Let the masks come off.....

Growing up, Halloween was always one of my favorite holidays. It marked the beginning of the holiday season and gave me the opportunity to dress up and take on the life of something I wasn’t. I remember fondly walking around my neighborhood in Connecticut in hordes of excited friends, all dressed up to daringly confront doors that had been changed from familiar to freaky all in the name of candy. My neighborhood in Newtown really knew how to do Halloween right, from hanging scarecrows from trees to decorating the yards with Halloween skits, to cookie- making mothers by day transformed into wicked witches. I have dressed up as so many different things, from a clown, a mouse (with my sister being the cat), a ballerina, a scarecrow, the sexy Sandy from Grease, a devil, a love bug, a cat, and the list goes on. There is simply something thrilling about dressing up – disguising your everyday identity – and participating in a spooky evening of sweets and screams. What I have recently pondered is that as you become an adult, this concept of masking who you are and being someone your not happens on more than this one yearly occasion. It seems that people are constantly trying to figure out who they are and want to be and trying on different “costumes” to achieve a desired perception. We all do it on a daily basis, and while it may not include collecting candy at a doorstep or watching scary movies to give yourself a fright, traces of Halloween creep into our everyday lives leading me to wonder at what point do the masks come off?

            This Halloween did not include the nostalgic classroom cupcakes or holding the hands of the kids I baby-sit for as they create their own childhood memories, but rather sleeping in and awaiting the arrival of our visiting room mate, Tess. I have Friday’s off and since we have been doing a lot of traveling, it was nice to be able to stay in London to enjoy it. Over cereal, the girls all chatted about our Thursday evening antics (my movie night not even coming close to the stories of my flat mates J). After passing around the People magazine HSM 3 Special Edition my mom sent me in the mail and catching up on our celeb gossip, I showered and got ready for the day. Laura and I continued watching Hairspray, waiting for Tess to call to let us know she had landed. We waited…..and waited…. And waited! Before I knew it, it was 3:00pm and it was time for me to venture out of the flat and into the world – the freezing cold, windy winter, dark by 4:45pm, world. I ran a quick errand at Boots to pick up some new mascara, which mysteriously disappeared, and then grab a tube to Edgeware Rd for my orthodontist appointment with Anna Gibilaro to fix a broken spring that snapped while I was in Italy (God telling me to stop eating so much, I’m sure J ). I was excited to get it taken care of and I allotted plenty of time to find the office, conveniently located just two tube stops away…. Or so I thought!

            So there I am, map in hand, walking briskly to Harcourt Rd, where I thought the office was. Turns out, after walking up and down the street twice and calling the office, I realized I was supposed to go to Harcourt House, which is in Cavendish Square in Oxford Circus – not at all where I was. I kicked myself for being a directionally challenged idiot yet AGAIN, and booked it to the tube to correct my misunderstanding and make my appointment. After sweating and staring at my map, praying a GPS system would plant itself INTO MY BRAIN (my birthday is coming up, so if anyone want to get that for me…that would be great J ), I arrived at the office, where I waited for 45 minutes to finally be seen. She was really nice, fixed the problem and then sent me on my way – but not before charging me 180 pounds…. Trust me, my jaw (sore from the repair) dropped to THE FLOOR. I swiped my credit card trying not to friggin CRY, trying to hide my disbelief and keep my cool. My orthodontist in Cary recommended me to her, but did not tell me that apparently she is the McDreamy of Orthodontics – meaning she is the cream of the crop…and charges accordingly. And the most incredible part is that she didn’t even charge me for the repair, she just considered it a consultation – nearly 350 American dollars for a freaking CONSULTATION….you have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME….. oh well…. At least the spring is now reattached to the screws in my jaw by what, I can only assume from the outrageous payment, was done by the hands of GOD….

            After the appointment (and the heart attack), I met up with the girls who were walking the streets of Oxford Circus to find last minute Halloween costumes. It turned out that Tess’s phone died, and she was able to find her way to our flat all on her own! So with her settled and ready to explore, we set out to find our costumes for the evening. The English do not get into Halloween nearly as much as Americans, but we were excited to be festive, get dressed up and live the night up in spooky London town. We headed to Primark, after passing department store window fronts ALREADY decked out for Christmas (which was very exciting). We looked around through tons of the busy shoppers and finally decided on a Zoo theme – Katie and I dressed as cheetahs while Laura, Tess and Kristy dressed as zebras. We found accessories to match our looks and finally had enough pieces to put together a decent costume (on a budget). We then headed back toward the flat for dinner.

            After leaving our bags at the flat, Tess, Katie, Laura and I headed to Ben’s Thai Pub were we had the most delicious Thai food. Afterward, we came home and decided to get our costumes on and begin the evening. But in between raiding our closets and trading items of clothing to make our looks complete, we had a little halloween visit…

            As you know, our flat is in the basement of the building, but the ground level has a little gate that leads to a small staircase that leads down to an outdoor basement patio. This patio leads to a door that opens to our bedroom, and windows to Katie, Kristy and Kelsey’s room. Well this patio was invaded by 12 year old boys - masked trick o treaters who were trying to BREAK INTO OUR APARTMENT. They were banging on the doors, they reached up and opened the window, pulling the curtains out through the open top, screaming at us “open the door sexy ladies....” and putting their two fingers around the mouth and sticking their tongue out at us. It was disgusting and disturbing and SCARY. We kept screaming – “we are calling the cops, go away,” but they kept banging and trying to get in. Laura went up to the ground floor to scream at them to leave, and they came up the stairs and started charging at her. We were all screaming as they ran around appearing in different windows… AND THEY WERE LITERALLY 12 YEARS OLD…. It is like shameful that we were letting these kids terrorize us, but through our screams and laughter, and almost peeing my pants, we called the cops (who never actually came, which is not reassuring) and they were finally scared away. It was hilarious looking back on it, but at the time really freaky. Some of the windows do not lock, and while luckily the patio door does, the fact that these troubled boys had the guts to do what they did and now know that seven girls live here is a bit unnerving. Hopefully we will not be seeing them again anytime soon.

