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Well I have a few stories to tell...and a bit of time to tell them, so here we go!

Carnaval is a celebration that occurs immediately before Lent, with two weeks of celebrating! The most famous in the world is in Rio de Janeiro, and the most famous in Spain is Cadiz. So when we heard about a 22 euro round trip bus ride to Cadiz, we were hooked. I crafted my Greek goddess toga costume out of Jess' costume from Halloween, Allison dressed up as a flapper, Emily as farm girl with my American Eagle plaid shirt, and Tina as "stripes" (just dressed all in stripes!) and we were off. The bus ride to Cadiz was boring but manageable, and when we got there the streets were alive! Kids everywhere, adults everywhere, alcohol everywhere, but most of all COSTUMES! Music filled the air along with the screaming and laughter of everyone around, and although the wind was brisk and the sky overcast, it seemed to be the beginning of quite the night! (And oh how it was...more on this to come) One thing I noticed was that it seemed the majority of people were dressed up in groups, either all identical or had costumes in some way relating to each other. There were groups of chickens, babies, American football players, gladiators, etc. I loved seeing all the costumes, but they did make me feel very non-creative. But Emily said that the Spaniards take this costume thing very seriously, and put a lot of time/money/effort into their Carnaval get-up. I didn't put any of those things into my costume so I guess that's ok then! We spent a short amount of time by the water, but it was extremely cold over there so we hung out mostly by the cathedral and were just talking to people. Meeting Spaniards, meeting more API people, it was really fun to just chat, especially in Spanish! I love that I'm at the point where I can completely have a conversation with someone, now I just need to start creating more opportunities for using Spanish. I would say that right now, 70% of my life is in Spanish. and that is when Ana hasn't been home (her & Jess are in Paris for over a week). I want to make it so about 90% of my interactions this semester are in Spanish! What a goal....Oh, anyways, back to Carnaval. So it was pretty dang fun, and around midnight, it started to rain. No big deal, I brought out my rain jacket and my fleece underneath to stay warm, we pulled out some umbrellas, no pasa nada, right? WRONG. so....very....WRONG! The rain got increasingly worse over the next half hour so we decided to try to find some sort of cover...So for an hour or so we were crammed in with hundreds of Spaniards who were blowing whistles, screaming, just completely drunk and pushing us all over the place. This is only the beginning of the misery. Honestly, I would love to elaborate with every hour of the night, but it was so awful I don't really want to recall the entire thing, and I can safely write that we were STANDING for six hours waiting for the rain to stop, which it never did. The bus wasn't going to be unlocked until 6 am, so it was a tortuous wait, and at first we tried to be positive and chatty and play games, but that lasted maybe 45 minutes. And after that it was all about taking my mind elsewhere, trying to forget about how my feet were wet, the wind was blowing, I was freezing and unhappy and REALLY wishing I hadn't dished out 22 euro for this clearly NOT FUN evening. It was so hard to not be outwardly negative so I kind of did the turtle thing and retreated into my shell for the entire evening so as not to bitch at any of my friends unintentionally. But I think they understood, because we were all in the same boat.

Finally Sam called me and yelled over the people with him and all the crazy Spaniards with me, "COME! THE BUS IS UNLOCKED!" And from there it was go time. Emily, Tina, and I just started to book it to the bus which was located about 15 minutes away from where we'd been standing. The rain had picked up and the streets were mostly flooded. My polka dotted Vans were filled with water, my toga was drenched and nearly falling off, my North Face was completely soaked but thank god it protected my fleece and tank top underneath. It was a mad rush to get to the warmth of the bus, and on the way in the lakes of water on the road we saw abandoned umbrellas, shoes, costumes, garbage, CHAOS. I felt like we were in the movie The Day After Tomorrow or something, it felt, sounded, and looked like we were in a small scale hurricane. Finally we reached the bus, and everyone was half naked, trying to get as far away from their drenched clothes as possible. Thank the Lord, I had a pair of jeans and a tshirt that I had worn on the way to Cadiz before changing into my toga, otherwise I would've been a disaster, I don't know what I would've done, sat naked? sat completely freezing and soaked for the 5 hour bus ride? Who knows. Once the bus started going I was drifting in and out of sleep, but it was really uncomfortable because I was trying to keep my feet off the soaking wet floor of the bus. When we got back to Granada it was fairly sunny and I wished more than anything I had never left. I got home, and my violently growling stomach induced me to make a huge bowl of pasta and crash for the next 7 hours. So my sleep patterns this week have been a little off, what with Carnaval and yesterday, my birthday!

We started with the negative, now we'll go with the positive! After class yesterday Allison, Tina, Emily, Emma, Sam and I went to Chile Grande (the same restaurant where we ate Thanksgiving dinner last semester) for my Mexican dinner! I of course ordered chicken fajitas and Allison oh so sweetly paid for me as my birthday present! Tina bought me a BOTTLE of rum, which I am going to share with my friends the next time we have a gathering. She also made me a cupcake, but since cupcakes don't exist in Spain, it was made out of clay from the Chino store! Aaahhh it was so funny and crafty and sweet! I loved it. Allison and I had ice cream on the way home, and since Sam didn't want to go home he just came to my apartment and we hung out for a while waiting for everyone to come over. But...surprise surprise, Ana's mom and aunt showed up at the apartment at almost 11 pm, announcing they were staying the night. This was so awkward, and so confusing, and kind of frustrating because it was my birthday and I wanted to have a few of my friends over before going out dancing. But, it's their apartment, so what could I do? I got changed and then we headed to the Chupiteria & Bar Marisma (two of my favorite places in Granada), and then eventually went to Mae West for dancing. I loved that club! It was super fun, the music was really good, there weren't any Americans there really, the only disadvantage was it was absolutely PACKED. We left at like 4 am and I skipped my morning class today. It was such a good birthday!!

Speaking of my morning class, it's Spanish Civ & Culture and I love it! I'm trying really hard to get into my literature classes, they're just designed so differently from my lit classes at home. I think POE is a stupid waste of time but it's easy so whatever, and Linguistics is the bane of my existence, but I'm trying really hard to focus in the class so that I can be more enthusiastic about it. On the positive side, I feel like this is the first time since taking like, math, that I've had to use that part of my brain and learn concepts like that! Haha.

Tonight we're going to see Valentine's Day, which in Spanish is called Historías del día San Valentín, and tomorrow I have an intercambio with API, hope I meet some more Spaniards! Mom comes in 3.5 weeks and I couldn't be more excited! It's going to be such a blast. And I'm pretty close to booking a trip to Portugal for the end of April. I want to get my hair cut and highlighted (first time ever!), because it's cheaper here and Ana has a place in her pueblo she says is good. Which also means at some point I'll be going to Ana's pueblo which should be fun! Exciting things to come! I feel like this weekend I will be emotionally torn a little because I will be missing home like crazy. Jordan's show is this weekend and I'm soooooo sad that I'm missing it. He's such a talented singer and I love watching him sing! I am just thankful it's not his senior year and I'll be home to watch him finish out jazz choir next year. But my friends from Western are going, so he'll have a support system! It's still going to be hard though.

OK I need to go eat something and head to my Hispanic American Literature class, miss everyone!!
Besos,
MacKenzie