Хэлловин...Halloween in Russia!

So this past weekend was Halloween and while I didn't particularly celebrate like I would in the US, I did organize two parties at the university: one for university students this past Friday and one for our Access (middle/high school) students on Saturday.

Before I get too into this, I'll just tell you that I was Chuck Norris for Halloween (thank Ana for the amazing idea!).  Chuck is a brilliant idea for Elista because he's been here and people seem to like him, but anyways this is the ONLY time you will EVER see me in Wrangler's Jeans...enjoy.

Again, the ONLY time you'll ever see me in Wrangler's...as seen here as Walker: Texas Ranger

On with the story! Friday night we had a ton of people, many more than I had expected and/or was prepared for.  I think overall there were about 60 of us, counting teachers and students and it was nuts.   Unfortunately, however,  there were only about 12 people with costumes, myself included.

All the costume wearers!

Costume Contest Winner!

There were a few student presentations: one girl gave a nice little history about Halloween, another had prepared a rudimentary Halloween-esque crossword (first year student, but he did very well), and a group of girls had a riddle, which was unfortunately solved and answer spouted out before the girls could finish their presentation.

Then we got into our activities that I had planned.  The first one we did was play a 'rousing' game of Halloween pictionary.  Some of the things were very easy (bat, monster, etc) and others were more difficult (scarecrow and particularly, Edward Cullen....hahaha yes I know that's lame).

Igor trying to cheat at Pictionary...check out his good Cullen drawing though!

Our next contest was a 'Mummy Wrap!'  I bought 48 rolls of toilet paper, which was really just perfect for two Halloween parties, and the students had a blast doing this.  It was fun to see the different methods students chose, and the different ways they dressed their mummies, take a look!

Sergei the Bloody Mummy

Our final contest was bobbing for apples.  Since there were so many people there and so few apples and places to bob, we had a little contest with two people going at once: the first time round it was whoever grabbed an apple first; the second time there was only one apple and they had to fight for it.  This was really awesome and fun to watch, but the two people at the same time thing, especially when there was just one apple, kinda made a huge mess....oh well.      

In the end I had wanted to do a dance competition to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and then watch the music video, but the cleaning ladies wanted us out so we settled for just watching the video sans competition.  Overall, it was great fun and I think everyone had a good time!


Saturday was our party with Access students, where did pretty much the same activities.  We did a simpler pictionary (their English language abilities aren't quite the same), we did the mummy wrap (they loved it!) and we did bobbing for apples.

Since this group was much smaller than the previous night's and since we had made a big mess the night before, I opted for one at a time bobbing to see who could do it the fastest.  This was hilarious to watch since these are teenagers and are generally reluctant to do anything anyone asks of them, but we got everyone to do this and ridiculousness ensued.  The water was much colder on Saturday than it was on Friday, making grabbing the apple a much more daunting task.  Some students went about things a bit dainty-like and others straight up plunged their heads deep into the water, pinned that apple against the bottom of the bucket and whipped it out!

Director the University

We also ended up doing the dance competition with this group, but the 'teenager' thing kinda got in the way and the dances, while entertaining, weren't exactly enthusiastic in any way.

After it was all said and done, I was a bit Halloween-ed out and decided to head home and have a nap.  Those two were pretty much the extent of my Halloween celebrations and while they weren't exciting in the way I might have celebrated in the US, they were fun nonetheless and I think everyone had a good time!

Playing a name game!

Dear Readers, I'd love to hear about how YOU celebrated Halloween this year! Leave a comment and let me know who you were and what you did!