I was sitting in Sue-Wee's room talking about something when our doorbell rang. We'd just had some friends leave, so I figured they were coming back for whatever reason. Or...there is another fire in my building, since that's what late-night doorbells make me think of now. I opened my door, and saw this--
And actually jumped a little bit in fear! I really didn't expect that when I saw it. These kids all shoved bags into our door, with no "trick or treat" (or "sugar" like they say in the UAE). I think I said something along the lines of "Oh, gosh!" or something in English because the kids all gasped back at me. They were just as surprised to encounter "anglophones" as we were to encounter Trick or Treaters two days before Halloween.I hollared at Sue-Wee to ask where the candy was, (we have sack fulls that people send us from the US), and the kids actually stepped INTO our entry way. When I went to hand them one/two pieces each, all five hands reached in to grab as much as they could. Guess they figured it was a free for all. Sue-Wee whispered in my ear, "Just give them all of it."
Then the "let us practice our English" started...
"War are yoo frahm?" (Where are you from?)
"Doo yoo know Ollyood?" (Hollywood)
"Doo yoo know Mee-am-ee?" (Miami)
"Doo yoo know An-ge-lis?" (Los Angeles)
They gave up on the English and just started asking us questions in French. "Why do you live here? Do you like it here? Can we kiss you?" (Young teenage boys) Sue-Wee was great and started trying to teach them how to say "Happy Halloween." She'd say it and the one teenage boy would respond in French, "Can I give you a kiss?" We laughed pretty hard at it all, and got rid of all the candy we've had since February.
I guess now all the neighborhood kids are going to know where the American girls with lots of candy live...
4 comments:
The nerve! The cheek! The gumption! The gall! Two days before Halloween! And TEENAGERS!? As we say in my family, Throw the bums out!
:)
That said, I am VERY much looking forward to Halloween. I love giving candy away to children! And I love it when they come up with creative costumes! But all must be done with order and decorum...meaning: no early hooligans!
2 day early is inexcusable. and don't even get me started on the whole kissing thing, little boggers [notice how I cleverly changed the word so as not to offend your Euro friends ;-)]
Good luck on the real night...
Yall are applying American Halloween etiquette on European kids who are just catching onto the concept of trick or treating. Don't be so hard.
Over a period of three days (Hallowween included), we had our doorbell rung a grand total of FOUR times...and one of those times was the MMTAT's bringing their kids! (Who, by the way, brought US candy...so I think all in all, we might have ended up with more candy than we started with originially...)
Well, I think it's great, though I wouldn't want to face that at my door either. And as for being early, it turns out that my college town declared Tuesday, the 30th, the day for trick-or-treating because you can't do it on a Wednesday, of course. Talk about nerve! I was disappointed because I was at a house where kids could come on Wed. and not Tues.
Oh, and my favorite of your ivy pictures was the fifth one. Gorgeous- I want that to be my window!
~Megan
Post a Comment