Haircuts and parties!!!

At school, this last Thursday and Friday (19th and 20th of February), we had las jornadas culturales, or Cultural Days. Basically, they were two days of different "cultural" activities and just plain activities. There was a ping pong tournament, as well as tourneys for soccer, basketball, and volleyball. There was a cake contest. There was a crêpes workshop (which ran out the first day before I got back), as well as one for bunyols de carabassa (in valenciano, not castellano...it's a type of fried dessert thing made of pumpkin...which also ran out both days just as I was getting in line...). In the library, there was a quote wall, a "free trade" market, with bracelets and other jewelry, tea, cake, etc. They were also selling books. There was a photo contest of historic sites which I participated in, but didn't win. There was a contest of landscape or cityscape drawings too. My sociology class also did a mural/collage of photos to students from the institute showing how even though we may look different, we're all equal.

I didn't really sign up for much, not knowing at the time of the sign ups (which were usually a pair of students who would come into the classes in the week leading up to the cultural days), and not wanting to sign up for conflicting times. Anyway, my plan was to wander around the school and just pop in on the different activities. It didn't work out quite as well as I was planning, because there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to where things were put or how well they stuck to the schedule we were given. So I wandered anyway, popping into those I could find, and some I stumbled upon. It was an interesting two days.

The mural/collage/whatever you want to call it we made (with a video slide show too!).

However, the highlight of this past weekend most definitely has to be Carnival. Yes, Carnival, like they have in Brazil, although obviously, here it's less well-known that they celebrate. But believe me, it's just as crazy! Here, everyone goes out to celebrate the Saturday at the start of Carnival and everyone dresses up, as in costumes. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what I wanted to dress up as, and in the end I decided I would do something with my hair, since it was so long and I had so much. I decided to get a mohawk and dress up like a punk/rocker. So Saturday afternoon, I went into a hair place for my appointment. They told me they would have to cut off quite a bit in order to make the mohawk, which I was REALLY nervous about because I wanted to be able to go back to normal the next day. But I finally went through with it, for a few reasons:
1) It's hair. It'll grow back.
2) It'll be really different, which is the idea for the costume.
3) I've always wanted to know what I looked like with short hair.
4) I really want to get this mohawk for my costume, plus I don't have any other ideas for a costume.
And I think that's about it...
And here's the change:
Crazy, right? But despite my intial trepidation and immediate regret in the process of the shaping of the mohawk, it was totally worth it.

Anyway, that night, I went out with Luis and his friends. The streets were PACKED!!! And in some cases, I mean literally. The buses were rerouted to avoid going up La Rambla (the main street heading up from the port) because the street was full of people, a couple of stages with music going, as well as some street vendors. And many of the streets and areas branching off from there were packed as well. We finally found a spot to sit ourselves down and drink (I'll get back to that in a second), but when we went to try to find a couple of the other people, we had to hold hands and make a human chain in order to weave through the crowd and not get separated.

Anyway, about the drinking. Basically, Carnival was like one giant botellón. A popular thing for the youth to do here is gather in a public site, like a park, and drink (usually to get drunk, but sometimes just to drink like socially, like Luis's friends do. They're all overage though and Luis doesn't drink, which is nice because I can go hang out with them and they don't pressure me to drink and Luis and I usually end up buying ourselves something else to drink like Red Bull.). And Carnival was one giant botellón, with a sea of people in the streets drinking and dancing and generally having fun and going crazy.

After hanging out for awhile and wandering (a.k.a. weaving, swimming, etc.) through the crowd to meet up with different friends, we finally went to a club in the port, where we spent the rest of the night. Slowly, our group wittled down as the people left as the night wore on, although the club never stopped being filled to overflowing with people. When the last of our group finally left the club, it was around 7 in the morning. And at the bus stop, we met a couple of the girls that had left around 6AM because the one bus #22 that had passed in since then had quickly filled to capacity, leaving them no room, and the next #22 didn't pass until around 7:30-7:45. I didn't get home from Carnival until 8:00AM after having left the night before at 11:00PM. It was a long, crazy, awesome, fun night. But a night I can wait awhile to repeat.

(above) Javi and Carlos dressed up as LEGOs, me in my punk rocker outfit, and Luis dressed up as Boxman, the newest superhero.

(below) Some of our group with a group of people we stumbled upon that they knew.

Although the mohawk was a complete success! The people who just stared kind of bothered me, but I had a ton of people asking me if it was real, if it was my hair, if I'd done it just for Carnival, if they could touch it, etc. And about just as many that I overheard remarking on it, like "dude, like at that mohawk!", and other similar comments. Today (Sunday) I trimmed it down a little because there's no way I'll be able to make one that large on my own every day, but I don't want to let the hair just lay there, because that'll look weird, so for now I'm going to have a small mohawk. It's so different from what I'm used to. I actually kind of like it, but I'm on the fence about keeping it.

I woke up today just before lunch, and then went back to take a LONG siesta afterwards. I still feel tired.
However, I am now fully caught up on my blog! From now on the entries will no longer be back dated and hopefully (or else I'll be quite disappointed in myself) I'll be posting more quickly and more on time with my blog.
Until the next entry,
Erik

Currently listening to:
Song: Brand New Day
Artist: Joshua Radin
Album: Simple Times