of the sands and the cliffs: This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween

Well, Halloween in Jerusalem is pretty much like any other night, except when you're at HUC! Wheee!

The Kef Committee (of which I am a member of) decided to throw a kick-ass Halloween party to bring a little bit more Americana into our lives (as if living in the HUC bubble isn't Anglo enough). Ari and I were appointed (or coerced) into co-charing the effort (read: doing all of the work) at the apartment of the amazingly cool and flexible Jillian, another Rabbinical student.

The planning process was fairly easy; we sent out some e-mails, came up with a theme (Halloween! is pretty much theme enough in a country that has no idea what Halloween is), came up with a plan for a "Witch's Brew," made a budget, and then Wednesday night, after a huge mid-afternoon thunder storm, went shopping. It was a tedious (We need twelve boxes of fruit nectar) and agonizing (Which bottle of vodka is really the most bang for our buck? Let's compare again) process, but strangely fulfilling. We also made handmade decorations - ghosts, pumpkins, a Happy Halloween sign, and Ari carved a Jack O'Lantern out of a melon.

The set-up last night (we had the party on October 30 because the 31 - today - is Friday, and thus Shabbat, and a Shabbat when we have an official HUC pray-and-eat at Har-El, the oldest progressive congregation in Israel) went smoothly, and Jillian and Amanda her roommate were total dolls about having our entire class on their spacious balcony. I had made a Halloween music mix the night before, and so we were all raring to go.

And the party itself was a smashing success. Everyone who came (about 4/5 of the class, plus SOs and some +1s) really came decked out. We had a Luigi, a pair of S&M Goths, Hermione Granger, a Facebook profile, Brangelina, a Hasid, a cat, a zombie, a sexy vampire, a bear, a Yankee (the ballplayer, not the northerner), James Bond, a scarecrow, Three Blind Mice, the wall of a public bathroom, and so on. I was a Bum; the costume itself went through multiple incarnations. I had some inadvertently torn clothes (two shirts, jeans) and wore those. I didn't shave for the last week, so I had some scruff. I wore my fisherman's cap, and unmatched socks, and carried around a tin can (partly a prop, partly in order to collect the 20 shekel cover) and a garbage bag filled with some extra clothes. jillian gave me bags under my eyes, and track marks on my veins. After the party had gotten into swing, I dragged my bag to a corner of the balcony, pulled out a blanket, and huddled up to sleep, like any bum would do. It was a very fun character to play.

The costume contest winner was my friend Jaclyn, who won dressed as Sarah Palin. She had the accent down, the clothing, the look, the pose, the condescension, the conservatism. It's ironic because Jaclyn is, well, as liberal as I am. In truth, her character was some perverse hybrid of Sarah Palin and Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin, but it was a lot of fun, and a well deserved costume contest winner.

All in all, it was a great party. Ari and I are really pleased with how everything went, how well the Witch's Brew tasted, how drunk and satiated everyone got, how much leftover candy and unpopped popcorn there was, and how much fun and laughter there was. Pictures!