The Week of Halloween

Monday, Oct 29th- Nov. 4th

   I had a really nice week. Though the title of this post includes "Halloween,"  I didn't really do all that much for the night of fright. Apparently, Halloween has only recently gotten popular in Germany, and even then it's not that widespread. The kids don't get to dress up and get free candy (a travesty, in my opinion), but there are costume parties around town. However, this is only one costume shop in all of Dortmund, so they can basically charge whatever price they want. Without a costume, I decided to stay home for Halloween. I didn't want to be that one person that shows up with no costume and then awkwardly stands around for the rest of the party while everyone else secretly talks about them and their lack of creativity or Halloween spirit.

I decided to watch a scary movie and eat some candy instead. In hindsight, this probably wasn't the best idea since I am a self-professed scaredy-cat. My roommate was also out of town, so I was alone to cope with my fear. I chose to watch a classic, Friday the 13th. Even though I watched it with all the lights on and the volume turned down really low, I was still scared by the end of it. I decided to just go to bed (lights still on, of course). Around 1 AM,  I heard a knock on the door. I immediately resolved to not open the door. I've seen what happens when you answer the door, alone, on Halloween night! Whoever it was must have found someone else to creep out because they went away after I didn't answer.

The day after Halloween is a holiday in Germany. I got to spend most of it with Ann-Kathrin. She brought me along to the open house of her mom's adorable boutique/florist. I even got to meet her grandpa, grandma, and aunt as well! They were all super nice and welcoming, and we had all the delicious cider and fresh waffles we could eat. I also bought a really pretty Christmas ornament and candle.

Yay for Christmas ornaments!

After the event was over, we drove home. However, Ann-Kathrin stopped at Carl's house on the way to pick up a package for him. While we were there, I got to meet his family as well. His dad recommended some of his favorite museums in the area and his mom and sister invited us to New Year's. We also discussed the different Christmas traditions in Germany and America, and I was excited to recognize we shared some of the same ones. The proper name is a "pomander" but I usually just describe it as an orange that you stick cloves in, and it smells awesome.

It usually looks like this:

It was such a fun day, and I can't wait to see both Carl and Ann-Kathrin's families again.

On Friday (Nov. 2nd), I also spent the day with Ann-Kathrin, along with her friend Laura. We went to Movie Park, a theme park that stays open later the week of Halloween, and has people dressed up as monsters to scare everyone. They even have several haunted houses set up throughout the park. The purpose of the trip (besides having fun!) was actually for a class. In my British horror class, instead of writing a standard essay, we have the option of writing an essay about a trip to this theme park. However, since all three of us are easily frightened, we decided to get to the park early so we could enjoy most of the rides in the daylight. We rode a lot of them, but my favorite by far was an old wooden roller coaster, which we rode three times.

I also had to laugh at the names of the rides. The park used to be owned by Warner Brothers, but was later sold to MGM. However, the rides are still Warner Brothers themed. For example, we rode a time travel ride thats name was "Back to the Movies." It even had the same logo as Back to the Future. For some reason, it was narrated by John Cleese (?), but it was fun nonetheless. There was a museum of movie props as well, and we got to take pictures in the boxing ring from Rocky.

They also had some really cool props, like an Indiana Jones whip and a sword from Lord of the Rings. However, I was really excited to get a photo with one of the costumes from Kill Bill

At 6 pm, the park shifted into scary mode. People in costume were walking around the park, and they had fog machines set up to make it difficult to see. We probably made easy targets, since we all linked arms and flinched our way through the park. However, once you were scared by the ghost/zombie/vampire/other, you could take a picture with them! We got a group picture with Dracula and Ann Kathrin was even brave enough to take a photo with Jason.

We only went into one of the haunted houses. Most were rated 17 and up, so we decided the one with the 12 year age limit wouldn't be that bad. We were wrong. I don't know if I've ever been more scared in my life, I just held on to Ann Kathrin and Laura and rushed on through. I kept my eyes half-closed most of the time, so I didn't see much. I am sure a more experienced horror buff would have scoffed at this haunted house, but it was enough for us and we left the park as soon as we made it through. All in all, it was a great time, and I would love to go back to ride some more roller coasters.

That's it for this week, Schüss!

German Word of the Day: Der Nebel- "fog" Der Nebel makes haunted houses 10 times scarier.