Carnaval

What a week! The past two weeks have been celebrations of Carnaval (although I didn't notice anything of the sort until Saturday night). Carnaval is like Mardi Gras but with less flashing and a longer period of time. On Saturday, there was a free music event in the auditorium in Roquetas that Sarah and I went to for a few hours. It was a competition for the best parody act (I think). There were 19 groups who each got about 25-30 minutes for their sets (yea it lasted until 5am I heard). The first group was fantastic! It was a group of about 18 guys, half of them dressed as new-age robots called the Pepito 2000.

It was a parody about marriage as the Pepitos were ordered as "perfect husbands." Other groups were: a group of women from the "street," a group of priests who "love Jesus but drink a little," and two guys parodying the government and Zapaterius (Roman name for President Zapatero). They were great! Then we headed to the best tapas restaurant I have been to yet!
This past Monday our school went on another field trip to a park about an hour away. I had no idea what to expect from it, but I knew 3 year olds were going and we would have them for 7 hours without nappage. Ha. But it was a WONDERFUL day. In true Spanish fashion, we pretty much turned the kids loose in this huge park and had a teacher barbecue! It was tons of fun! The kids started soccer games, played some strange game involving kicking a bottle, we went on hikes, etc. The pork we cooked was delicious too. MMM. So a great day, a great way to kick off the week of no school at school.
Tuesday I was at the high school for half the day where I helped lead a Pub Quiz for the English Department. There were two versions with a bunch of questions about Britain and the Jonas Brothers. The kids had a great time I think, probably because they got free Pepsi and Fanta. The French department was making crepes and they were delicious! Around 1, I headed back to the colegio and helped some mothers make migas!
Migas = flour dumped in a pan of water and oil and you stir, stir, stir until the fried flour is in crumbles. Don't know how the mothers made 7 batches of it because I could not do even one. But they tasted great and it was a beautiful day to get to eat outside with 100 people!
And then we get to today. GREAT DAY! Today was like Halloween in America (because Halloween in Spain is just scary). The kids came to school dressed as all sorts of things (dalmatians, knights, queens, superman, geishas, goblins, boys dressed as women, hippies, etc.). And so did the teachers (Cruella DeVille, a Native American, cowboys, a tuna - troubadour type musician, a Sultan)! All day long we took pics and sang songs and the kids ripped into piñatas with their bare hands. It was such a fun day and a great finale to Carnaval week :) Here are some pics: enjoy!