2/16/10

First of all I want to wish my Aunt Laurie a happy birthday!

Second of all, I didn't go to Carnaval round 2 last night because I was so cold after Carnaval round 1.  Here's the scoop:

Abigail, Joelle, and I met at the bus station just before the 4:30 PM bus left for Aviles, which was when another large group of people from our school also left.  So we were absorbed into their group for the night.  Thankfully this wasn't the group of girls formerly known as the Lobas (slang here for prostitute or hooker) who are known for drinking heavily and making out or going home with strange men.

After we got to Aviles, the group decided to go into a cafe to pass the time until the parade supposedly began, which was about 7 PM.  The majority of the group were already in their costumes, but Abigail and I had planned on waiting until we got to Aviles to change.  Joelle had a Hawaiian-print skirt, lei, and flower in her hair, Abigail wore an orange dress and had an orange moon mask, and I wore a variety of multi-colored objects and called myself a rainbow.  In the mix were purple leggings, orange Crocs (soon to be used as shower shoes), a sparkly blue top hat, hot pink wig, yellow feather boa, and green tank top (plus a few black layers under the garb for warmth).

Later on we started to see people in random costumes (imagine Halloween for adults) walking in a specific direction, so once everyone had paid for their various warm drinks, we followed the costumed folk.  What we were led to was a huge mass of people drenched from playing in the spray of foam.  I didn't really believe that there was a parade going on until I saw a float going by of someone or something.  After a Don Quijote float went by, we decided we didn't want to get wet from the spray from the squirt gun-wielding people on floats, and so we left to find another cafe.

At the second cafe, some people ordered French fries or caffeinated drinks and in general tried to stay warm.  We watched the parade from a TV mounted on the wall.  Once we were all finished with the food, we decided to walk around to see what else there was to do/see in Aviles.  There really wasn't anything, so we went back toward the place where the parade took place, and found the ground covered in foam at least a foot deep.  That was a "fun" experience, with the majority of us not wearing practical shoes for stomping around in foam.

Getting cold again, our group split up and the part I was with decided to traipse through the river of foam and find another cafe to warm ourselves.  This third one was a little classier than the second cafe, and the majority of us got either hot chocolate or café con leche (coffee with milk).  A while later the rest of our group came to our cafe and we just hung out and chatted for a while.  When we got bored with that, we all headed out again into the cold to find the concert/dance that was supposed to take place.

What I got to see of the concert was fun.  However, having gotten tired of the cold and just moving from cafe to cafe, Abigail, Joelle, and I returned to the bus station to go back to Oviedo.  Had it not been so cold, we would indeed have returned to the concert because buses ran every so often throughout the night.

Instead of going to Carnaval in Gijon (round 2), I stayed home and stayed warm.  Got to skype with my mom, and watched a few episodes of Friends on the semi-illegal website.  Slept in today, which was good for me, since last night I got a call from Liz around 2 AM asking me for Abigail's address.  Apparently Abigail went out with some folks from our group and she had had a little too much fun and needed help getting home.  I'm so glad Abigail wasn't alone and that the people she was with helped get her home safely.  Praise God!  I talked with her a little earlier, and she told me she's doing fine and that she'd gotten a lot of sleep, and is up for doing something later this afternoon.

Now really, all is well on the eastern front.  Hasta la vista!