Gotta be Lomo

So I've been teaching the kids at school a bit about Halloween. It's no good without pictures and demonstrations and stuff though -- you can't just explain it, you have to get them in the spirit of things. Unfortunately there isn't a huge spirit of Halloween here, so I guess I'll have to wait until Carnival season. Carnival sounds like a sweet mix of Mardi Gras and Halloween, so when that takes place I can point to specifics and say: "THAT is what I'm talking about. Dress up like an idiot and run around town!" I did mention that one of the "tricks" people pull is egging houses, which they seemed surprised at. I hope I didn't just plant the seed of revolution. But they told me that on a slightly similar holiday in Germany, they do stuff like put toothpaste on car handles and such -- that kinda sucks too. I blame the plaque industry, trying to give toothpaste a bad name.

I went on a bar tour or pub crawl with some people involved in the University of Mainz Campus Radio program tonight. It was actually less of a crawl and more of a standstill, since we only saw two bars and only sat and drank at one of those, but that's still two new places I got to mentally note for further visitation. Eventually I'll find others. The first place I had seen and would have bet my life that it wasn't fun. Why? You already saw why if you read the title of this post: it's called LOMO. How can a bar called LOMO be anything but terrible? But against all odds, it actually looked pretty nice, and I saw they have a breakfast buffet from 10-2 every day for less than 5 Euros. Obviously I'll be back to try that out soon. My one weakness is that I have many weaknesses, including a fondness for buffets.

Anyway, Lomo was full (yup, apparently other people got past the name too), so we went to a bar called Quadrait Mayence or something similarly pretentious. Yet another bar I would have never found, let alone entered, considering its proximity to the police station -- getting drunk at a bar directly behind the local law enforcement building seems like an unnecessary risk. But this was also a cool place with better-than-normal prices, so I'm sure I'll be back.

Anyway, gotta get my beauty sleep in preparation for a costume-less Halloween tomorrow. Since I can't wear a mask I gotta try to keep my own face presentable. I know, I know...very disappointing -- I've never had a costume-less Halloween I don't think. But even without costumes this party should be awesome, so I guess I'll try it the German way for once. At least their way involves a holiday on November 1, something which America is lacking. Can somebody do something amazing on Thursday so in the future it will be a national holiday and we can sleep in the day after Halloween? Go big then go home.