Halloween was quite an interesting evening! Trick/treating in an apartment building can be very productive & efficient! But catching a elevator was difficult. Fortunately, we started at the penthouse level & walked most of the way DOWN.. 26 floors... In 2 buildings! Probably only a 30-40% ratio of tenants giving out candy, but my Z & D did well.
As it turns out, our apartment building cannot accommodate trick or treaters because of our unique elevator-entry-door systems. So our front door is actually not really a door... When you enter the elevator, you must insert a special key, coded just for our apartment on our floor. When you input the key, the 6th floor lights up & up you go. When the elevator doors open, you are in our apartment! So, this is really safe, no one can come to our apartment without our key! Well, unless, they are already on the elevator when we call it, then it opens, they are on it, they can see straight into our apartment, & then you ride down the rest of the way together. This, I have decided is incentive to keep the apartment always clean & for me to always be dressed when the kids are coming or going... Lest the neighbors see me, having a pajama day!! A few unfortunate souls were already witness to my "morning look" the first week here! Zach was no sooner on the elevator than I heard Patrick say where is your lunch as the elevator doors close. I ran to check the kitchen & there it was! So I grabbed it & called the elevator, whew, no one on it... Down to the parking garage I swept... Then I saw 1 employee, a gardener maybe... I raced to the car to hand off the lunch only to find out that Kirsti had gone up the service elevator to get it! So I had to go that route now too, because Kirsti would be pounding on the service door to get in, but I would not there! To my unfortunate surprise, when I called THAT elevator, there were already 3 people on it! 2 maids & 1 building employee, probably a security guard because he was one of the "men in black (suit)". I was slightly mortified, and THEN, Kirsti was not even at the service door! Come to find out later, the poor girl had climbed the stairs up & down because the elevator was not speedy enough! Good thing she has young legs! Lol
So that was a loooong side bar note about keeping the apt clean, door opening, being dressed, yadda, yadda, yadda!
So Halloween here was on 10/30, with a party on the grounds, there was food & music & paid entertainers in costume... But it was for the wee little ones...
On Halloween, the kids had a half day - Danielle had a pretty fun day, they had some skits from the drama class, her class included, they had a haunted hallway, candy, lots of free time outside, and of course the kids were in costume. Kirsti & Zach also had costumes, but no haunted house, they had tons of free time.. In fact every teacher decided it was pointless to try & get much done that day, classes were so shortened. There was some candy thrown about, but when Zachary tried it, he just about choked because candy here is VERY DIFFERENT! A lot of stuff is spicy! Covered in cinnamon or chili powder, seriously! They do have a lot of suckers here, lollies, but many are chalky... Not Zach's fave! He is a tootsie pop die-hard fan!
So that day I invited ourselves to our friend's complex that does do-door-to-door trick or treating.. And that's where I started this story... Walking down flights of stairs - who am I kidding?? The kids were running.. I am so glad no one got hurt!! They were usually a floor or 2 ahead of my friend and me!! We managed to catch up only when they found a floor where people were sitting by their doors waiting for the little goblins to arrive. The few times we caught an elevator were hilarious though... Kinda like one of those clown cars where the clowns just keep getting out, one after another, after another.. Thats how the elevator looked & felt like... When the doors opened, we practically spilled out into the hallway...
After the trick or treating, the complex tenants were all invited to a potluck in the party room - that easily fits 250-300... They had an inflatable for the kids outside, Everyone just brought something to share & drinks were kinda BYO ...
So it turned out to be very fun & very different from any other Halloween!
Then on Friday Patrick remembered we were invited to trick or treat with the Boy Scout Troop, in the subdivision across the street... So close, how could we not go?? And it was a beautiful night & it was the US Embassy complex, it was more traditional house-like atmosphere, door-to-door outside style....AND, mostly AMERICAN CANDY!! Kirsti was in heaven to see Reese PB cups & Kit Kats... But not a single Twix to be found 😞
It was great to meet some new people, got some good advise & some travel tips.. Maybe a little vaca at Thanksgiving is in order??
So yesterday & today are Dia de la Muerta... Day of the Dead. Yesterday was the day you visit / honor your relatives that died young... Today you do the same for your relatives that lived to be old. In the bigger cities, there is not so much in the traditional celebrations going on... People set up altars in their homes, display beautifully painted skulls, have flowers & set out water & favorite foods of their deceased family members. They make these special sweet breads only at this time of the year, they have "bones" on the top of them to celebrate this time of year. In smaller villages, there are big celebrations with parades, vigils at the cemetery, much more ornate altars etc.. Maybe next year we can travel to a smaller village to check something out.
But not this year... Its game day... So time to start watching College Game Day... GO BLUE!
