October 31st is the day where Americans celebrate Halloween. While preparing for the holiday, I saw a lot of stores selling Halloween supplies such as costumes and candies.

     I am an exchange student from the Philippines and I had not experienced Halloween before this year. The way we celebrate Halloween is different from the way it is celebrated in the United States. Halloween in my country lasts at least from the eve of October 3 to November 2. We don’t celebrate it with pumpkins or trick-or-treating; we celebrate it with candles, flowers, prayers and a visit to the cemetery for the Christian custom.

It was a special day for me because I had never experienced it. The day before the Halloween, my Mom and I went to a different store to buy some Halloween accessories. I saw houses decorated, pumpkins with different carved images and teachers dressed up for school.

During Halloween, I dressed up as a Princess. I went to an AFS Halloween Party. AFS is an international exchange organization for students and adults that operates in more than 50 countries. I met different exchange students, who also dressed up. We ate different kind of Halloween-themed foods, played games and took a group picture wearing different halloween costumes.This kind of celebration allows us to meet to celebrate Halloween and experience new things in the exchange year. At night, my host sister from Indonesia dressed up as a monster, my host little brother dressed up as a soldier and I went trick-or-treating together with my host parents. It was fun and didn’t even mind that I’m a little too old for it. Halloween was a chance for me to make my exchange year awesome.