Happy Lent.........yeah right

OK it has been a crazy week! There are no amount of words, pictures, stories, videos... anything, that can describe the intensity of what I´ve been through this past week. I have to say that the Carnaval, without question, has been the single most fun week of my entire life. I´m not saying it´s been the best (for some of those who get jealous about weird things like that) but it has been so incredibly stimulating and fun. As worn out as I am, I´m bummed out that it´s over!

It actually really kills me that I have no documentation of the week other than my memory (which I don´t think will fade too much) because I so wish I could have shared the experience with everyone! A basic day during the Carnaval went like this. I woke up around 9 or 10, went up for breakfast to see who was still alive from the night before, ate then planned the next step. Day-planning did not exist, we always just planned one thing at a time. Typically we would get to one of the beaches by noon, lay around and swim (the waves are insanely intense) and soak up the sun, then around 3pm you can hear the parades starting up. By then, we would be tired of the beach  and go grab something to eat, then grab some beers from one of the hundreds of people walking up and down the esplanade selling from cooolers, and join the parade. Then we´d be home by around 7, eat again, then sleep til around 11 and go to Lapa. The neighborhood is full of bars and clubs, and from what I hear, every Friday is a street party. During the Carnaval, every single night was a street party. It was always packed with musicians, street food stalls, cooler stands for beer and water, and then stages were scattered around in every square in the area. You could literally follow your ears (or your nose, with the smell of piss in the street) to a party no matter where you were.

All day, every day, busses would go by, packed with people in costumes, with drums, playing a samba beat and swinging out the windows yelling and singing at passers-by. People walking down the street would just bust out into samba for a few seconds, the music would pass, then we were all just walking again. I actually learned a bit of samba and funk-the collective mentality of the crowd was to embrace the foreigners and they were soo happy to show us what was up and help us with anything at all. On Sunday, a few of us went to what´s called the Terreirao do Samba, outside of the big venue where the samba schools perform all week, despite the warnings of the hostel workers. They said it was more dangerous, but we needed a change of pace from Lapa. It was actually the only place that one of us didn´t get ´knicked´as the English girls put it, and we met some really cool people, and danced all night. Every hour or so, a huge fireworks display would go off and just add a new beat to what they had going on already. We got there around midnight, and didn´t realize we were all completely exhausted until the sunlight started creeping around the silhouettes of the downtown skyscrapers. By the time we got home, I had time to sleep for about 3 hours, got woken up to go to the beach, and did the same thing again.

Now I´m waiting to meet Natasha. She gets in tomorrow, and I´m so excited to have a travel buddy for the next couple of weeks. Not to say I haven´t loved traveling alone, I think I made the best decision ever in doing this. I have met so many cool people and seen so many different mind-sets and mentalities that I know it will all have to marinate and I won´t feel the full effects of the experience until later. I have been designated the spokesperson of the group, as everyone is under the impression that I speak Portuguese since I can buy a pack of cigarettes and a pineapple juice with no problems, but I just throw in some Spanish words when I can´t figure out the Portuguese and generally it works out.

So now I get to see what Rio is really like, taking out the whole party vibe. The Metro has been running all night during the Carnaval, but last night it shut down, giving us problems getting home. I´m staying with some Brazilian kids right now, further out in Rio, so it was basically like trying to get to Washington Heights with no subway. The kids were asking a cop why the metro stopped, he looked at the clock tower, and said ´sorry girls, it´s ash wednesday´. I didn´t draw the similarities between mardi gras and carnaval until then, and now I feel like an idiot. But anyway, the party´s over, as they say.

I just got a DVD burned for me from this guy who lives at this apartment where I´m at, because the music is the only thing that will be able to instantly bring me back to the memory of this week. You don´t hear much Samba or Brazilian funk at all in the U.S., so it helps that all the memories associated with that music have been formed here. I will have to come here again at this time of year, because it really is the most incredibly amazing feeling ever. Everyone is so involved in the party, it´s so light hearted, even the bad guys running around stealing stuff can´t ruin it.

Last night, thanks to the locals I´ve picked up, I got the translation of one of the songs I´ve been hearing all week. It was one of those things where you know it has to be a great song by the way it sounds, but everyone knows it and sings all the words every time. I had been thinking all week how much I was pining to understand this music, so I was elated when it came on last night and I was surrounded by these kids who told me, it says(more or less):


live and don't have shame to be happy
sing, sing and sing the beauty to be an eternal learner
say that life could be much better, and it will be
but it don't stop me from saying
it's beautifull, it's beautiful and it's beaultiful

Of course the language difference prevents fully communicating the feeling inspired by the song, but I love it! And the crowd really imparts a great vibe during these things, it has really been incredibly amazing. I owe something to Brazil forever. The people have been so beautiful in every way, and I don´t want to leave! I´ll come back some day and stay for long enough to learn Portuguese, then I´ll emigrate. (maybe). Happy Valentines Day to everyone, if you´re reading this silly blog then you´re someone I love and miss dearly. Ciao!