From left to right, back to front: Jessica, Emilie, Sally, Me, Tatiana (Photo Taken by Jackie Ngo ‘23)
There’s always an image in my head of what Halloween is supposed to look like. It’s in the tacky skeleton and stretchy spider web decorations brought out every year after hibernating in dusty attics, the spooky ghost cutouts taped onto each high school teacher’s door. It culminates in the elementary school costume parade and mummy-wrapping activities led almost exclusively by the white American expat families at our international school.
With every American holiday that rolls around, be it Thanksgiving or Halloween or any day when I’m given a day off of school, my mom, dad, and I would drive to the mall five minutes away from our apartment and grab something to eat from one of the three restaurants we frequent there. Holidays were an excuse to get out of our hermit hole of an apartment and walk around on our usual route around the mall, get a scoop of Häagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream, stock up on my dad’s favorite crackers, and head home. This year, with friends that I’ve known for a bit longer than a year, our Halloween looked neither like the orange-black-pumpkin-decor-infested vision in my head nor like the chill night-out with my family – it was more of a sweet spot in between the two.
From left to right, top row to bottom row: Ashley, Amy, Me, Tatiana, Takami, Sally, Jackie, Jessica, and Emilie (Taken with Self-Timer Camera on Takami Harano’s ‘25 Phone)
As you can see, we dressed up as a mafia family! Tatiana was the Godfather amongst us – I, as her Little, was her heiress. Sally, armed with two water guns, was the Hitman. Jackie, with a classic long trench coat, was a detective with Ashley, the undercover spy, as her partner in non-crime. Amy, with smudged eyeliner running down her face, was “The Godfather’s Ex.” Think: a unique friendship dynamic with its own universe of inside jokes unknown to an onlooker. Emilie and Jessica played Demon Slayer themed bodyguards with Emilie as Tanjiro and Jessica as Giyuu. Takami dressed up like a goth – she even had colored contacts in, it was amazing!
We took Halloween afternoon to loiter around campus and take a bunch of pictures as shown here. Really, we took too many photos – we were out for about two hours and at some point it got so cold my toes felt like they were frozen in my heels. Admittedly though, that was a poor outfit choice on my part. Afterwards, we went back to the Stone Davis, got dinner together, and then hung out in the fourth floor common room. We drank hot chocolate, ate loads of candy, and played the board game Chameleon.
Tatiana Ortiz The Godfather and Me (Taken by Jessica Tseng ‘24)
Our Halloween this year didn’t feature the typical Halloween festivities held throughout secondary school – there were no vampires or mummies in our friend group, and we didn’t even go trick-or-treating because we just went to Wegmans and bought a bunch of candy. With every holiday that passes by, I’m reminded that another year has passed. I was sad for a brief moment because October 31st told me that I’ve been away from my home for more than a year and that I’m really alone in the States. I mean, my sister has her own thing going on in New York while my parents are in Canada and China – I haven’t seen my dad in person since I left Shanghai in July 2020. I guess this is a common experience, especially among international school students: trying to strike an emotional equilibrium between the giddiness of living by yourself and fleeting reminders of loneliness. But, just hanging out with my friends here and celebrating a universally special day in our own odd way – laden with inside jokes and the like – made me feel warm inside. 🙂