That is until Carnaval!
Ok we really didnt do anything exciting for Carnaval but I have to blog sometime, right??
This year, like every year, I vow to do fun and exciting things during Carnaval. But this year, like every year (except for my first year in Brazil, 2008) we didnt have the crazy Carnaval that I wanted. I think that Brazil is made up of two types of people. The people who love Carnaval and the people who hate, and I mean HATE Carnaval. Personally I dont know how people can "hate" a couple of days off of work and drinking in the streets, but these people swear up and down that they hate Carnaval.
I can loosely compare Carnaval to Spring Break in the States. When you are a kid you like Spring Break because it is a week off of school in the middle of the semester, and usually includes Easter and all of the Easter festivities. Kids here in Brazil celebrate Carnaval with dressing up in costumes and having parties at their schools. When you get older in the US Spring Break means heavy drinking with your university buddies, and hooking up with random people. The same thing goes for Brazil. From the ages of about 17-25 Carnival means drinking heavily in the street and making out with as many random people as you can. Condoms are handed out freely at the street parties, and most partake. I have heard, "dont fall in love during Carnaval, because it never works out." But it is good fun, as long as you are safe. Then from the ages of about 25 on, people in the US stop having Spring Break, and therefor dont like it anymore. The same thing goes for Brazil, but for different reasons, reasons that I experienced this Carnaval.
Two Friday's ago I went to a "bloco," (street party) with my friend Ligia. They usually start at about noon and last until pretty much "last man standing." We got there about 1 and it was already packed. We paid our $R5.00 for a beer (at the supermarket they are $R1.25) We tried to get as close as we could to the stage where a band was playing, but we didnt get far. We bought more beer, and did some people watching, which included looking for people kissing random people. We only found 1 couple and it was a pretty gross sigh to see! Unfortunately after drinking a few beers I had to use the bathroom. So I got in line.... I waited for about 30 minutes under the brutal sun, and by the time I got to the front of the line I didnt really have to go anymore because the sun sucked all the moisture from my body! But i went anyway, and it was not pleasant to say the least. I got back to Ligia and we decided we had enough... By this time it was about 330. There was wall to wall people. It really reminded me of my concert festival days. It was hot and smelled like sweat, beer and pee. Once we broke free of the crowd we found a taxi and practically fell asleep on the metro home. So now i get it... People dont like Carnaval because they are old and cant hang like they used to. I have learned my lesson and will no longer look for the crazy Carnaval.... Until next year when I vow to have a crazy Carnaval!
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