Halloween- American style!

I have never been a major Halloween person, but I would be lying if I said I don’t enjoy a good costume party. So when the opportunity to attend one such party offered itself up, of course I jumped on it.

I spent all last week teaching my lovely students about Halloween and we used spooky-themed vocabulary. We discussed the history of Halloween (when the Celts—pre-St. Patrick—thought the barrier between this world and the afterlife became so thin that spirits could cross through and menace the living) and the modern, more cultural (let’s get dressed up and drink ‘til morning) version of the holiday. They learned such great terms as “to scare” “to dress up as” “goblin” and “zombie”. They also practiced the formation of sentences such as, “Jacob is a werewolf. Werewolves bite people during the full moon.” As well as, “ Edward Cullen is a vampire. Usually vampires turn into bats and they can fly. Edward does not turn into a bat.” 

This whole lesson was introduced with the question, “Does anyone know what holiday is this weekend?” This produced some confusion initially since this past Friday was the Turkish Republic Day (87 years and counting...) I had totally forgotten about the holiday, but of course my lovely students were quick to remind me. Why does this matter? Because there are NO CLASSES! So, to celebrate, Sherri and I hopped a bus to Istanbul.

While walking together through Sultanahmet, quite possibly the most packed section of the city, we ran into Eli, another Fulbrighter. He was on his way to see Sarah, Michael, Hayfa and Hayfa’s friend (who was visiting from her ETA post in Romania) who were all having lunch at a kebab place just across the street. We all hung out and caught up. Hearing about other people's situations is always a great way to remind yourself that you're not alone. Michael's student told him some cryptic message about being in a cave with a burning bush and that he was afraid for his safety (...yeah, strange right?) Others have been evicted by their university and barred from teaching. It makes everything I am doing sound particularly rosy...


After this, Sherri and I went to meet a former Fulbrighter named Rebecca who lives in Taksim. She and some of her awesome expat friends were heading over to the American consulate where the marines were hosting a Halloween party in their residence. Two of them had been travelling in the Balkans working on a story and had only just returned to Istanbul the day before. They had no costumes. Another, a Kurdish-Danish journalist didn't seem aware that you dress up for Halloween parties. But, her American friend Ascher decided (last minute it seems) to dress as "Hipster Ahmadinejad" the costume consisted of hipster clothing and a tattoo of Arabic script saying something like God is Great.  We took a while to get over to the consulate (which is in the boonies) so when we arrived around 10:30, the party was in full force.

Ahmandineja-diggy in the flesh.

Walking into a full-blown, frat house style party is never a good idea unless you are several drinks deep, which none of us were. I felt (for all of you HWS folk) like I walked into a Chi Phi party the second week of school, except rather than having a bunch of drunken underclassmen, it was a bunch of drunken 40-somethings.  There was a bad strobe light in the corner, which destabilized rather than added atmosphere, a covered pool table that became a dance-stage much to the chagrin of one particular marine and several very inappropriately dressed men and women. Ahhh, America.

Semper fi (... that's the marines right?)

I was worried that the whole scene might be a bit too much of a culture shock, but then a miracle happened. I went to the bar and ordered a beer. Then the bartender asked, “What kind?” Now, for those of you who have never been to Turkey this may sound normal, but in Turkey there is one kind of beer, Efes Pilsen, which tastes like watered-down Miller Lite. Sometimes you can find Tubourg too, but it’s rare. So when she told me that they had SAM ADAMS, the night made a brilliant turn for the better.

Once we acclimated ourselves, met some people, and saw the gorgeous view from their massive terrace, any feelings of apprehension I had felt upon arriving had melted away. I gave in to the Lady Gaga remix, did my best to ignore the strobe light and danced the night away.

Rebecca as Minnie Mouse, me as Rosie the Riveter and Sherri as a pirate.