Week 10 in the US – double digits! The Monday to Thursday was pretty standard, but on Friday and the weekend I got up to all sorts of fun things! This is a summary for the week from the 24th to 30th of October.
🔥 Hotdogs, S’mores + Good Times/Chats 🌭
On Friday I had the pleasure of going to a mate in the Christian Union’s place for a campfire. The Fall (Autumn) weather was perfect! For dinner I enjoyed roasting hotdogs on the fire, and also enjoyed chatting with my friends around the campfire.
For dessert there was a s’more contest where the winner would take home a $15 Starbucks gift voucher – and so you know that I was after that voucher! To win, I decided that I needed to pull all the stops out, and so I came up with the following masterpiece:
This delicacy includes a bun foundation with a hotdog. This was then combined with eight marshmallows cooked on the fire, a melted Hershey’s bar, a broken up Reece’s peanut butter cup, and some sprinkles to wrap the dish together. My friend Matt named it a “smizzy”, where the “s” comes from s’more, and the “mizzy” comes from “glizzy”, a slang word used to refer to a hotdog.
Somehow I didn’t win the contest! This is surprising, as I believe a “smizzy” is a treat hard to beat!
🌳🍂 Morris Arboretum 🍂🌳
On Saturday, some of us from the Christian Union did an outing to the Morris Arboretum! For those that don’t know (such as myself), an arboretum is a “botanical garden devoted to trees.”
I was really pumped for the arboretum, as I wanted to explore the beauty that is the American Fall. The arboretum didn’t disappointment, with picture perfect sights of trees exploding in vibrant colour.
Also, a shoutout to my friend Jamie for taking this photo of me:
👻 Eastern State Penitentiary 🎃
On Sunday, James and I went to the Eastern State Penitentiary for Halloween night! The penitentiary was active from 1829 to 1971 and is rich with history. However, most significantly, it is very creepy at night, making it the perfect place to hold haunted houses!
There were five haunted houses which you could experience, all with different themes. For example, the first one called “Delirium” had you wear 3D glasses which diffracted light, creating colourful illusions as you walked through. This, combined with actors paid to frighten you, made it a really unique and fun experience. One part of this haunted house included a bridge you walk over, surrounded by a cylinder with colourful patterns that endlessly rotate.
Going through this segment made me feel like I had vertigo again! It was very trippy, so much so that I was loosing my balance!
For those that wanted an even more interactive experience, before entering each haunted house, there was a glow-stick you could place around your neck. This essentially meant you were giving the actors consent to physically contact you. This meant they could do things like separate you from your group, or physically threaten you with a (fake) weapon. At one point, James was taken aside by one of the actors for a frightening dentist exam, where they threatened to pull out his teeth with pliers!
Although the haunted houses were really cool, I didn’t find them that scary. This is because there were soooo many people around, and I guess fear dissipates when you’re with a large group. Regardless, it was still a fun experience!
