This year, we got a last-minute invite to go into Chengdu for a bit of trick-or-treating with the Chengdu expat community. After a morning pounding out some homemade costumes, we got onto the high-speed train into town, then took the subway (!!) to the south side of town. (Yes, Chengdu now has a working Metro! Details to follow...)
After meeting friends at a restaurant, where we suited up the kids and had some mighty tasty buckwheat noodles, we headed over to a housing complex that's home to a number of foreigners. We followed a mapped-out route, zigzagging from apartment to apartment, with the boys excitedly dashing on ahead and Ysa getting sleepier and sleepier on my shoulders.
By the time we reached the party at the Marine house at the end of the route, Ysa was sound asleep, so I laid her down on a convenient sofa, and we stayed up till ten or so talking to friends, with the boys happily watching Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin for the first time on a wide-screen TV upstairs. The house was enormous, at least for Chinese standards, and it took me a bit to realize that "the Marine house" was home to, not the Marine family, but the actual U.S. Marines that work at the American Consulate in town. It was a fun time, and I was able to take most of the reverse culture shock (Capri Sun in foil pouches!) in stride.
More details of the kids' costumes:
In true Wells/Zawadowski fashion, Zekey wanted to be a map, and Ysa wanted to be a house. Okay, a very sleepy house.
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