Halloween! (English)

Howdy!!!

Sorry for the delay to post, but I had some problems involving the cam. And I know you guys want pictures, right?

And again, I've been very busy around here ... ok, not so much, but it means I have enough articles to share with you!

But everything in its time, and I'll start talking how it was my first Halloween.

You know, we think we know what Halloween is by what we see in movies, series, or even in some schools and English courses do. But the thing is very different here in the land of Uncle Sam.

It's different just because, simply, here all is taken very seriously! ... Well ... not seriously, but people REALLY enjoy Halloween! I think the closest we have are June Feasts (which I love, say by the way). The difference here is that it's all in a day, on 31 October, while the festivities in Brazil the last months of June and July entirely.

I should have figured it was something bigger than I expected when I was at Walmart and had a 5 or so shelves with costumes, besides the entire corridor with giant packages of candies and chocolates, and scattered pumpkins to sell in the market. But until now, nothing very different from what we see in the market at Christmas and other holidays.

And, yeah of course, the decorated houses. There were not many, but closer to Halloween, more houses put Jack-o-Laterns in their doors. It was beautiful to see. In addition, throughout the city had Haunted Houses, warehouses which are rented at that time and become cursed houses, and so Aaron told me, are like the Castle of Horrors, but not necessarily with movie scenes. And I didn't go in any, because I'm so scared and did not want to risk going and end up without sleeping for a few nights.

Seriously, guys, think with me .. I am afraid of moths, imagine going to a place where the idea is make you get scared? Yeah. And Aaron said that many colleagues told him that many of these were verrrrry scary Haunted Houses. Nah... Next time.

Finally, the Saturday preceding Halloween (which fell sadly on  a Monday), I asked my beloved American to buy a pumpkin, because I would like to make a Jack-o-Lantern. He also bought a small kit with saws and other plastic tools for children, that came with some models of sculptures we could do. Not only had typical faces, but drawings of ghosts, bats, vampires and a ZOMBIE HAND! Of course, we chose the zombie, that much more awesome than little ghosts!

Well, as it was my first time, Aaron opened the pumpkin and let me do the honors of cleaning the poor thing.

So first, you stick your hand inside the pumpkin ....

... Grab as much seed as you can ....

... and pull them out. As you guys can see by my face, the process is pretty disgusting, because there is some stuff that slides when you try to pull out. Not to mention what gets stuck in your hand.

Yeah.

And the worst is that you have to clean as much as possible with a spatula and everything, because if you leave too much inside it, if you use a pumpkin candle, it could ignite and cause much trouble.

Once clean, it's time to put the template on the pumpkin and mark the outline of what you want to carve. That is a very delicate part, once the pumpkin is rounded and you have to be careful not to fold the paper over the drawing, or shake a lot to get model, because then you won't have any idea on where you should saw.

Then it's time to saw the lines marked on the pumpkin. And before someone points out that Aaron did all this alone, THAT'S NOT TRUE, OK? I did the straight lines .... And they were very straight!

Here just a detail showing the dots on the pumpkin.

AWESOME, ISN'T IT!

Well, we already had the pumpkin, candy for the kids ... were ready!

Almost.

I needed a costume. So we left in Monday to go after a few more sweets and a cool costume.
Once Halloween is not a holiday, everyone still have to work and study, only at night that happens distribution of sweets. But in many places some people go to work in fancy dress. Now that is a very nice! Aaron told me he had a year that some people in his work dressed as Village People. Walmart had the two women dressed as witches, with white face paint and black lipstick. It should be clear that most of the children were dressed, but had very adolescent and adults dressed too. Walking down the street I saw a guy dressed as a banana, and another dressed as hot dog. We went to dinner at Burger King, and passed a guy driving a pickup with a silver mask. Then we went to the mall, where there were families going to get candy stores, and many parents were dressed too. It's a really fun day.

Chosen my costume, we returned home to distribute sweets. We put a little of each candy in a bucket, and we waited for the children.

You guys ask me what my costume?

The Madwoman of the Treats, of course. We ended  buying only a witch's hat, but this witch's hat is the most blatant hat EVAH!

Okay, a prettier pic.

Anyway, a lot of people who came, and it is a very nice to give candy to the kids. We had to turn off the lights early, because the treats ended soon (each packet of sweets or chocolates had 200 candy, but Aaron repeated several times for me to give a lot of candy...).

That's all I have to tell you about Halloween. I promise that next year we will be properly dressed and ready!

Soon I write again to tell you about the camping!

Beijos!

Halloween!

Howdy!!!

Desculpem a demora pra postar, mas eu tive alguns probleminhas envolvendo a maquina fotografica. E eu sei que vcs querem fotos, certo?

E outra, andei muito ocupada por aqui... tah, nem tanto, mas significa que tenho bastante artigos pra compartilhar com vcs!

Mas cada coisa a seu tempo, e eu vou comecar falando como foi meu primeiro Halloween.

Sabe, a gente acha que sabe o que eh Halloween pelo o que a gente ve em filmes, series, ou mesmo nas festinhas que algumas escolas e cursos de ingles fazem. Mas a coisa eh muito diferente qdo se esta aqui na terra do Tio Sam.

Eh diferente pq, simplesmente, aqui eh tudo levado MUITO a serio!... digo... nao a serio, mas as pessoasl REALMENTE curtem Halloween! Acho que o mais proximo que a gente tem sao as Festas Juninas (que eu adoro, diga-se de passagem). A diferenca eh que aqui eh tudo num dia soh, o dia 31 de Outubro, enquanto que as festividades no Brasil duram o mes de junho e julho todo.

