Halloween Town

White cobwebs cloak the shrubs outside dorms, intricately carved pumpkins sit outside door steps and large, threatening bats and ghosts hang from the ceilings of buildings. As Halloween approaches, students and faculty are excitedly preparing costumes, dorms and teams are visiting haunted houses and preparing celebrations and everyone is getting ready for a fun-filled October 31st.For many dorms, Halloween means having thrilling dorm-bonding activities. Hoyt took a fun trip to Haunted Overload, a farm converted to a haunted house extravaganza, with their dorm faculty member, Shane LaPointe, this past Saturday. Lower Caroline Colbert said, “ It was a lot of fun and really scary, and I got to know the girls in my dorm that I do not usually talk to.”Hoyt Hall’s neighbors in Merrill will also be enjoying festivities as a dorm. They have a long-standing tradition of carving pumpkins together the Friday night before Halloween.“Its a really great way to bond with the new people in the dorm and to just spend time with everyone,” upper Kaitlyn Tonra said. “When we're done with the carving, our dorm head takes all of the seeds and roasts them for us--they are awesome. Also Ms. Misenheimer, our dorm head, likes to leave candy outside of her apartment on random nights, complete with a pink glitter skull and a fake spider.”Upper Kendall Kuzminskas, also in Merrill, shared a similar point of view. “It is a time that the entire dorm spends together,” she said. “On Friday night at check in we all sit in the common room, talk, and carve the pumpkins. I enjoy it every year.”Similarly, Soule Hall bought pumpkins and carving sets for their its first ever pumpkin carving.“Last year we went to Haunted Overload, which was extremely fun and scary depending who you are; this year pumpkin carving was special because there are not a whole lot of times during the year when you have every single person in the dorm at the same place all hanging out and bonding with each other,” senior Max Rerkpattanapipat said. “We laid out some newspapers in the common room, blasted some music, and had a whole lot of fun.”Upper and dorm mate Sam Koshell added, “There was no competition, it was just for fun. We saw a lot of funny and creative pumpkins, and just generally had a good time.”Other dorms are hosting halloween-themed parties, where dorm members dress up and partake in various activities. “We are planning to go to the church basement; we are going to play halloween themed games, enjoy the holiday and eat food and read scary stories,” lower Kaitlyn Kang, a member of Lamont Hall, said. “I might also get a couple bags of candy to put outside my room on Halloween.”Even certain sports teams have organized their own special halloween jamborees. Members of the club crew team arranged an array of activities for the upcoming “special” practice this Friday. "Each member of the girls teams and boys team was paired up for a costume competition so this friday I will be going to the Boathouse Halloween Party for a spooktacular night of fun!” senior Christina Rossitto said.Besides the sports and dorm excursions, there will be the group of Exonians that don their imaginative outfits next Friday and parade around the town of Exeter, trick-or-treating from house to house. Until then, students and faculty will be planning out their costumes and eagerly awaiting the festive day.