Aight, so my outlook for Carnaval was pretty bleak in my last post. I think that was Saturday. Sunday was not much different, but Monday turned it around for me. We went to the "Sargento Pimenta" bloco, it translates to Sargent Pepper and the play beatles songs, so it was pretty sweet. We got there at noon but it didn't start till 2 so we just hung out, found people to talk to, and took pictures. I met a lady that lives like two streets down from Kennedy in Memphis. The bloco was in a park kind of in the down town area, and when the music started at 2 the whole thing was packed. It went till after 6 and surprisingly I never really got bored. They only played two songs in portuguese, but they gave us all lyric sheets before so we were ready. Those 4 hours were by far the best in Carnaval. Later that night it fizzled back out into just hanging out in the street, oh well.

Last night was Mardi Gras (not sure if they call it that here or not though), but it was about like every other day for Carnaval. That does not mean, however, that Carnaval is over. They are still gonna finish out the week and we will top it off with a trip to the Sombodromo on Saturday night. We got tickets to the parade of champions, looking forward to it. Classes start the coming Tuesday I think, not really looking forward to it, but it'll be nice to be relatively useful again.

Well, Carnaval just officially started. They've been doing a lot of pre-game stuff though the past few weeks, but last night (I think), was the first night. Its not really my thing. They have these street parties called "blocos" where theres a band thats often times on a truck, then they move down the street and the crowd follows. One of those things you kind of have to see I guess. Anyway, basically just a huge crowd of people drinking and sometimes singing and dancing.

Last night we started at one of the blocos near my house at 7pm, it was me, Santiago, and Rachel and we were supposed to meet people there. Of course phones didn't work because of the crowds, so we couldn't find anyone till I think around 11. Hung out on the beach with them from then till around 12:30 when we decided to go to Lapa. Lapa is a part of town where they have a street party everynight. Took us forever to get there because we first had to collect everyone then wait for the bus, I don't think we arrived till after 2, not sure though. Hung out in Lapa for around 4 hours. Rachel got robbed at one point, it was someone else's bag with nothing really important in it though. So that took a good chunk of the time. Two brazilians we were hanging out with help us go look for the dude, but theres no way we could have found him anyway. At that point it was around 4 or 5 I think. Before the night started we said we would stay up until a big bloco that was in the area started, at 9. So around 6 we left Lapa, to go to the area with the bloco. Got to the place and found a bench, then me and a guy named Jarrett went to walk around for a while, since we have 3 hours to kill. That little hour or so walk was probably the highlight. It was early morning in the middle of the city, a really cool time to be out since everyone was setting up for the bloco and the sun was just coming up. Before the bloco started we started talking to some brazilians again that said they would kinda show us the bloco (not that you really need someone too, but its always nice to have brazilians around) so we hung out with them for a bit, but soon decided to go off on our own. Bloco started around 9 and we we left before 10. It was just another moving crowd with music playing behind us. Got back to my house around 12.

So after getting a 3 hour nap I decided to post another entry. Overall, not a fan of Carnaval, but that probably comes to no surprise to y'all. Just way too many people in way too small a space drinking way too much. But I did speak a lot of portuguese, so that was actually really cool.

So, that was only the first night, and it goes for a week. Not so sure the rest will be that full, mainly theres a lot of waiting around and waisting time, not really my thing. And I'm not usually a fan of staying up for 24 hours. Anyway, I'll let y'all know how the rest of it goes.

And sorry about lack of pictures, my current excuse is that I'm letting someone borrow my camera since they got theirs stolen. As soon as I get it back I'm sure I'll manage to find another excuse, but one day I'll post something.

Another good week. On Sunday, after being unsuccessful in finding a carnival samba rehearsal, we went to a "funk" show in Rocinha. It was, well, interesting. The place looked like a underground parking lot that they now use for a club and the music was kinda like hip hop I guess. I would try to describe the rest of it to y'all, but I feel its wouldn't quite do it justice. Anyway, it was pretty cool, probably not gonna be a repeat customer though.
Wednesday we went to watch a flamengos game. There are four soccer clubs in Rio, Flamengos seems to have the biggest fan base, and they also have Ronaldinho. Best sporting event I've been too. People are waving huge flags all over the place, everyones got a jersey on, and they all absolutely love the flamengos. They were playing a club from Bolivia to qualify for the group stages of the latin american cup. Won 2-0 with Ronaldinho scoring in the last minute of stoppage time.
The next day we had our oral exam. So now we are done with school for 3 and a half weeks.
Thursday night we went to a bar that we were told did karaoke. They had a live band that would take requests basically. You look through their book, pick your song (they had tons), they give you the lyrics and start playing. Pretty cool.
Might be going up to the statue of Jesus today, not quite sure yet. But tomorrow we're going on the sweet hike again. Then to someones apartment for a guacamole competition in which I will be a judge, then we're gonna end up, hopefully, at a bar to watch the Superbowl.