            After we recovered from all the excitement, we took a bunch of pictures at the flat and then headed out to attend a Halloween party at a club called Sway. This club was pretty packed with people – some dressed, and others not – and had different rooms dedicated to different genres of music. We danced and laughed until our feet could no longer stand, which is when Tess and I decided to head back. The other girls weren’t quite ready, so we said goodbye, got our coasts and headed into the cold. We first grabbed some Burger King because we were starving, and then grabbed a 98 bus (driven by a guy who made us sit on it in the dark for ten minutes while he smoked a cigarette outside for his “break”) to Oxford Circus to get the 6 bus home. Once we got to stop for the 6 bus, we saw a McDonalds, and naturally we wanted some fries to compliment our burgers. We saw on the time board that we had seven minutes, so we ran in and got in line, but after trying to convince this Puerto Rican guy to let us cut and failing miserably, we gave up and headed back to the bus stop fry-less and ready to get home. And that is when we saw the 6 bus pull away from the stop, going full speed ahead. We ran after, but it was hopeless. Not wanting to wait in the cold for the next bus to come (lord knows when), we got a taxi and split the fare home – a high class way to end the evening.

From the huge charge at the orthodontics, to the 12-year-old robbers, the day was full of scares, but was one of the most fun and memorable Halloweens I have had in years. Of course, nothing could beat walking around Valley View Rd. with my sister, mom and Don (who would scream boo to scare us every step of the way) sorting and trading our candy as our night came to an end at 8:30pm, but it certainly came close.

            This morning I woke to a new day, and a new month. I cannot believe that it is November already. I officially only have five weeks left here in London and it is killing me that this semester is slipping away so quickly – too quickly. I don’t think I will ever be ready to say goodbye, but 5 weeks…. That is so soon! While I am so excited to be home, see my family and friends and celebrate the Christmas season, turning the page and closing this chapter of my life for good is really sad. They say all good things must come to an end, but I am still trying to figure out why. However, this countdown of sorts just reminds me to really take all of London in while I am here, and what a better way to do that then to show a newcomer around the city J.

            After some cheerios, Tess and I headed out into the worst weather I have every experienced in London. Now, not only does it rain, but it is freezing cold and it sleets through the most forceful wind – the kind that whips your umbrella in a million different directions and makes your styled hair transform into an wet afro of frizz. But we charged through it, and headed to St Paul’s Cathedral – but womp womp, it was closed (I am still yet to see it!), so instead we walked to Tower of London and London Bridge. After taking pictures through the rain, we took the tube to the Westminster stop and saw Big Ben, Parliament and the outside of Westminster Abbey. We decided to have lunch at Stephen’s Tavern and wait until the 3pm Evensong service at Westminster to hear the choir sing and let’s be honest - avoid the entrance fee. Laura met up with us, and we had a delicious lunch and then headed to the service, which was really beautiful. We were seated so that we could not actually see the choir, but it was still beautiful to hear the harmonies resonate throughout the cathedral. It brought me back to when our chorus would go in the staircase and sing – certainly a more glorious sound in the Abbey, but the echoes of the voices certainly brought me back and made me miss singing in a choir.

            We exited the church 45 minutes later to buckets of rain. After trying to pull out the map and figure out our next stop, we decided to take the tube to Trafalgar Square and spend some time in the National Gallery. We saw the artwork of Monet, Van Gough, Rembrandt, Picasso, and stared in awe of the artistic masterpieces, seeking comfort in the warmth and dryness of the museum. We then met up with Andrea and Katie for dinner at a great chicken restaurant called Nandoos on Baker Street, which I hadn’t had since the beginning of the semester. It was a delicious meal followed by a warm cup of Starbucks caramel hot chocolate. We braved the rain once more (it simply did not stop pouring ALL DAY…) and made it home. Tess and Laura are now off meeting up with one of Tess’s friends, while I stayed behind to catch up on my blog and watch “Cruel Intentions” with Katie and Kristy as the rain pours down outside, hopefully keeping all fearless 12-year-old boys far away from the windows of our flat J.

            So, one more Halloween has come and gone, another costume tucked away in the closet, with only a roll of pictures and some hilarious videos to remind us of our Hallow’s Eve in London. The masks are off until next year, but I go back to my first thought - are they ever really off? I can only hope that 364 days out of the year we can find a way to be true to ourselves and true to who we. But in this world where pleasing others and fitting a certain image is given way too much importance, and much too often the cover of the book surmounts the quality of the content, it may be too idealistic to hope. We all have our many masks, but being here has made me realize how amazing it is to throw them all away and own who you really are. As corny as it sounds, being who you really are is the most beautiful costume of all.

 

Love and hugs,

Jenny