My partner and I were greeted with the warm aroma of rice noodles and sauces when we reached the apartment on Halloween. A feast was prepared for us to all enjoy! We had to carefully disperse the spicy pepper sauce because as we discovered, failing to mix it well was a bad idea.

After sharing the delicious dinner we set out for round two of trick-or-treating. I silently reprimanded myself for not preparing better in advance for this outing. I had assumed that we would venture through their apartment building but as that had already been tackled before our arrival (which we didn’t realize until we got there) we were left with very few options. We “trick-or-treated” a sparsely populated apartment building directly across the street where the family used to live, but it was spooky to say the least. Not many families were home and the ones who were didn’t seem prepared for the American holiday. I am glad that they had the experience at Loyola because my partner and I were grasping at straws trying to think on our feet of any last minute options. I couldn’t help but notice how different the evening might have played out had we been in one of the suburbs. I’ve only lived in Chicago for a few years and since I am single I never view the city through the lens of family-friendly activities. It was definitely a wake up call. Fortunately it seemed as though they enjoyed the evening anyways and once again they were more than eager to share their candy once we got back home.