Halloween 2007

More changes were seen here during Halloween, which was a full-on, commercial holiday with all the storefront trappings: spiders, witches, skeletons - even "pumpkin pie" (closer to a sweet, citrus chiffon). The pumpkins were humbler in stature, but we carved it anyway; the costumes were all in the ghoulish vein - I didn't see Little Mermaids walking around - so Carolyn found Michael a knight outfit off EbayUK which will serve double duty for Saturday's birthday party - 15 classmates coming. (BTW, I think shopping Ebay bypasses the customs tax you pay with online catalogs. I think. I hope).

Didn't see, nor can I imagine Swiss children going door-t0-door, saying "trick or treat." They celebrated 10/31 like they do everything else: a festival(!) - which we missed, but there were reports of dressed-up children in a parade in the St Francois square.

Actually, since media is transporting trends - fun, as well as social paranoia - immediately, there seems to be an interesting skip in progression occurring. Eg: it's absolutely safe for children here to walk on their own to school, but some parents are now driving their kids anyway, for fear of kidnapping - causing a real traffic nightmare around the schools. It's as though they're skipping the loss of the 1950s/60s neighborhood and heading straight for bowling alone.
I am showing the Zatoichi; the Blind Swordsman DVD in the film course, so all this sword stuff is swirling around everywhere these days. (Check out the 60s series, if you wish, starring the lovable Katsu Shintaro - inspired Peter Falk's Columbo character, among others).
Jack was a bear and together they knocked on student dorm rooms with their economy-size yogurt buckets.

There was a student party later in the evening, a slight morale booster for mid-term blahs.
Today we're gearing up for the birthday/housewarming party. I'm baking a castle cake tonight, after rummaging the streets for large boxes to spray paint as the Chateau, inventing knight-theme games.

Parents do it to themselves.