Carnaval, Carnaval, Carnaval, Te Quiero!

Ever since arriving in Villarrobledo in the fall, I have been hearing people just raving about Carnaval here--not one conversation that had to to with Carnaval ever had the words "boring" or "I'll be out of town" in it.  Everyone that I talked to built it up like crazy...and you know what? Holy crap, they were spot on.  Seriously, I can easily say that last week was the most ridiculous, hilarious, and fun week of my life.  Viva Carnaval!!

We kicked off Carnaval on Thursday (March 3rd), with comida at Jose's campo house where we lit up the bbq and grilled hambugers, meat skewers, sausages, every type of meat really.  That's what we do when we go to the campo, we buy a lot of meat and then eat it, haha.  I have also been told to stop saying that we need to eat vegetables, because you just don't eat them when you go to the campo for carne! duh!

Jose and I doing some pre-cooking (tortilla de patata!)

Preparing the grill! haha

We had a delicious meal, then all went back into town to prepare our costumes for the week.  There was an opening ceremony that we went to as well in the Plaza. Apparently every year the "Juanes" come and announce that Carnaval has started.  This year they were intergalactic Juanes', pretty funny! Anyway, it was mostly for kids, so we didn't stay long, but it was funny to see.

Also, the plaza looked awesome.  There were lights everywhere, a stage, a huge tent, and bars had put up kiosk stations in the tent for drinks. Here's a little bit what it looked like.

Another thing about Carnaval was that we saw about 1000 parades (defiles!), and they were AWESOME!! People have been working on their floats and costumes for the parades for months---cool costumes!! Saturday was the first parade, the Sunday the children's parade, then Wednesday the parade for the mourning of the sardines (very funny), then Thursday the wedding parades (joke weddings, like shrimps getting married...etc), Friday the 4 hour parade with every single float and floats from other, near-by pueblos, and Saturday the Children's parade again, just in case you missed it the first time ;).

My favorite costumes!! Storks bringing babies!! haha

My friend, Ana Rosa, with kids from her class in the children's parade!

The winning float from the sardines parade!

then they BURNT the sardine floats!!

My favorite wedding float--the shrimp wedding!!!

watching the big parade from Dan's balcony--great view!

So, I guess the real meat of Carnaval are all the sweet costumes that people come up with! Here are all of ours.

Saturday, my friends and I dressed up as Flamingo-Flamencos!  We were flamenco dancers from the front, and Flamingoes when we hunched over.  It was super funny, and we had a blast!

Haley and I as Flamenco dancers

Flamingos!

Needless to say, that was super funny.  We had a lot of fun racing around and acting dumb (it's okay during Carnaval, as I have been told!).

Sunday, we took a break, but Monday night we were ready to go, this time with new costumes!  Halers and  dressed up like giant babies--probably the most comfortable costume ever because we wore our onesies. YES!

Tuesday night was super windy and cold, so we stayed in, but on Wednesday we were back and ready to experience more Carnaval!  I found some stuff to be a mysterious woman at the chino store (like the dollar store), and Krista was a nerd--really funny!

Onto Thursday!  Mad Scientist day with Ashly, and Krista as the periodic table of elements!

Friday brought Helen, Jaclyn, and our CHINESE DRAGON costume!!! We were so excited, and we even won a prize that night! 

Saturday night, the last official night of Carnaval, Jaclyn, Krista, Haley, Ashly and I quickly brainstormed a costume in about an hour and a half, and the end result was a statue of liberty costume!! It was so fun being lady liberty all night, and we got lots of laughs, especially when we went around asking people for a lighter to relight our torches.  Very memorable, very eventful!

Jaclyn and I at dinner on Saturday night!

Sunday, before going to church and helping my friends clean up at the local, I went to the plaza where they were having a gachas competition to close out carnaval!  Gachas are a traditional manchego dish, and it is DELICIOUS.  My friends Silvia, Greg, and I went around sampling everyone's gachas!  Here was my favorite station.

It was really delicious.  We just took some bread and dipped it in the pot.  Free dinner!

Well, as if you can't tell, it was a very very amusing week which gave me lots to do!  

Tonight I'm going over to my friend's for a tapas St. Patty's day celebration.  Unfortunately I don't think we are going to find any green beer, but we'll do our best to celebrate it like we would at home :).  Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Wooohoooo!!

More later, lots of love to everyone!

Mary