First time: real Halloween & volunteering 🎃👻
Halloween is still two weeks away, but the spooky season is already in full swing! In Russia, this holiday basically doesn’t exist, and even in Europe it’s nowhere near as huge as in the U.S. Here, it’s celebrated almost like Christmas—just with a different color scheme and creepy decorations.
Did you know? Halloween is one of the most expensive holidays in the U.S.! Back in 2018, Americans spent a mind-blowing ❗️9 BILLION DOLLARS❗️on candy, fake blood, spiders, witches, and pumpkins. And honestly—it makes sense. Stores start filling up with spooky stuff in early September, there are crazy discounts on giant Spooky Candy Bags (2–3 kg of sweets!), and parties plus haunted houses everywhere. Costumes, food, decorations… easy to spend a fortune.
But as an exchange student, you try not to spend money—you try to save it, or even better, have fun for free. So instead of buying tickets to a Halloween party, I returned mine, saved $20 for a Florida trip, and celebrated in a volunteering format!
What does that mean?
- backstage access to the event
- free food (yes, not all candy ends up in kids’ baskets 😈)
- tons of communication
- hands-on experience working with people in different roles
- and… absolute fun!
This weekend we had our first spooky event: “HAUNTED TRAIL”. It was an outdoor scary maze in the park. Volunteers scared kids, handed out candy, did makeup, sold cupcakes and hot cocoa. The ticket sales went to support our trip to Florida/New York.
And how was it?
Incredible! I had never done anything like this before. My mission was to scare kids at the very end of the maze—with no rules! I could make them sing, do silly tasks, or even promise to behave to break the “curse” 😂 It was so much fun, and honestly, in my normal life I would’ve never signed up for something like that.
Maybe you’ll get to experience Halloween in the U.S. one day too? Write your own story as an exchange student!