Halloween

I used to celebrate Halloween around my neighbourhood every year when I was younger.We'd dress up and wear face paint and collect candy from our neighbours (I remember valuing the chocolate and secretly condemning anyone who gave me fruit plus). Somehow when I got to secondary school, I stopped celebrating Halloween - I was too busy, and the celebration had become a little too big in my neighbourhood as one neighbour would invite all the children from an international school over and the roads would be thronged with strangers rather than just being trickles of the other children I would play football and badminton with.

In Cambridge, Halloween is quite a big thing. Whole streets will decorate themselves, and the university organises an inter-college trick or treating event, where you can get candy from the porters. The night clubs hold themed parties, and people actually dress up. On the eve of Halloween, as I cycled back from my Friday bible study, I was cycling past ghosts and skeletons on the street!

I decided to spend my Halloween night at a Halloween Charity Dinner - I was tempted by the promise of curry, and a full three course vegan menu of a walnut and orange salad, a sweet potato and butternut squash curry and apple cake for dessert! Andrea and Alex also decided to come, although Andrea met us at the venue instead of walking there with us. It was funny but, like prom, the preparation and the journey there was almost more fun than the dinner itself, because it was dark and quiet and oh so spooky.

Alex wore a orange dress, with the vague intent of being a pumpkin. (which reminded me of when I stuffed a small orange cotton dress with rolled up balls of newspaper one Halloween so I was a very knobbly pumpkin) I wore a black dress and brought along the beautiful scarf Nat gave me so that if anyone asked (not that anyone did) I could throw it over my head and say 'I am Madam Sosostris'. From the Wasteland. By T.S Eliot. I think you can tell that the modernist poem essay I'd been set that week was still on my mind!!!

We decided to walk there, cold wind blowing against my shins, our breath forming little white clouds. Probably the scariest thing that happened was when we heard a loud sound behind us, and saw a man topple off his bicycle because his costume -a white toga -had been caught in the spokes of his bicycle wheel!

Another fright we had was when Alex almost dashed out in front of a car to cross a road because she didn't notice it coming! I certainly didn't want real death and ghosts on my Halloween night and it was a lucky lucky thing that she stopped and skipped back to the safety of the pavement before she was flattened!

We had two more little scares that left us shaky with nervous laughter - when we heard the footsteps of someone walking behind us and coming closer and closer, and when my coat got snagged by a briar-bush.

The dinner was rather good, but it was the conversation that made the night really interesting. I sat diagonally opposite a guy from Pembroke who was incredibly clever - like Stephen Hawking with a languages brain. Although he also knew that tellurium can make gold rust (and here I am not even knowing what tellurium) Unfortunately, he got into an argument with the girls sitting opposite him who had 'Climate Change is scarier than zombies' written on their faces and decolletage. It was so unfortunate - they were arguing over a tiny thing: whether or not you should have to caveat what you say if it is not 100% true even if it 99% true. And yet it ended with neither of them backing down, the girls refusing to talk to him, and him moving over to sit opposite me, acknowledging that he unfortunately often offends people. He is writing a book that will be 50,000 words. He is writing it in a month.

I also sat diagonally opposite a girl from Kings, who was really wise. She reminded Alex and that although everyone says university and freshers year especially will be the best years of your life, it might not be true and you shouldn't feel guilty or regretful if it isn't, because it is all part of shaping who you are and will be. If you aren't having fun all the time, that isn't odd or weird, it is normal and it is healthy! And you shouldn't try to push yourself to make tons of friends and do everything because it just isn't humanly possible. Instead, you should enjoy the process of slowly getting to know some of the smartest people you will ever meet, and find out which ones you fall into friendship with and trust, and then meander through university life with them, having times when you just plunge into a flux of excitement and activity if that is what you feel will help you develop, and also having times where you just need ton sit by yourself under a tree with a Shakespeare play and read.