Halloween is rather a nostalgic holiday for me and others my age because while we are now too old to go trick or treating, we still love to dress up and eat candy as a way of reminiscing the good ole days of cool costumes, carving pumpkins, and getting bags full of candy.

After a week of midterms, some of us here at NYU Paris just really needed the comfort of home that comes with Halloween, so even if it’s not a huge holiday in France, we did our best.

First and foremost, there was a lot of candy consumed. Halloween candy does not line the shelves of stores in France the way it does in America, so we all chipped in and brought what we could find. Candy corn was probably the highlight of the night.

Costumes were optional, but pizza was a must.

After watching an old Disney favorite, Halloweentown, we read scary stories in the dark and then had to sit and talk about funny things for a couple of hours because we were all to scared to go to bed alone.

(Matthew won the scariest story award.)

Today was All Saints Day, and we didn’t have school, so after sleeping in I went to Pére Lachaise cemetery with my friends Molly and Leslie. There were many people there, laying chrysanthemums and other flowers on graves.

It was such a beautiful fall day. The air was crisp, and we could see our breath. Most of the leaves have fallen, and now lie brown and crunchy on the ground. The sky was overcast, predicting rain (which we got caught in on the way home) and it brought out the color of the moss that covers many of the graves.

I am hoping that years and years from now, when I am an old lady, on Halloween I will sit sipping hot apple cider and thinking, “Remember that Halloween when I was in Paris?”

XOLily