Saturday, November 2, 2019

Halloween in Argentina 2019: Celebrating the Good While Coping With the Bad

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays. You only have to look at the way we celebrated in the past to know we like going all out. But this year was different. As I mentioned in my previous post, we were victims of debit card cloning, which literally left us broke. So this is how we coped with the bad and celebrated Halloween in Argentina in 2019.

Fortunately, we had gone shopping for a couple of extra decorations a few weeks before our money was stolen, so that was a plus. The store we normally get our Halloween stuff from is called Ferniplast. Unfortunately, when I asked the employee when they planned on putting the Halloween items on sale, the guy just looked at us and asked, "Isn't that next month?"

Wow! I thought. How sad.

Fortunately, there was a costume store near Plaza San Martin that had a few things we needed like a Terminator mask with light-up eyes and a Freddy Krueger latex mask. 
We also bought some blood splatter stickers to decorate our home. But we had to travel to the Dinosaurio Mall in Route 20 to buy a couple of extra decorations at Party Love - Cotillon.
When we got home, we turned our mini white Christmas tree into a Halloween tree, with Jack-o-Lanterns in lieu of Christmas balls.
We recycled some of our old decorations from last year and turned them into something else, like this wall of spooky Halloween masks in the photo below.
We planned to create tons of different treats for Halloween, but we hadn't bought the ingredients yet. And then it happened. 

They took our money, which derailed everything.

What little money we had left in cash I gave to my husband so he could hang out with our friend Franco who came to Cordoba for a visit. I knew hanging out with him would cheer him up, and it did. But we still had my husband's birthday to get ready for.

So on the 30th, we made some makeshift soft tacos, bought an Oreo cake from a local ice cream store called Grido and celebrated his birthday. Admittedly, the menu options were severely limited. 
I'm actually kind of embarrassed because we're used to cooking so much more. But under the circumstances, this was the best we could do.

On the 31st, we went to the mall and had the most pathetic McDonald's lunch we had ever had--4 pieces of Chicken McNuggets, a burger and a large drink (that we shared). 
It was by far the lowest we've ever sunk since 2010 when I was in between jobs in the Bronx, NY.

We still had enough money to go watch "Terminator: Dark Fate." Ironically, the title seemed to reflect what we were going through. I brought my Terminator mask with me to the theater and took a few cool snaps. 
The movie was great. It may very well be the best one yet. It was nice seeing Linda Hamilton again. I've been a fan of hers since she was on "Beauty and the Beast"--the original series, not the CW remake.

Afterwards, we took a cab home and got ready to celebrate Halloween. Usually, we do this with our friends, but there was only enough food for the two of us. So, we made some chicken pizza, a zombie brain using macaroni and cheese and green food coloring, some Boo Oreo cookies, and an orange cake with pumpkin eyes and mouth made with chocolate chips. 
Afterwards, we tried on different masks and took some photos to share with our friends and family back home as well as our friends in Argentina. 
I won't say we're okay because we're not. Despite the smiles you see on our faces in these photos, we remain quite shaken. We just made the best out of a really bad situation. Now we just have to wait to get our money back and prepare for Thanksgiving, which is only three weeks away. Hopefully, our spirits will be a little brighter by then.

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