Ex·pa·tri·ate Halloween

Noun:	A person who lives outside their native country.
Adjective:	Living outside one's native country.
Verb:	Settle oneself abroad.

Earlier in the week I was looking for an expatriate community, and in my successful search I also found a Halloween party. I didn't really have the time (or energy) to put together a costume, so the best I could come up with was to go as a [male] peacock (or Mrs. Peacock without a weapon). I woke a blue dress dress with my peacock feather headband and the brightest combo of eye shadow in my pallet.



It was a little unsettling to go to a party by myself...where I didn't know anyone. But I put on my brave face and made the 15-minute walk. On the way, a woman stopped me to ask for directions. I should mention that someone stops me almost once a day (or three times!) to ask me for directions. I like to think this is because I look friendly and that I appear to know where I am and where I'm going. Sadly, this isn't the case. Until yesterday. I was so excited that I could actually answer her question! I pointed her toward Milk Street (this is funnier to me than Milchstraße) and went on my smiling way. About 40 seconds later, when I realized that Milk Street was the opposite direction than I sent the woman, I felt terrible. I don't know what I was thinking. I really hope she realized I gave her bad directions and that she wasn't late to wherever she was going. I thought about running back to find her, but that didn't seem like it would pan out.



I entered the party and met the first witch of the evening, although he was the only witch in drag who also happened to be the event coordinator. I said, "Hello, I'm Lynn", and he's goes, "You're from Chicago." At first I was concerned my Chicago accent took a turn for the worse, but it turns out he's also from the Chicago area and had remembered my profile from my RSVP. And then he recognized my SMC ring. This is actually the first time this has ever happened to me. Creepy, yet cool.



I would say nearly a quarter of the 100+ people at the party were dresses as witches or vampire in one form or another. I truly never seen so many witch hats in one place. It was kind of neat to see such Halloween classics make so many appearances. What makes it better is that they were German witches and French vampires. I only met two Americans the whole night. I did exchange information with a gal from NY and her German husband before I was bombarded with French and Romanian connections.



I spoke English for most of the night, but some German here and there. While talking to two French vampires (yep, two) and an uncostumed Italian, we suddenly we were all speaking German. Which was awesome, yet made me feel silly that I only know two languages! Plus, a lot of people assumed I was German and assumed that I spoke French to which my reply was a smile and a "I'm American". Apparently I have a German face and German eyes.



I enjoyed my time with the Romanians as well. Their English just might have been better than mine. And they even guessed my age correctly--with the clause that I do look younger and that's not bad. We exchanged info as well, so we shall see. Despite the lack of music, it was very loud in the bar. It was tough to hear and my congestion didn't help. Plus, some people are more used to a British accent versus an American one, but it really just depends what ear is trained to hear. I had a couple of conversations where the word "book" just wasn't coming across clearly.



All in all, it was a very nice group of people coming together. This is one of the biggest events of the year, so it was a nice place to start. I ended up being there from 8p-1:15a and when I left my cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing too much. This was the latest that I've been out in Hamburg so far and even though I felt very safe, I think I was on an adrenaline rush for the walk home. I wasn't even tired anymore so I spent some time on Facebook searching for Halloween pics that still haven't been posted (let's get to work, people!). And then it was a quarter to 3 and I wanted to see what would happen to the TV clock when the time change happened. So, I waited 15 minutes to watch the clock change from 3:00 to 2:01. Yes, this happened and I don't regret it.