We had a Halloween party last weekend, and Betty Lou included a line on the invitation suggesting people could wear costumes or masks. Most of the site came (24 people were there, including us and our friends from the Heidelberg site) and everybody dressed up! Amazing. I don’t think we could get that in the U.S., and it’s not easy finding costumes or masks here this time of year. (They have plenty during Fasching, the German equivalent to Mardi Gras.) Maybe there was some pent-up need that was tapped.
Betty Lou came as a witch and I was a monk—her exorcist. (Now that we have an ID card, we went to Aschaffenberg, about 30 miles east of here, where the military has a huge theatrical costume rental place. It’s for all of Europe, and they handle costuming for shows as well. The Cardinal costume that Betty Lou wanted me to wear was at a show in Berlin.) She also bought a makeup kit and big fake nose, including wart, which she put on with spirit gum and then gave herself a green face with bushy eyebrows. It was really a great job. This week she’s teaching at two different places and she took the costume (although not the green face) to class and taught in it. The soldiers thought it was great, and other people would come and peek into her class as the word got around.