Halloween Weekend

And by weekend I mean from Thursday to Monday. 

First snow fall

Actual Halloween is today (Monday) but in America, or UMass at least, it’s a weekend-long event. Our Halloween weekend started with snow! On Thursday night as I walked home from dinner it started snowing, and being that all my friends are from Europe and America they didn’t quite understand my excitement.. But my German friend Julienne was kind enough to take pictures of me enjoying the snow. Woo!

Mr Ramen

Then later that evening we had some people around to our suite to celebrate the beginning of the Halloween weekend. We asked everyone to dress in their weirdest attire (as our area of campus is known for having lots of weirdo’s, it seemed fitting) We decorated Allie’s room to be sufficiently Halloween-y, including “Mr Ramen” the skeleton! We played a few games, including the donut game where you have to eat a donut that is hanging off a piece of string without using your hands! Very fun night.

Mario and Luigi at the hockey!

On Friday night we got into our real costumes! Allie and I dressed as Mario and Luigi! Very fitting because we play a lot of Mario Kart on Allie’s Wii. We then went down to the hockey game. UMass was playing Boston University, which is apparently a big rival. We drew, 2-2, even after over time! Loads of people were in costume; we had the Incredibles, Flash, Top Gun, an alien, a zombie.. The people in the row behind us were all characters from Cluedo!

Take a wild guess at which one's mine

On Saturday it snowed a whole lot more! I loveeed it. Lisa, Julienne and I decided to carve pumpkins, as one of the dorms was providing free pumpkins, carving tools & snacks. I’ve never done it before, and neither had Lisa, so it was heaps of fun. Julienne is a pro. I underestimated how hard it would be to get all the pumpkin out! And I may have also cut the hole on top a bit too small, making it even harder for myself. But I was very pleased with my end result. My pumpkin’s a cutie.

Trees fallen!

Saturday night it was really snowing. Like really really snowing. I was in one of the dorms with a bunch of people, all dressed up and ready to go out (this time in a bumble bee costume!) when we were informed that there are no buses running, no taxis, and essentially everything had been shut down due to the snow. Trees were falling (two massive ones fell right outside my building!) and eventually we concluded that we should probably just stay in. So there was a large group of us  in the halls when, around 11pm, there was a blackout! We spent the rest of the night using phones as our only source of light. 

Allie jumping into the snow..Because why not?!

The power didn’t return until 9am Sunday morning, which we later learned was only because UMass have their own generators. Almost the entire state spent Saturday night and all of Sunday without power. That means no internet, no TV, no lights, no heat. No fun. There was at least a foot of snow. More than I’ve ever seen! Allie and I went for a drive on Sunday which meant that first we had to clear her car of snow. Over about an hour’s worth of driving we only saw two restaurants, one gas station and one supermarket that were open. And you wouldn’t believe the queues coming out of them all! 

Today, Monday, is a snow day due to the fact that most of the area is still without power. So, no classes! I slept in, went for a walk to discover that about a billion trees have fallen, and intend to spend the rest of the day watching Disney movies. Currently they’re undecided as to whether there will be classes tomorrow..  Fingers crossed!

Here's some more happy snaps of people in costume:

Kate as a zombie, Lisa as one of the Incredibles

Karsten as Flash!

Lots of costumes :)