Halloween Party

Undergrad parties rock! I had forgotten just how taxing an undergrad partying is. The place was packed and smoky and loud. I dressed up as an African fairy.

Happy Halloween

Today has been an education. I hadn't bought an outfit for Halloween and my housemate nobly drove me to Halloween USA to look at things. I am now going to be a fairy of some description. On the drive there we saw the children of Ann Arbor trick or treating downtown dragging their parents along for the ride. I saw Buzz Lightyear, Spiderman, Darth Vader, princesses, a duck, a transformer, a ladybug, a Tigger. They all carried their prerequisite pumpkin basket to collect candy. I almost wish to be little like that and go trick or treating. Its seems so much fun. The students, who were brave, wore their outfits to class and campus including 1 nurse in hot pink which I saw. Tonight the students are throwing parties of various levels of debauchery, an update to follow.

Pumpkin Carving

Cristina organised a postgrad pumpkin carving evening in the SRB lounge last night. I cut off my lid at an angle so it doesn't fall in when it is returned to the pumpkin and scraped out the insides with a spoon (I know its cheating but I promise i did get mucky hands later). I was instructed in the art of tracing patterns onto pumpkins (i made up my own way after a while cause i couldn't see the tracings from their way) and learnt that you can buy actual pumpkin carving kits! Most of the grads were surprised I had never carved a pumpkin, I had to explain that Halloween is not a big thing in SA. After tracing my pattern (a cat and pumpkin), I proceeded to drill holes in the spaces to be carved out so that its easier to cut. You can tell who is pro at this, they were halfway done before some of us even started. After carving my pumpkin we collected them and put the candles in and warded off the evil spirits.

Halloween Open Dance

Finally a themed ballroom social! With Halloween fast approaching, many a place is decked in various Halloween decor. Open dance happens every Sunday and we all came kitted out in costume. Some notable costumes included Cat in the Hat, Poison Ivy, Tinkerbell and the assortment of nurses etc. It was nice to see nearly everyone dress up, though it made me miss UCT Ballroom socials. I dressed up with my limited resources as a Hawaiian girl, though I think I ended up more tribal given that my sarong is covered in elephants. Oh well. Some of the team did the Thriller dance, very funny to watch and I managed to convince people to start a Congo line. That was fun, lots of people joined in.

Manhattan rush

Michelle, Tom and myself tried to go to MoMA but the queue in the cold weather just put us off, instead we ventured down 5th Ave and saw enough designer stores to make your credit card cringe just window shopping. We queued to go to Abercrombie and Fitch club. Its a store designed like a nightclub and has music pounding through the store and glass cube lit stairs. The Apple store is very cool, its this giant cube made of glass that you descend into the floor to the store below.

After a major rush and running through Penn Station to get to the bus I boarded a Megabus to Philadelphia. Very pleasant ride with minimum of fuss. Arriving in Philadelphia at sunset was beautiful.

I started my Philadelphia experience with authentic Philly cheesesteaks. Heavy on the cheese from Geno's. I think I could get to love them. My second day dawned cold and clear with a trip to the Pumpkinland at Linvilla. Rachel and I matched by fluke and had photos with the pumpkins. Our haul included a baby pumpkin for Rachel and a large pumpkin for Kim and Steve.

The afternoon was spent in the Franklin Institute Science Museum and the Real Pirate exhibition from National Geographic. The exhibition included real pirate treasure from the Whydah ship. I thorougly enjoyed it and did the rest of the museum which included an electricity exhibit and an air exhibit. I missed the planetarium but I'm not sure if I missed much.