Merry Halloween!

So, since today is HALLOWEEN, I thought I would write a holiday/costume/custom themed blog entry. Its probably pretty easy to guess that Halloween is in my top three all-time-favorite holidays! Unfortunately, Spain doesn't celebrate Halloween...they have much cooler holidays, like Las Hogueras, which happens for midsummer in Alicante and they have huge bonfires on the beach and around the centro; Tomatina, which is the tomato-throwing festival in southern Spain; Running of the Bulls in Pampalona in northern Spain; and Carnaval, which is another huge fiesta in Valencia. All involve lots of dressing up, fireworks, and having a huge party in the middle of downtown. Which is great, but I'm not going to be here for any of them :( So, we Americans are going to celebrate Halloween anyway.

And I am going to be FRENCH MIME. See, that's my costume! I was practicing my makeup yesterday. It's legit because that hat is actually from Montmartre in Paris. YES. I'm fairly certain my madre thinks I'm insane because I was running around the house in this get-up yesterday for like two hours, hahah.

However, I have found another Spaniard with a love for dress-up:

Mario! I look very strange in that picture, but he's cute, so whatever. Mario, my madre's 6 year old grandson, and I are bffz. We ran around the house last week and he dressed up in all of my accessories.

He loved my rainbow scarf :)

We have a blast. Also, yesterday, my madre made PAELLA, which is Alicante's famous type of food. It's extremely hard to make and especially hard to make well. Luckily, my madre is one of the best cooks I've ever seen, so she's got it, no problem.

Cooking the paella. Look at that giant gas tank thing! And you have to use that special pan and the special way to cook it. Mmm.

Still cooking. My madre was like, "Don't take a picture of that! That's ugly! Wait until it's finished!" But I thought it was cool.

My madre, serving the table. She seriously refuses to do photos, so this is all I've got :) She's adorable, though. And look, you can see our patio outside! :)

My Spanish "hermanas" over for lunch. On the right is Yolanda (Yoli), Mario's mom, and on the left is Eva, Adrian's mom. They're very sweet! Also, something I've noticed, Spaniards (and Europeans in general), don't smile for pictures. They just don't. Its strange. They make like, a mugshot sexy face. I don't get it.

The final product! Man, I should be a food photographer. Yum.
(Note: If you really like food photography, or just want to read something awesome, check out my friend Grace's blog. She always has cute food pictures of things she makes!)

Well, that's it, I suppose! I've got to get cracking on this homework/studying business, so I shall talk to you all, soon. Shout-out to my actual mother, whose birthday in on SUNDAY so give her a call and wish her well! :)

Besos y besos! <3>