(english) Halloween in Santa Baraba

Background

Ok guys… Some of us DO celebrate Halloween in Germany. People do it in the UK… But damn… They REALLY celebrate Halloween here.

And since Halloween is an important American holiday, and since we are always interested in clutural exchange (as stated in my US visa “for research and cultural exchange” ), we decided to road trip south to the probably biggest Halloween party in the world, to

SANTA BARBARA

The UCSB (University of California, Santa Barbara or University of Casual Sex and Beer) is located south of San Fran not far north of Los Angeles. Since it’s “slightly” warmer down there, most “students” live in a little village nearby the UC called Isla Visa (short I.V. or HIV ). Why is that? Easy… It’s hard to carry your surfboard with your bike all the way down from Santa Barbara to the beach. Solution: live right next to the beach (Del Playa, Google maps).

Well. Our little research team (consisting of 4 guys and me) made the way to IV to evaluate the effect of alcohol to american college kids. See what happened…

Material & Method

Tillman the horse whisperer

Middle of nowhere

Tillman somehow organized a place to stay. It was a huge house (kind of a ranch) in Santa Barbara. We were allowed to live in an old lady’s house for the promise to watch the dog, the cat, and the horse. The horse? Yep, the HORSE. Whatever she needs a horse for… However, as always, we performed freakin well: The dog ran away and some skunk joes stole the cat’s pet food. If we take up a job one can trust that we give our best.

Besides a pool and a huge garden, it was just a short trip to the beach. At least that’s what the old granny told us and what we believed in our teenage naivety. Probably what she meant was “by car”…? All I remeber is this “lost feeling” in the middle of nowhere in the steppe of southern California; just 4 complaining guys, black whidow spiders, and Tillman terribly insisting to continue heading to the “in walking distance” beach.

Long story short, we pre-partied on Thursday (at a place owned by a very responsible guy asking things like “No lying guys… Who broke my bike?”). Friday we went to Del Playa Drive in Isla Vista (Google maps) to röck tha house. We had a dark magician, a darker magician with red glewing eyes, an even darker gay sailor, a livin’ beer can, and me, Joe the plumber. Saturday, we after-partied and celebrated my birthday in one of the clubs in SB downtown.

The time was as expected: our German discipline allowed us to demonstrate responsible behavior. We respectfully studied the crowds, always expecting trouble (“you said somephing ’bout ma mom, he?”) and preparing ourselves to robbin-hood others, who are unable or too weak to help themselves:

After the parties, we always cleaned up our environment and tried to help to keep the apartment given to us as clean and tidy as possible.

For more picture about Halloween, Beachvolleyball in Santa Barbara, my birthday etc. the reader is referred to Fabians blog and to the video stream below this article.

Tim playin beer pong

College kids in Santa Barbara

Discussion & Conclusion

To sum it up, we conclude that the following equation approximates well over the given variables:

Halloween in SB = Kirmes in Soest – Karussells – Dudelmann – Ammelunxen – Bavaria tent + beach + 20°F + lightly dressed girls + costumes(X)

with costumes(X) = {for X=guy: crazy dress}, {for X=girl: simply underwear}

We further conclude that our observations perfectly fit with our initial expectations and that we reached the next level of cultural exchange.

References

Another perspective may be found in Fabians blog, where I found this video giving an impression of how crowded it was in I.V:

Rock’n'Roll!

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