Hey?

Halloween here was similar, yet different than back home.  First, it is not celebrated on Halloween but on the Saturday before, so we spent the actual Halloween night carving pumpkins to get a little in the spirit (we were able to find orange ones at the local store, only $11 each!) .  Our estate had festivities on the 29th that started in the main park with a magician, then trick-or-treating around the neighborhoods.  We walked several miles over a period of about 2 hours and got candy from maybe 20 houses.  I was surprised at the quality of candy that was handed out.  I don't mean to sound spoiled and ungrateful, but Halloween in the US has caused me to be this way.  Most of the candy Miranda collected consisted of suckers, small pieces of hard candy, and marshmallows.  I had to throw a lot of it out because it's not like she got a small package of marshmallows or a snack-sized bag of yogurt gummies, people actually opened the bags and you were allowed to pick two.  Really?  She only got one small chocolate bar, and that was from one of the American's house.  But we had a lot of fun with our friends, and the best house was the one giving out beer to the parents (thanks Anne!).  I bought myself a Snickers and Twix bar the next day to satisfy my craving, so it's all good.     

There is a GYNORMOUS neighborhood being build just down the road from us and they had an open house last weekend to show off their almost-finished clubhouse.  Oh.My.GOSH!  I want to live there.  It was a lovely evening and we enjoyed a picnic with our neighbors.  There were several little bonfires and marshmallow toasting.  I told my friend all I needed was a Hershey's bar and some graham crackers.  These were foreign words to her and I attempted to explain what smores are.  I had no idea this wasn't a world-wide treat.  Also at the picnic they had a story teller, fire dancers, a band, and a DJ.  At the end of the evening, we all got to send off fire lanterns into the sky, similar to the ones in 'Tangled' but bigger.  It was the coolest thing to see 600 of them floating away.   

I'm still getting a hang of the 'lingo' here.  One of the hardest is when someone tells me I "must" do something.  This is a little offensive in the states for someone to say this to you, but here's it's just a way of speaking.  At home, we would replace the word with 'need' or 'should'.  People also like to say "hey" at the end of sentences a lot.  Like how the Canadians say 'Eh' at the end of their phrases.  "It's a beautiful day, hey?"  "You want to go to the store with me, hey?"  "Shame" is a big one too, inserted where we would say "that's too bad."  

I am happy that Summer is FINALLY here as I have been waiting 14 months for it.  Seeing how I left Kansas just as Spring was starting only to get here and have Winter just beginning, it's been a long time coming.  Strawberries, watermelon, blueberries, and grapes are in season.  Yea!!!