were in bed, I assumed to have everything I needed and I set off at 9.
The first thing I forgot were my directions, but I kept going because Urbino is truly very small and I knew I would be able to find it.
The second thing I forgot was my money, but I kept going because you don't need to drink to have fun, kids. I was about halfway there now.
When I got to Makkia, I realised that the tird thing I forgot was that I have no idea how this country works and its clubs don't open for another 3 hours. I went to a closeby bar, called Canyon, and had a beer. It was a cute place that I had seen before, and there was a couple dressed as the Adams Family parents and Halloween decorations everywhere. However, there were only a couple people and it pretty early.
Here is where I realized I forgot my notebook and some gum and lipchap. All of which would have come in handy. I decided it was far too early and I was far to ill prepared, so I walked back to the house. I grabbed everything I forgot and felt much better. I went back on the 11 o'clock bus, and Makkia was still closed. Well, it had its lights on, but no one was there.

Allora. I went back to Canyon and ordered another beer. There were more people here now and everyone was quite jolly. After about 15 minuted of me perving at a table alone, a middle aged fellow looked me straight in the eye from across the bar and walked over to say "Ciao!" in a very large voice. "Oh, haha, uh, ciao," says I.

Holy crap. He asked my name and I said "Carrie," and gave him my hand to shake and he kissed it and then he said "Something else," (I did not understand) and I said "Poco Italiano!" and he said "Viena fuori." So, we go outside, where many people are smoking and talking, and he announces to everyone my name and I shook some hands. Again, Holy crap. We talked for some time. He spoke very little English but we got along fine. The bartender is on the left, he owns the bar, and the nice man who made it his mission to make me friends, is on the right.Except, he's one of those people who tells you to smile all the time. You know, if I was smiling allllll the time, people would think I was either crazy or half-witted, not just happy. Allora. He then introduced me to the whole bar inside. We talked for some time until a boy with a blonde ponytail in a leather jacket and black feathered angel wings was about to buy two shots of tequila for his friend and him but decided, no, three, for my new friend. This would be me.

Now, I hate tequila. I have had too many bad times with Tequila to think fondly of it. But, I looked at it, and I looked at the pub, and I looked at the people, and I said to myself: If I don't do this, I will never forgive myself. I took the shot and, first of all, it was delicious. Since when is there delicious tequila? Second of all, the boy invited me to sit with him and a couple of girls. I ended up talking with these girls for the rest of the night. This is Valentina and her dog! That was allowed in the bar! I thought this was weird!And by talking I mean mostly in Italian! It was so great! I got their contacts and said if they wanted to get together so I could practice speaking Italian and they could practice speaking English, that would be great. They seemed to think so to. They were really nice and I hope to grab a coffee with them soon. By the time everyone was about to take off, it had been a few hours, the bar had some prizes to give out, I think for costumes. First prize was a bottle of wine, second prize was bottle of something else, and third prize was a lunch at Canyon.

O yea. Guess who came in third! I think they were just trying to say, welcome, because everyone was dressed up and they could have picked just their favourite customers, but instead they decided to make the day of a new kid. I pretty much nearly cried. Instead I said "Multo grazie!" and took off on home.

The bartenders were great, the people were welcoming and patient and nice. Not pretend nice, actual nice. It felt like Canada.

I am going for lunch there this week and I hope to go there often.

So, Halloween was an ultimate success. I honestly did not think I would be meeting people for at least another month. The language is suddenly coming very fast with classes, the children, new people and just being able to hear it better. It scared me a lot the other day. I thought, what if I cannot speak English when I get back to Canada? But, I think it's a pretty hard thing to forget, so I got over it.

In other news, Alessandra is getting me in touch with a woman who is organizing a sort of Christmas concert/show and she wants some help. I am pretty excited because I miss singing a lot, even though I do it around the house all the time, to Leo's dismay, and I would really like to keep busy as Christmas approaches so I avoid being so homesick.

Also, today was amazing with the kids. The girls have pretty much completely accepted me as an authority figure/playmate and Sarah didn't call me a bruta cativa once today. I had pretty much decided that this was just a job, and not to be too emotional involved, because the children had such a wall. But now that it's down, I feel more like I'm in a family.

Sigh. How interesting it is to be abroad.

This is my Halloween story. In this week I hope to finish my Paris story. EXCEPT, that I am a little bit sick of blogger and it's picture loading application. In a thought: it sucks. But maybe it's just the internet connection blowing-out from how awesome the blog is. Who knows.

I hope you all had a great Halloween! Tell me about it.