(Halloween Day with some friends)

I hope everyone had a good Halloween. As I mentioned in the previous blog, not many people here celebrate Halloween- it's definitely much bigger in the U.S. There are some children who go trick or treating, and the few people our age who do dress up must think that Halloween is only about dressing like monsters! The only costumes I saw were of people who painted their faces white with scars and blood, and they'd ripped their clothing! There were witches, evil doctors, vampires, and other sorts of monsters, all similar with the painted faces and torn clothes!

But Brian and I still dressed up, as well as our friend Joe and our Spanish friend Alberto. It was Alberto's first time ever dressing up for Halloween, and as he told us, "This year I will dress up because I think I have a very strong American influence over me!"

Brian, the Mexican Gaucho

Me, the Genie

Joe, the Sheriff

Alberto, the pirate

Some scary patients (notice the painted bloody faces!)

On another note, the other day while Brian and I were taking our walk to a local park, we found this amazing graffiti under a bridge. I normally HATE graffiti, especially since it seems young Spaniards here love to do it on everything (so sad to see it deface such historical monuments and buildings older than the U.S.). But I'm making an exception for these paintings we found under the bridge and hidden from sight to most people: