Carnival!

So, I didn't realize until now that this blog post didn't get uploaded but instead got saved as a draft - so here it is 2 weeks late!  Sorry!

FEBRUARY 12-14

This weekend is Carnival (or Mardi Gras) in Madrid!  I know that the big weekend really happens down in Cadiz, but in hindsight, I am really glad that I stayed here this weekend - there is so much to do just in Madrid!  Plus Tracie's brother Paul was in town so it has been really fun to see Tracie get to spend time with her brother and to hang out with him and the people he met in Rome.  He met these 4 boys at the Hostel in Rome and then they were going to Madrid and so they all got together here too!  The 4 boys are from Brazil and they were a lot of fun!   They have been traveling for 40 days together and leave to go back home Monday.  Made me think that I have been here for almost 40 days and that in a little over 40 days my family will be here visiting!   Yeah! 

Anyway, I forgot to look when the last time I updated this was - I know it was one of the days I was sick so let's start with Friday and work our way up to today!

Friday -

I went down to Principe Pio to meet with my friend Katy where we did some shopping!  I bought some tights and a shirt from H&M.  Then we went down to SOL where we ate a quick lunch at McDonalds and then walked around down there!  I couldn't believe how many people were out in the street - and a good number of people were dressed up for Carnival!  Also in SOL there were a lot of people dressed up as famous Characters (like Chewbacha and an ArmyMan) so that you could go up and take pictures with them and then leave them some money.  Neither Katy nor I had our cameras but it was really fun to see people going up to those characters and getting a picture with them.  There were also a lot of street musicians - more so then usual - playing all kind of music.  I really like the group of men who were wearing sombraros and playing spanish music!  They were quite good harmonizing with one another and playing their guitars! 

While shopping Katy and I finally found an El Corte Ingles that sells books in English!  We just had to track them down at the Corte Ingles in SOL - who would have known this is the only one that will carry English books!  This made me very happy seeing as I finished the 2 books that looked worth reading at Nena's. 

Dad - you may be proud to know that I read a book by Tom Clancy - It was called Patriot Games and it was about the Irish rebels trying to launch an attack on the US.  Very interestingly written and I actually enjoyed it because it was written in such detail and Tom Clancy really presents all the different sides of the story in a way that keeps you guessing what is happening until the very end!!

Katy and I walked down to Plaza Mayor and bought some masks for Carnival.  We had so much fun walking back to the Principe Pio metro stop with our masks on.  We thought we were going to get strange looks but we really didn't - I guess this is because out of all the people dressed up - we were the least dressed up wearing masks and street clothes!

Friday night we went back to the Cave Bar and hung out with some of Tracy's Duke friends as well as her brother Paul and his new Brazillian friends.  This was fun - I wore my mask which was a big hit even if no one else at the bar was dressed up.  We did see a lot of people dressed up outside including a group of guys dressed up like nuns and a group of girls dressed up as shrimp (what a funny costume!) but inside the bar no one was dressed up except for the DJ and he was dressed up as the pope. 

Saturday,

Today, we went with Tracy to meet up with her brother to eat lunch at a place down near the Atocha metro stop. It was a bit of a distance to go, but I hadn't been in that area during the day yet so it was cool to hang out there! We ate lunch at a place that was surving paella so that is what Colleen and I both ate - which would have been good except mine was a little cold in the middle :(


After Lunch, Tracie and I walked around and did some shopping - I bought a purse that is pink and has Madrid written in Green all over it!


Went to Kapital tonight which is a huge discotecka - 7 floors total!  I spent another night out until 6am - Yikes!  I had an amazing time because we got to sing KAREOKE!  Let's just say that we were a big hit singing Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears (the songs she made before she went crazy!) - By the time we were done singing, there was a big crowd around the kareoke stage!  Yeah for us!  By the end of the night we were dead on our feet but I feel like it was pretty well worth it - we visited every floor!  The best floor probably was the first floor because they had dancers in costume for Carnival (Mardi Gras masks and all) on the stage and also this dance floor always had a ton of people on it which meant that you would have been really really hot dancing there for long periods of time but they had this insane burst of cold air that would gush down during random parts in the songs to cool off the crowd!  It was such a strange feeling the first time it happened because none of us knew what it was - we just all of the sudden saw everything turn white and felt this cold air coming from above us - after the first time, we quickly had to push our way to the center of the floor so we could feel it at full blast - awesome time!

Sunday,

Haven't really done too much today - I have just kinda been taking it easy and have been pretty exhausted all day - probably because I didn't get home until 7AM!  I will need to do some homework - or at least pretend to do homework at some point though - I will try to do that today!