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When I turned my head back, I saw a little monster wearing a ghost mask with two sharp teeth outside the corners of the mouth and a black cape as well. Through the holes of the mask, I could see a pair of crystal eyes staring at me with a puzzling expression. She may not be quite sure that this oriental guy really understands the meaning of trick or treat. Honestly speaking, Halloween does not make any sense to me due to my religious and cultural background. But how could I refuse the lovely request from this little girl. I suddenly realized just after the presentation, Sebille, a Belgium girl from my class, gave me two chocolate candies for a celebration of my presentation. So I emptied all my pockets and put the candies into her big box. She was quite excited and gave me a bow, and then ran away. Suddenly, she stopped and turned back. It seemed that she forgot something. She spoke loudly to me, “Thank you, Sir.” This moment I saw many kids wearing capes with wings on them and masks, asking for candies or some coins. I was touched by the special atmosphere.
Later in the evening, I felt I was really released from the pressure I had had for the last two weeks. When I was on the way to the pub where I was appointed with Doug, I recalled the one-month life I had experienced in the UK. The sceneries were just like the film clips projecting onto my mind, from the fear and freshness of landing on a strange land, to the busy and stressful life of confronting the troublesome processes of opening a bank account and the racing-rhythm of master studies. I found myself was actually growing-up and more mature. Unconsciously and gradually, Lloyds TSB, HSBC, Tesco and IKEA were becoming amiable to me. However, I had not melted into the real life for westerners, pubs and drinks.
When I reached the Parrots and Rats, a local pub in Harrow downtown, Doug had been there with a pint of Guinness in front of him, awaiting me. Doug is a typical western American cowboy style lad, always with jeans and jackets. Although his ancestors immigrated to the States from Northern Ireland, he doesn’t seem to have any similarities with Britons. He looks like a typical Irish, blonde hair, blue eyes and big nose. After I stepped into the threshold of this pub and looked around, finding that people were speaking loudly (if plant this volume in China, people may think they were shouting or yelling with each other.) and drinking heavily. Another short guy two steps in front of me just bottomed up a pint of beer with just one breath. In the daytime, Britons are wrapped into their civilization which had been constructed from their old dignity of royal family and industrialization. But in the evening, pubs seemingly are the only outlet for them to unleash the pressure undertaken in the daytime. So being intoxicated into alcohol is the best way to shun the trouble and stresses being accumulated. Being here, as Doug said, what else I could do over here. Let’s just drink and hang over.
After the drink and crazy evening in the pub, the author still had to come back to his school and endless homework. Next article will show you how he coped with much work piled up together in front of him.
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