Indian Halloween

Happy belated Halloween, everyone. It’s been a long and exhausting weekend. We didn’t travel anywhere this weekend, but this is certainly one of the longest weekends I can remember. We had to parties this weekend at our apartment, and our floor was still covered in a thin layer of alcohol, filth, and coal this morning, despite my best efforts to clean things up before the maid showed up. Four months in India, and I’m still not used to having servants cleaning up after us.

Friday night started off at the Beer Garden for dinner and drinks with some of our friends. Then it was back to our apartment for a small party that turned in to a ‘bigger than expected’ party, that turned in to a ‘Matt sandwiched between some weird Indian dude who showed up after I went to bed, a drunk Russian girl who smells like vomit, and my downstairs neighbor trying to hook up with the drunk Russian girl who smells like vomit (DRGWSLV for short) all on a far too small pull out couch’ kind of party. I ended up getting about 45 minutes of sleep on the couch, and an extra half hour outside in the surprisingly cold balcony. When I got up, I ended up going out to get breakfast with some friends, to be later joined by the DRGWSLV and the weird guy who shows up at 4 in the morning.

It was a long day. I was very tired, but I had something to look forward to: Halloween. Yes, we were hosting our very own Halloween party in India, and it would be a first Halloween party experience for most of the guests attending. Bobby and I were excited. This party was largely Bobby’s brain child, but we both came up with costumes at the last minute. I made a bed sheet in to a toga, and Bobby went as our former roommate, Tarek (complete with sleeveless t shirt, jean shorts, and a terrible Texas accent).

From what I had been told, in Europe, Halloween isn’t really celebrated by anyone over the age of six, and certainly never by any adults. While they may have been skeptical at first, my German roommates really ended up getting in to the spirit of things, and they pulled off some pretty good costumes. Our Iranian friends also were there for their first Halloween party, and really enjoyed themselves.

Around midnight (which is last call for most places around here), more people flooded in. Soon it became a minority of foreigners wearing costumes at an otherwise normal party. Never the less, it was fun. It was also the last time I would see DRGWSLV before she leaves for the Delhi, and then later, her freezing arctic home. Even weird 4AM guy showed up again, this time around 1 in the morning, and even apologized for being so weird. Apology accepted, 4AM guy.