Happy Halloween!

Well, last night was the First Annual Melissa Maples Jack-o-Lantern Extravaganza, and… wow. Much alcohol was consumed, four pumpkins were butchered into the finest faces you’ve ever seen, and a great time was had by all.

My original idea was that we’d all carve at the same time and I’d talk the guys through it as we went, but I soon realised how impractical that idea was. There wasn’t enough kitchen space for all four of us, and Ali and Emrah don’t really understand me well enough when I’m explaining things in English. Also, none of them really had any clue what I was talking about when I said that we would carve faces into pumpkins (Halloween is unheard of here). So I came up with a Plan B that I would go first with Emirhan watching and me explaining, and then he could do his next with the guys watching and him explaining in Turkish, and then he could supervise the guys while I opened the wine.

When I unveiled mine on the balcony, the unanimous response was “Woooooooooooah.” Then they got what the big deal was, and suddenly there was tremendous enthusiasm to participate in a project which had previously elicited only shrugs and “whatever” responses.

Emirhan decided to counter my blatent evil with a mischievous smile.

While Alican was drawing his masterpiece…

…Emrah was already in the carving stages.

Emirhan supervises the guys.

After we were all done, Emirhan wanted to take photos on the balcony, but it’s difficult to get the hang of a camera when you’re drunk. I also reminded him that it’s just good manners to remove your foot from the frame before taking the shot, but did he listen?

Clearly he didn’t. Take two was no better than the first, and no less blurry or footy. We love him anyway.

Oh my god, I am so glad this mess wasn’t my problem. You should have seen what the floor looked like.

Nonetheless, the result was worth it. From left to right: Emrah, Emirhan, Alican, and me.

The biggest surprise of the night was at my expense— apparently in Turkey they have these strange pumpkins that are solid all the way through (you can kind of see it in the photo of Emrah above). There’s no mushy seed part in the middle; the seeds are just embedded in the (rock-hard) flesh, similar to an apple core. That was a bitch when it came to carving, because you had to cut out the middle of the pumpkin as best you could with a knife, and then spoon-scrape the rest out. My arms and shoulders are really aching today. Two of our pumpkins were solid, and the other two were normal hollow ones.

So tonight is going to be all about relaxing— sadly there will be no trick-or-treaters or costumed goblins roaming the neighbourhood, and you can’t find candy corn here (or at least I can’t), so I’ve been told we’re going to bake a chocolate cake and watch horror films all night. Sounds great. A couple of the local nightclubs are doing costume parties, but we’re not really clubbers (I know you’re shocked). I wish there was something as cool as a haunted house here. When I’m king of the world every city will be required to have at least one haunted house on Halloween.

What are you guys doing tonight, anything special? If you want to show off your costume, link to your flickr in comments— I want to see what everyone is wearing tonight.

Hope you guys have a great Halloween. We’re doing our best here.