Happy Halloweeen!

Halloween is not celebrated very much here. Toby and I love Halloween, so last year it was a little bit sad because we really felt the distance with no one dressing up, no decorations, and no parties! This year, though, we had plenty of social events on the planner, so we were feeling optimistic!

People definitely know what Halloween is, but it's very much viewed as just little kids' holiday. The tiny ones might get dressed up if they have a party at school. Also, some neighborhood councils will organize trick or treating in a few streets, but that's really it. Unless you live on a street with lots of little kids, you certainly don't go out and buy a lot of candy or expect to see many costumes.

But the holiday is catching on, especially at places like Atlasssian where there are a fair few Americans. In fact, most of my work afternoon on Friday was completely shot: first with a team party and then the company-wide Halloween party. What a good start to Halloween!

Our team party was to celebrate us hitting our sales goals for the quarter. It was organized to have different food and cocktail stations, themed by country. Different team members were assigned to serve food and make drinks, and I was unsurprisingly assigned to make Old Fashioned cocktails at the America station! Notice the theming for America: red, white, blue, and camo. Ha!

My fellow bartender for the day!

Here I am, mixing drinks like a pro.

 

There were a few diehard America fans.

But the Australian, Brazil, and dessert stations were pretty popular too!

We partied on for a couple hours, and then it was time to head down to the full Atlassian party.

The theme was Zombie Prom, and a few people dressed up. There was also a great face painter and crafts for the kiddos, too. I didn't dress up or stay too long, because I had to head home and transform myself into Kate Middelton for the nighttime Halloweeen bash!

The "grownups" Halloweeen party was out at Esther and Andres' apartment. I had been working during the week on crafting some themed treats, which turned out pretty good, I think! At the very least, they wowed all the expats who didn't know how completely full-out you're supposed to go on Halloween - with themed food and all!

The best thing about the party, besides hanging out with lots of people we like, is that everyone dressed up!

We didn't stay too terribly late, because Toby had to get up the next day and do this to himself:

That is a zombiefied T, ready for the Sydney Zombie Walk!

The Zombie Walk was down at Hyde Park and is a yearly fundraiser for the Brain foundation. The idea is that all the participants dress up as zombies and then amble around a few square blocks in the city. Toby signed up with a co-worker and met her at the park for the big, weird event.

Toby's co-worker. She was a huge hit.

A giant storm came up right before the start of the walk, but the walkers carried on. You can see the big crowd of them across the street from the coffee shop where I was hanging out.

And then we came home, where everyone was very happy with our Halloween's festivities!

 

 

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