If you saw a person walking down a busy downtown street, dressed up in a banana costume, what would your reaction be? What questions might cross your mind? Would they include questions such as ; What is going on? Where is he going? Is that attire appropriate in this setting? Nevertheless, there are some days were it is socially acceptable to dress up as any character or thing you could imagine. Halloween is one of those days.
I am not a person who gets excited to dress up for Halloween. But, since I was in a new country, with amazing new friends, I was compelled to give it a go! Kollyns and Jenna, two Ulster Scholars, came up with the brilliant Idea for our costumes. We were going to be characters from the 2003 adventure movie titled “Holes” staring Shia LaBeouf. Kollyns featured on the farthest to the right, is the character Zero from the movie. Jenna, crouching next to Kollyns, is the character Stanly. Phillip who is posing farthest to the right is Extra #1 and I, as you guessed, am Extra #2.
The day was amazing! Everybody thought that Phillip and I were dressed up as jail convicts with no association to any movies whatsoever, which in their defense was technically accurate. However, some people were able to pick up on similarities in the outfit that Jenna and Kollyns had on, to the characters from the movie and therefore guessed correctly. Furthermore, everyone, and I mean everyone, we bumped into was so pleasant and polite! We were greeted with compliments and we engaged in conversation that started with people picking up on our accents and ended with questions like “how are you liking the country?” People kindly directed us on the right path to our destination when we got lost. Taxi drivers stopped to pick us up and drop us off without having to call a taxi office beforehand. One person stopped and offered me a stick of gum (and not because I needed it). I mean, these are all small examples, but, each and every one of those acts and more, add up to the extent of genuine kindness that the people I have met had. The real beauty of it all is that the residents that I have come across in this country are truly kindhearted around the clock, not only on Halloween.
