who says there's no halloween in china?

Well, actually, I say there's no Halloween in China. That is, unless you're among a bunch of non-Chinese people who also celebrate Halloween, in which case there may be Halloween in China. But it will be very, very difficult to devise a costume. It takes a lot of searching: there's no "Halloween section" in China's Wal-Marts, and there's no seasonal costume store at any of the many, many malls in Tianjin.

Nevertheless, the foreign students at my school pressed forward. Last night we celebrated Halloween at Alibaba's, a local bar that draws the expat crowd most weekends (and some of my classmates on most weeknights). There were actually a TON of people in costume at this place as the night went on, but sadly, my camera battery died before I was able to take pictures of all of them. So, here are some pics from early in the evening.

Poor Benny was home sick with a cold, but Sam came out to play for a little bit. . .

and managed to scramble together a borrowed costume for this picture. The witch's hat belonged to some girls sitting at our table. I found the gold mask after hours of searching, and grabbed it, thinking I could use it for something.

"Who is that lovely lady?" you ask? It's Nathan (in drag), of course!

Felipe (the mummy) and me. I had a heck of a time devising those kitty ears. I actually used part of a mask like the one Sam is wearing above, and worked a little Halloween magic on it.

Steffi and Felipe. Steffi heard Nathan was going as a woman, so she decided to dress as a boy.

Two (of three) comrades. This is actually probably the easiest kind of costume to find around here. You can buy this garb at a lot of market stalls on the street.

There are a few costumes I really wish I could show you pictures of. For example, my friend Miguel managed to put together a complete pink fuzzy bunny costume, and he wore it all day long. You should have seen the look on our teacher's face when he walked in to class.