Conchita does Halloween American Style

Last Thursday during dinner, we were talking about Spanish traditions this season. Halloween is not big here. It is more of an event that all of the clubs and tourist attractions use to attract Americans and international students. They celebrate el Dia de Los Santos which is on the 1st of November to remember all of those who have passed away in their families. One way that they celebrate is drinking a sweet wine, eating panhellets(like I mentioned last time), and eating sweet potatoes. It was definitely the biggest and the best dinner that I have had since I came to Spain. I told Conchita at dinner that she absolutely had to carve a pumpking because it is the only appropriate way to celebrate Halloween in the United States!

She was very resistant at first and kept telling me that I had to carve it and she would watch because she had never done it before. So I went to the local grocery store, bought the only pumpkin that they had...yes there was just one pumpkin...and brought it home. Gavin and I forced her to carve half the face. She kept telling me that she was not good at it...who is good at carving a pumpking? After we finished carving it, we collected all the seeds and threw them in the oven with salt so that we could eat them later. Did we burn the top of the pumpking because the candle was too large? yes. Did we burn the pumpkin seeds because we didn´t realize how long they were in the oven for? yes. Irregardless, we had an amazing time. Conchita started calling the pumpkin Princesa which you guessed it means Princess in Spanish...at first Gavin and I thought that was a colloquial way of saying pumpking but after further inquiry she told us that was what she named it...that was very random. The best part of the night was when she started taking pictures so that she could show her friends. She has never taken any pictures of us before. At the very end she said "thank you for giving me this feeling. I am glad that I have experienced it." It was definitely a good night and I was in no rush to go to the Halloween parties and events that happened afterwards


Needless to say, I stayed out until 5 am last night and got to hang out with lady gaga, (yes close friends know I love Lady Gaga) a chola, a ladybug, dracula, and naughty tinkerbell. I also ran into Hamish from UCSD and Kristin from UCSD on a random street and am going to get Sangria with them tonight! Ok, enough said. I will chat it up with y´alls later...o ya actually I probably will not because I no longer have internet at my house!