Halloween!!!

For those of you who have been following my blog over the past year and half, you may remember Halloween last year in Harkiv, where I had giardia but still dressed as fire (the best of the 4 elements). This year was even better than last! First of all, there was no Giardia. My friend Rachel didn't allow me to eat anything leading up to Halloween that would even risk me getting sick. Second, we had the best costumes ever! Who can forget the classic scene in "Dazed and Confused" where Parker Posey and the other Seniors initiate the freshman by humiliating them? Well, we figured that the group before us completed their service and were beginning to leave, we were officially Seniors. And because of that, we were allowed to initiate the baby Freshman (aka. the group 2 groups below us). Which is exactly what we did. And it was sooo much fun! It was like the high school senior year we weren't allowed to have :)

Here are some other killer costumes from this year's festivities.

Old Soviet "Boy Scouts" (I cannot for the life of me remember what they're actually called)

Sasha, the Ladybug, Alia, Flavor Flav, and me (yes, I am wearing make-up)

Alia as Flavor Flav

I also took photos of my class' Halloween party, where I was dressed as Mickey Mouse and my friend Megan was Minnie Mouse, but in the chaos that was the Peace Corps party in Harkiv, I lost my camera. Boo. But there was "pin the tail on the pumpkin", pumpkin carving, decorations (thanks Mom and Dad for buying those), and Halloween Bingo. We also went trick-or-treating, something that none of the kids had ever done.

Next up. . . Thanksgiving! We're already planning a feast here at the office with all of my classes, and I'm sure someone will dress up in costume as an Indian (because they think that's PC, and there's no use trying to change their minds). And then I'll be off to Rachel and Alia's site, where we're having our Peace Corps Thanksgiving (about 15 people will be there), complete with canned cranberries sent from America!!

Other than that, nothing is new. I'm in the process of writing another grant for a media center that Luba and Oksana (my Ukrainian counterparts) want to start in one of the rooms in the office. We just won a grant to start a volunteer newspaper, and celebrated with cognac on friday in the middle of the day, in which we were calling a "business lunch". Of course, that was my idea :)