Halloween in Finland

Happy Halloween!
In Finland, Halloween isn't such a big holiday. There are a few decorations up in store windows and things like that, but no decorations in peoples yards, and no trick or treating. The darkness arrives at around 4pm now even with the hour moved back, which makes it hard. It was a bit hard to not see any decorations when you feel like there should be pumpkins, but that's just the way it is here.

 For Halloween, I decided to make carmel apples. We made kinuski which is a bit like a more liquid carmel, toffee mixture. We poured the kinuski over apple slices and lingon berries, which tasted very good. We also had several flavors of chocolate which were very good, some liquorice with different flavored liquorice pieces inside, and some Finnish toffee (pronounced tof-fay). As it turns out, the Finnish toffee is actually more like carmel, but doesn't have as much flavor.
A lot of delicious treats, so it was a good, sweet, Halloween.

 I couldn't find too many different Halloween candies, but I did find these to buy for my family. I thought they were very cool looking, and my friend tells me that it tasted good (not the cheap chocolate).  I just remembered something else about the food. The previous day my host parents were joking with me about having scary food for Halloween. Then that night for dinner, one of the dishes we had was a vegetable dish. There were some chucks of beet that were nearly black from being cooked, and I was quite scared because I thought they were pieces of blood sausage. I had quite a laugh when I realized they weren't.

I didn't dress up in a costume for Halloween because they don't have trick or treating here, but I did try on a dress, so I guess that kind of counts. Easter time is when kids do go around to peoples doors in a trick or treating sort of way I have heard. Anyways, after school, I went to a dress shop I had passed bye on the previous day and I actually ended up finding and buying this dress.  It reminds me a bit of Cinderella and will be really nice when it's done (they have to make it a bit smaller and shorter for me). I am learning to ballroom dance at school, because come February I will participate in a ball for all of the second year students. There are two days of dancing for the ball, one in the evening on the 14th for friends and family to watch, and then the next day the entire school watches. Actually learning to dance is proving to be quite a challenge, but I feel like I will learn the dances before the big day comes, and it's a lot of fun too.
I ended up taking our dog, Laku, out for a walk that night in the dark as usual. It was a perfect way to end an untraditional, but nice Halloween.
Hope everyone had a good Halloween, that the Eastern coast of America recovers from Hurricane Sandy soon, and best wishes for a nice weekend.