Halloween is Over

Well it’s the start of November today which means that it is the beginning of Christmas season and the end of Halloween 2017. But before we completely say goodbye to Halloween I wanted to share a few thoughts about my Halloween in Canada.

In the weeks running up to Halloween there was quite a lot of anticipation amongst most people I know. Especially after Thanksgiving there seemed to be a lot of excitement building for Halloween. To be honest in the end more things seemed to be happening over the weekend instead of on Halloween itself, in the UK at uni we tend to do Halloween stuff both on the weekend and on the night itself.

For me Halloween really began on Saturday with my trip to Haunt at Canada’s Wonderland which was undoubtedly the highlight of my Halloween this year. I had a really good time.

Tuesday, Halloween Day went more or less as a normal day for me. This year for Halloween I was Clark Kent/Superman, I was actually going around all day in my costume just with the shirt buttoned up for most of the day. I guess the glasses really do mean that Superman can hide in plain sight.

It was more or less a normal day until I went to my night lecture, then suddenly about 5-10 minutes into the lecture the lights suddenly went out and there was a powercut. I’m 90% sure that the powercut must have been caused by ghosts. Either that or it was karma for scheduling classes on Halloween night. We got let out of the lecture and I walked across a darkened campus to my residence. Everyone was just gathering together and hanging out in the dark. Usually we’re a very social group in my accommodation however something about the dark made us all even more sociable than usually, maybe it was because without power we were all forced away from our screens. This was not how I expected my Halloween night to go but honestly it was actually a lot of fun. There’s something inherently spooky about being in the dark without power but then when you’re enjoying spending time with friend it’s even better.

So maybe I did not have the Halloween I had been anticipating but I have had a good one this year.

Thanksgiving Weekend

I celebrated my first ever Thanksgiving!

Here in Canada we just had a long weekend (7^th – 10^th of October) to celebrate Thanksgiving. In Canada Thanksgiving takes place in early October instead of in November like it does over in America. The reason why is apparently because Thanksgiving is more about celebrating the Harvest over here in Canada. Going into the long weekend I didn’t really know what to expect because I have never experienced Thanksgiving before. But it turned out that I had a really great time and I really enjoyed myself.

Most people on my floor in my accommodation either went home for the long weekend or went off exploring places. As I’ve mentioned before usually my accommodation is very sociable so it was weird to find it so quiet, though it was kind of a refreshing change! I spent nearly the entire weekend with a couple of friends who live on the same floor as me and were staying for the long weekend. The three of us had a really good time together.

On Saturday we didn’t do too much, though I did go to a local farmers market which was really nice. I spent a lot of Saturday chatting, hanging out and just generally enjoying spending time with my friends.

On Sunday evening we had been invited to go to one of our other friends (she’s also one of my suitemates) home to join her family for Thanksgiving Dinner. It was a really good meal with lots of good food. We just had a really nice evening. Beforehand I know we’d been worried that it might be a little awkward but there wasn’t really any awkwardness. Once more the stereotype about Canadians being friendly welcoming people was proven to be true!

On Monday a lot of places were closed - as it was a public holiday - but we wanted to get out and do something. We found a local farm with a Corn Maze and a Pumpkin Patch was open and so we went there for a little outing. We managed to get lost in the Corn Maze but that’s part of the fun! It was a good harvest themed attraction which was nice to visit over Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday we had pancakes, we hung out some more and we went for a walk. There was also a second Thanksgiving dinner on a smaller scale than the big meal but on by the university. In the evening more or less everyone who had gone home returned, even though we’d all seen each other on Friday it was still good to have a reunion with all the friends I’ve made on this floor!

So that was my first ever Thanksgiving, as you can probably guess, I really enjoyed myself. I kind of want to bring celebrating Thanksgiving with me next year when I am back in the UK.