On Halloween, Tiny and I didn’t have anything planned. But after dealing with more residence permit issues, we thought it would be nice to have a quiet evening…but first, we had to buy tea lights! Somehow, we forgot to buy candles for our Jack O’Lanterns for when we carved them on Saturday, and Halloween just wouldn’t be the same if we had to use a flashlight instead of candles. But our mission for tea lights ended up expanding to include a couple more essential items…can you guess? Chocolate…Milka chocolate cookies…the Manner chocolate cookies from Vienna…;-) Almdudler also made it into the bag. If you’re a fan of ginger ale and ever have the chance to try Almdudler, please do! It’s wonderful.
For supper, we made Tiny’s specialty: ghost burgers! Ground beef, tomato paste, oregano, and salt are combined and spread on buns. Then the guests take pieces of sliced cheese and cut out eyes, noses, and mouths to make – Jack O’Lantern faces! Our ghost burgers were pretty divine this year. Though we didn’t use buns, our leftover spaghetti sauce made an excellent base when spread on bread, and we used our Gouda cheese for the faces. Delicious…J We then sat down to watch “I Capture the Castle” on YouTube…not the most ghoulish movie, but a lot of fun all the same.
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| Drama & Winky. |
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| Tiny making ghost burgers! |
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| Pre-cooking. |
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| The final product...yum! |
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| Yes, we do have a ghost in our apartment.... |
November 1st (All Saints’ Day) is a holiday, and many classes are cancelled on November 2nd as well (All Souls’ Day). We were very productive. We spent a good part of those days working on homework, sitting on our beds hunched over our laptops. We’re probably broiling our sheets, slowly – I noticed a suspicious brown mark there the other day. It’s either that or our obsessive tea drinking. It’s getting a little crazy how much tea we consume now that the weather is getting colder. See the tea bag packages below, if you dare!
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| A week and a half's worth of tea? :-S |
We went to pub quiz on Tuesday, and came in 10th place! A new record for us (at least since the two of us joined the team)! On Wednesday night, we visited the cemetery with E. It’s tradition for families to visit the graves of their loved ones on All Souls’, and they usually leave candles and flowers. It was very peaceful to walk along the cemetery paths and to see hundreds of small red lights flickering all around you, reflecting off the smooth black monuments and the gilded lettering. There were some very large tombs for families, like little chapels standing on the corners of the paths. Others were simple headstones, sometimes covered in ivy. I loved that there were quite a few trees growing in the cemetery. One was a particularly elegant deciduous tree that stretched over a number of headstones erected beneath it. It really made that spot a beautiful location to visit.
We came across a grave with a date from about two weeks ago. Many flower wreaths covered the stone, with loving messages from family and friends. It must have been very difficult for that family to make their visit this year, with their loss so recent. But it is a beautiful place to rest, and I hope it brings peace to the family.
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