¡Truco Trato!

I did my best to celebrate Halloween in a city that's just now being inundated with Halloween paraphernalia. The little kids are taking to it pretty fast, but the older ones sort of roll their eyes. And the cynics launch into tirades about how American consumerism is invading Europe! Okay, that's true in a way, but I tried to encourage those around me to embrace the dressing up part.
Here's our pumpkin. I bought him a couple weeks ago. I carved out the insides and then let him sit in the kitchen for a few days before moving him to the balcony. On Halloween night I finally decided to carve him up and discovered lots of fuzzy mold inside. Poor fella. As I carved his simple features, his face nearly collapsed. Little cracks formed around the cuts and the mouth ended up with a crooked smile that was unintended, but looked good.

Can you spot our little rotten friend?

While walking to the grocery store I looked up an saw the moon- glowing and perched between the buildings at the bottom of our street.

Carlos and I met up with my new friend Brenna. I whipped together a strange ¨zombie cook¨ costume with a couple aprons and torn pieces of white fabric in my hair. Carlos wore his monkey mask and Brenna wore an old skeleton costume that belongs to one of the boys she takes care of. We wandered around looking for something fun to get into, but we were among the few who were in costume. Like I said, Madrid is just now catching on. 

People really loved Carlos's mask. Lots of shouts and smiles.

We stopped at a cafe and had some beers. Three boys in masks were going from table to table saying ¨Truco trato!¨ When they came to our table I was caught off guard as one boy jumped up and screamed with his scary mask. They were expecting money from people, but I was prepared with some twix bars which they devoured like little rats!

The pensive monkey.