To tell everything about our Halloween experience is both
boring and time consuming. So, for your enjoyment, here is a snippet of our
Halloween—pumpkin carving in China.
Two weeks before Halloween:
“Chloe!” Courtney called to me over the heaped fruit. Her
voice bubbled with excitement. I leaned around the pyramid of apples to see
what had caused her exclamation. One hand on the cart, she stood in front of
one of the many wooden barrels which held cabbages. This barrel, however, did
not cradle heads of cabbage, but rather the beautiful orange spheres of
pumpkins.
I almost dropped the bag of apples. Knowing that it was
thoroughly odd, I let out a squeal and danced over to the treasure trove. Our
fellow shoppers glanced at us curiously, then looked away with a shrug. Foreigners.
“I sent a photo to Hammerstrom,” my roommate said, “We can
carve them for Halloween!”
“We can come back next week, so they stay fresh.” I finally
acknowledged the strange looks from the customers, and my happy dance petered
out.
