Spooky Scary

If there's one thing I'm going to miss dearly and deeply while I'm abroad, it's Halloween. It's my second favorite holiday (first being April Fool's day), and while I haven't really gotten homesick yet, the idea of missing Halloween makes my heart hurt a little bit. Fortunately, Jessica, who is also from the States, shares the same sentiment, and so she threw a pumpkin carving partay last night!

I had never actually carved a pumpkin by myself before, only watching my dad do it when I was a little kid and too young to wield a knife, so my skills only allowed for the most basic of shapes. Jessica got way more ambitious with the H&M logo, but all I could manage was a Swedish flag. Still pretty heady, though.

Not too shabby for a first-timer! We also had a veritable autumnal (not to mention sustainable, since we used the entire pumpkin, END ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES PLUG) feast; I roasted pumpkin seeds, the Germans made pumpkin soup which was oh my god delicious albeit extremely rich, and Jessica made apple cider:

apple juice + cloves + cinnamon sticks + all spice + whipped cream

Apparently in Sweden there's a bit of resentment towards the commercialization of Halloween's, as they have traditionally celebrated it as more of All Hallow's Eve, the night before All Saint's Day. Swedes would honor the dead and visit cemeteries during the day, but now it's slowly becoming all about dressing up and getting candy and drinking heavily and, well, sorry! I'm considering throwing a massive Halloween party in my apartment next week, complete with a beer pong table and orange jungle juice*, since I'm afraid that no one else is going to celebrate appropriately. If nothing else, we'll have amazing jack-o-lanterns.

* American frats have a reputation here despite, well, not existing in Europe. I told someone about my plans for the frat-esque party and they replied, without missing a beat, "So, who's bringing the roofies?"