Happy Halloween!

(nope, I don't know these people)

Well. Talk about spontaneous, out-of-character adventures.

I considered studying after Friday's exams, but knew I'd only be able to manage a half-hearted attempt. Completing two more midterms deserved a break of some sort. I figured my friends were scattered about (I knew a group went to watch High School Musical 3, but unwillingly overhearing the first two movies sufficiently deterred me). So: I went to the library. Borrowed two Hitchcock films and a romantic comedy (to end on a pleasant note). And figured I'd munch on candy corn while enjoying a lovely mini-semi-Halloween-movie-marathon.

But--when I emerged from the library I found I had a missed call (two, actually, but the other is irrelevant to the telling of this story). "Hmm," I thought, "Perhaps an adventure is in store?" So I adventurously returned the call.

Yay! Friends I hadn't seen in a week asking me to hang out with them! Option 1: Go to bar in Causeway Bay. Option 2: Go to a BBQ party at the Gold Coast. They provided option 2 because they know I don't like drinking (alcohol, I will drink lychee fruit juice any day). I thought it was so sweet of them to provide me with options that I left the decision to them, so--to Causeway Bay! "Fun with Coke and Sprite!"

I hadn't brought any dressing-up type clothes, so I borrowed a dress and a pair of 10cm heels--I towered. Or imagined I did. At least I never tripped. Or became stuck in an escalator.

Fully prepared (and feeling more than a bit fabulous) we joined a group of people waiting outside the front entrance, most of whom we didn't know.

At Hong Kong station we left the group behind after a decision to meet up with different friends (well, friends of my friends who sit behind me in International Trade) who were in Lan Kwai Fong. That name probably means nothing to you. Basically, it's where everyone goes drinking and clubbing and on Halloween it's where more than everyone goes. Seriously. Take the number of people swarming the streets after the National Day fireworks and raise it to (at least) the third power. If the friend of my friends hadn't had a friend with an apartment in Lan Kwai Fong and an official paper proving it...there's no way we'd have made it through the crowds waiting to enter. We had a difficult time as it was, squeezing and shoving until we could show the paper to the next cluster of police officers (at every corner and more) and be allowed through.

The nice part about crowds is you won't fall flat on your face when walking downhill in heels. 100% impossible. Even if it had been an evil crowd and when it sensed you falling everyone collectively decided to move out of the way--where on earth could the people have moved out of the way to??

And the costumes! Everywhere! Ah!

Eventually we made it to the apartment to meet up with more people I didn't know. Including a guy from Sweden--yay Sweden! And, wow, what a compact apartment. A bed was pushed up against the wall, a couch was pushed up against the bed with a television in front and a wall behind. As far as I could tell, airplane's might have larger bathrooms. And the kitchen consisted of a counter with a sink, no stove, just one of those induction cookers that everyone in the hostel seems to have.

Then we went to the club. And I attempted to dance. I haven't attempted to dance since, umm...middle school? I only wished my feet hadn't begun aching so horribly. Someone should invent shoes with collapsible heels for times like this.

Shortly after 4 a.m. we left. The MTR stops operating at 1, so we used the red minibuses. Which reminds me, I owe a friend 30HKD. The red minibuses don't use the Octopus, so you have to provide exact change, which I didn't have. Normally the fare isn't this outrageous, but on this night demand for transportation clearly exceeded supply. Also, the seats on the red minibuses are covered in plastic and there's a sign warning that you'll pay 300HKD if you vomit.

At 5 I crawled into bed.

Oh! But I forgot to mention! Inside a creepy elevator we met a girl (maybe 9?) holding the absolute tiniest puppy I've ever seen. And she let us pet him! So warm and soft...

Also! Creepy elevators reminds me of the Hostel F elevators yesterday, which had sides covered in fake blood and streamers and cobwebs and an eyeball dangling from the ceiling!

Also (again)! Yesterday morning a car stopped so I could cross. This NEVER happens. I nearly forgot how to react (i.e. go ahead and cross the road).