This was my first Halloween in America for three years, so it was very exciting for me.  For an accurate account of how Halloween was in England for me, go see Nessi and Petra.  It was the same in Leeds as London.  Two years ago one guy came to my flat wearing his winter puffer jacket and a trash bag around his neck for a cape.  He was an embarrassing age for trick or treating, but I felt sorry for him so I gave him my last Hersheys bar.  Mind you, British people don't seem to like Hersheys anyway.  He didn't come back last year. 

 

I don't remember Halloween as a total disappointment in the UK though.  You can get pumpkins, though I've never seen one carved there.  Marks and Spencers makes some chocolate eyeballs with gummy worms inside that were pretty fun.  The perception of Halloween in America from the UK is unlike it actually is here.   When people would talk about Halloween to me there, it would make me feel really isolated, so I just tried to ignore it and look forward to Bonfire Night.

 

We started off our Halloween with blintzes at Katz.  It was the perfect place for people watching.  A couple of guys in Richard Simmons costumes walked by and then some people we couldn't tell were in costume or not.  Nigel was a beatnik which just made him look like a normal guy from Austin, and I was a bee.  I forgot that I was wearing the costume because I have the good fortune to have the kind of job where I can wear a costume to work and had been wearing it all day.  Some French guys came up to me excitedly and exclaimed "you are a bee!".  Then some more European guys came up to me and did the same.  The girl standing next to me on the promenade asked me, "why do they keep doing that to you?".

 

No trick-or-treaters this year, but I live close to campus so that was expected.  Some grateful late night party people downstairs in our apartments had a big bowl of Tootsie pops rain down on them instead.