Eu devia ter imaginado que seria algo maior do que eu esperava qdo eu fui no Walmart e tinha umas 5 prateleiras soh com fantasias, alem do corredor inteiro com pacotes gigantes de balas e chocolates, e das aboboras pra vender espalhadas no mercado. Mas, ateh ai, nada muito diferente do que a gente ve no mercado no Natal e outras datas comemorativas.

E, eh claro, as casas enfeitadas. Nao foram muitas, mas qto mais perto do Dia das Bruxas, mais casas colocavam Jack-o-Laterns nas portas. Era bonito de se ver. Alem disso, ao longo de toda cidade havian Haunted Hauses, galpoes que sao alugados nessa epoca e se tornam casas amaldicoadas, que pelo que o Aaron me falou, sao como o Castelo dos Horrores, mas sem ser necessariamente cenas de filmes. E eu nao fui em nenhuma, pq eu sou assustada demais e nao queria correr o risco de ficar sem dormir por algumas noites.

Eh serio, gente, pensa comigo.. eu tenho MEDO DE MARIPOSA, imagina ir num lugar onde a ideia eh fazer com que vc se assuste? Pois eh. E muitos colegas do Aaron falaram que muitas dessas Haunted Houses eram beeeem assutadoras. Nah., fica pra proxima.

Enfim, no sabado que antecedeu o Halloween (que trsitemente caiu numa segunda), eu pedi pro meu amado americano comprar uma abobora, pois eu gostaria de fazer um Jack-o-Lantern. Compamos tambem um kit com pequenas serras e outras ferramentas de plastico para criancas, que veio com alguns modelos de esculturas que podiamos fazer. Tinha nao soh as carinhas tipicas, mas desenhos de fantasmas, morcegos, vampiros e uma ZOMBIE HAND! Claro que a gente escolheu o zumbi, muito mais da hora que fastaminhas e talz!

Pois bem, como era a minha primeira vez, o Aaron abriu a abobora e deixou que eu fizesse as honras de limpar a coitada.

Entao primeiro, vc enfia a sua maozinha dentro da abobora....

...agarra o maximo de sementes que conseguir....

... e arranca fora. Como vcs pode ver pela minha cara, o processo eh bem nojento, pq tem uns fiapos que deslizam pelo sua mao qdo vc tenta puxar pra fora. Sem falar do que fica grudado na sua mao.

Eh.

E pior eh que vc tem que limpar o maximo possivel, com uma espatula e tudo mais, pq se vc deixar muita coisa dentro dela, se vc usar uma vela pra manter a abobora acesa, ela pode pegar fogo e causar muito problema.

Depois de limpa, eh hora de colar o molde na bobora e com um palitinho marcar na propria abobora o contorno do que vc quer esculpir. Eh uma parte bem delicada, pq a abobora sendo arredondoada vc tem que tomar cuidado pra nao dobrar o papel em cima do desenho, ou ficar mechendo muito o modelo, pq dai vc nao fazer a menor ideia de on vc tem que serrar.

Dai eh hora de serrar as as linhas marcadas na abobora. E antes que alguem aponte que o Aaron que fez tudo isso sozinho, NAO EH VERDADE, TAH? Eu fiz as linhas retas.... Mas elas ficaram direitinho!

Aqui soh um detalhe mostrando o pontilhado na abobora.

FICOU MUITO DA HORA, FALAE!

Pois bem. Jah tinhamos a abobora, os doces pras criancas... estavamos prontos!

Quase.

Faltava uma fantasia. Por isso saimos na segunda mesmo pra ir atras de mais alguns doces e uma fantasia legal.
Halloween nao eh feriado, entao todo mundo vai trabalhar e estudar, soh de noite que as distribuicao de doces acontece. Mas em muitos lugares algumas pessoas vao trabalhar fantasiadas. Isso sim eh muito legal! O Aaron me disse que teve um ano que umas pessoas no trabalho dele se vestiram de Village People. No Walmart tinha 2 mulheres vetsidas de bruxas, com direito a cara pintada de branco e batom preto. Eh claro que a maior parte dos fantasiados eram criancas, mas tinha muito adolescente e aduto fantasiado. Andando na rua eu vi um cara vestido de banana, e um outro vestido de cachorro quente. Fomos jantar no Burguer King, e passou um cara dirigindo uma pick-up com uma mascara prateada. Depois fomos no shopping, onde tinha MUITAS FAMILIAS indo pegar doces nas lojas, e muitos pais estavam fantasiados tb. Eh um dia bem divertido.

Escolhida a minha fantasia, voltamos pra casa pra distribuir doces. Colocamos um pouco de cada doce num balde, e ficamos esperando as criancas.

Vcs me perguntam, qual era a minha fantasia?

A Louca dos Doces, claro. A gente acabou soh ccomprando um chapeu de bruxa, mas esse eh o chapeu de bruxa mais espalhafatoso EVAH!...

Pronto, uma foto mais bunitinha.

Enfim, ateh que veio bastante gente, e eh muito legal das doces pra criancada. Tivemos que apagar a luz cedo, pois os doces acabaram logo (cada pacote de doce tinha 200 balas ou chocolates, mas o Aaron repetiu varias vezes pra eu nao ficar miguelando doce...).

Isso eh tudo que eu tenho pra contar sobre o Halloween. Prometo que no ano que vem vou estar devidamente fantasiada e pronta!

Logo mais eu escrevo de novo pra contar do camping!!!

Beijos!!!