I'd never made the journey southwest of Nonsan until Saturday. I always go north and/or east--Seoul and Daejeon, most commonly. So Saturday was a bit of an adventure. Getting to Gwangju--about an equal distance from Nonsan as Seoul, but in the opposite direction--was a total pain. In total, ignoring the gory details, it took me four hours and a bus transfer. However, I made it, grabbed the last materials for my costume, and met up with a bunch of ETAs spending Halloween in the city.
I'll admit, I had high expectations, thinking that Halloween with a group of foreigners in a big city would be ROUGHLY similar to Halloween in America, but alas, there are some things that--no matter how hard you try to--just won't translate into Korean life. It was still a good time though, and being able to see almost ALL the ETAs (seriously, we have homing instincts, I think, considering how many separate groups of us came into this city with little to no intercommunication) was really, really great.
Walking around in costumes was hilarious. Where ever we went, Koreans would stare silently until we passed, then rather loud whispering of "asldkfjs Halloween asdkjflsa" in our wake. Especially when Cornelius, the other Penn State ETA, went walking around in a combo costume--his original Korean grandma outfit with a Batman cape + face mask. That one got a lot of stares, as I'm sure did Adam's amazing Ursula costume, complete with purple body paint.
Foreign girls' translation of Big Bang's outfits in "Gara Gara Go!!" (which is actually a Japanese song)
I wish I had been able to do more Halloween things with my host family, but it's so much more difficult to translate holidays that I thought it would. I started Halloween a few weeks early, but failed to really plan things, so this time I'm starting NOW with Thanksgiving, hoping it turns out more like what I'm imagining it will: a whole throng of host family and friends gathering for a giant spread of hand-made American foods. Wish me luck!
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