Thursday, March 7, 2013

Carnaval, Carnaval

Carnaval Carnaval
Carnaval te quiero
LA la la la la la la
Bailaremos sin parar
En el mundo entero ..... 

This song haunted my nightmares for weeks after Carnaval. Every time I heard it I become overcome with exhaustion, having to grab ahold of something so as to prevent myself from collapsing to the floor. I have been conditioned to get this way with the song because it was constantly being played the entire week of Carnaval! The first time I heard it, I was joyous and dancing and whatnot...13 times later though, I get nauseous.

There had been many months of building-up to this festival known as Carnaval here, and I think I now comprehend the extent of the hype...but I would never be capable of going through it all in the full-forced manner as I did this time!

Carnaval festivities technically start January 31. There's a party on that Thursday called compadres which is supposed to be mostly geared towards men, but actually no one really pays attention to it. The party on the next Thursday, comadres, the female equivalent, is when things really start out.

Day 1: Comadres en Verin

Costume: Catwoman


Ashley and me
I was beyond excited to kick off the first day of celebrations! My friend Ashley was in town visiting, and she and I were going to accompany some of my students to a nearby town called Verin to celebrate comadres. The essence of this party is that females get together and celebrate...they go out to dinner together, they get dressed up together, and then they go out and party together! On this particular day, men are not really wanted. So, any male who is out on this night is supposed to be dressed in drag. Oh man, what a night. It was so enlightening to see Spanish man, the machista of the machista, go out in full make-up, wigs, heels,the whole nine yards. Some of these guys looked GOOD! 

The autobus for Verin left at 11pm Thursday night. On the bus I got my first taste of the "Carnaval Carnaval" song; I was into it! About an hour after departure we arrived to Verin, and I witnessed for the first time the seriousness that people take in regards to costume. Everywhere I looked, gangs of people dressed as cows, nuns, police, Grease characters, devils, and so on. Also, the number of people was unbelievable to me. It was like I was standing in the middle of Six Flags on a summer day...except everyone was in costume.
Cigarrones de Verin...I will explain them later

When we got off the bus, we made our way to the main plaza, passing by hundreds upon hundreds of people in costume. In this plaza there was a stage set up, like another mobile disco. Eventually, a DJ started playing music and the crowd would dance, but there was also periodical moments where the music would stop, and "official" people would get on stage and orate about Galicia pride all in gallego, people would chant and cheer, and then the music would start again. This continued until 5am, at which point it was lights out. I was EXHAUSTED at this point. I asked my students what was next...secretly hoping that the night was over. NOPE. Onto the clubs!...

BUT NOT BEFORE SOME FOOD!

There were some very intelligent food vendors open immediately behind the stage, and they had to have made a killing that night with all the drunk people. Ashley and I shared some patatas bravas...twice. And then I also bought some insanely overpriced churros. Content with our food, we were ready to rally for the rest of the night!...Actually, we remained pleased from the food for about 45 minutes, but from 5:45-8:00 we were zombies in the clubs. The students we were with had absolutely no trouble maintaining their momentum. Several times I had to shake Ashley awake. My legs were shot, I was hungry again, I wanted to sleep, I wanted orange Fanta, and I wanted to be in my bed. We loaded the bus at 8:00, got back to Ourense at 9:00, and I kid you not for that entire hour the students kept yelling, singing and talking on the bus. Once we arrived to Ourense we sluggishly walked the longest 10 minutes of my life from the bus stop to my apartment, and passed OUT. I'm too old for the parties of kids these days.

Day 2: Cena con los profesores

Costume: No, thanks.


This Friday I had already agreed to go to a professors' dinner with my coworkers from A Farixa. I didn't think I was going to make it because I was absolutely positively spent from the night before in Verin, but a promise is a promise! I threw on a dress and got all nice, but I had no intention of wearing a costume...repeating Catwoman would just cause me to have vivid hallucinations of my exhaustion from the night before and I found that to be unnecessary. 

There was only about 10 of us at this professors' dinner, whereas previous parties usually had closer to 30 attendees, so it was nice and intimate. It was a traditional 4 course meal, starting with jamon y queso aperitivos, followed by ensalada and an array of marisco, and finally ending with the main course, which today was an enormous slab of solomillo iberico, or sirloin. This thing was bigger than my head. I valiantly attempted to finish it but I barely made it halfway through before giving up. I was very happy with the food, but I must be easy to please because mostly everyone else said the meat was too dry and that the meal itself was nothing extraordinary. However I become ecstatic at the mere sight of cheddar cheese, so I guess my critique of food should be taken with a grain of salt.

After some dessert and licor cafe, we made our way to some bars to continue the night. I already felt my exhaustion setting in, and it was only about 12:30am. The bars we went to were definitely geared towards the older crowd, and my coworkers were definitely loving it! I caught some ABBA and Michael Jackson, but all the rest of the music was Spanish and from the 60s...so not really my cup of tea. Hahaha what a difference of night and day between this night and the previous I had with my students! I was the first to retire amongst my coworkers, around 2:00 am I headed home, desiring nothing more than my bed for a second night in a row! The next night was going to be another long one...

Day 3: Cena con los profesores de Anna

Costume: Boy George 


The legendary Boy George
 Back in November, I had a brilliant idea. I was going to be Boy George for the next Halloween!!!! Why had I never thought of that before?? Boy George is an iconic figure from my favorite decade! I couldn't wait for the next October...but also didn't really want to wait for the next October... I wished upon my lucky stars that an event would present itself in which I could fulfill my newfound dream of dressing up as Boy George...

And then along came Carnaval :)

One of the professors Anna works with invited us to go out with his friends on this 3rd day of our Carnaval adventure, and we enthusiastically agreed. I was mostly recovered from Verin two days before, so I felt ready for another enjoyable night of costume mayhem. The group's costume was villains. Originally Anna and I were planning to do a little Batman joint costume, with her being Poison Ivy and my being Catwoman. As I've stated before, however, I had retired the Catwoman costume for good. Plus... I had an itch to be Boy George that I could no longer ignore!
Don't mess. lolol


Cocido! The bottom left shiny slab is the ear
This was by far the most enjoyable costume to put on, but I wish I would have gotten ready an hour earlier to really get the full hair effect and to load on an extra pound of make up. So I ended up as Boy George, Anna as Poison Ivy, and Ashley threw together a costume for Black Swan at the last minute which I found to be quite impressive! It was great to see all the costumes of our group. Spaniards go all out, I'm telling you. It wasn't so great to see that our group included the likes of "It" the clown and other less scary villains that still terrify me. Dinner was a typical cocido, much like the cocido I had eaten with my fellow professors around Thanksgiving. STILL just as delicious. I even tried to eat la oreja, or ear, again, and this time I succeeded! The texture felt more cooked and the taste was much more rich. Aside from the food, the dinner itself was just an entertaining atmosphere. Some people had brought instruments and those who hadn't were singing and clapping. It was a true Spanish celebration and I enjoyed every bit of it!

Afterwards we hit Ourense's zona de vinos for what proved to be a night that went until 7am, oops! Well, when in Spain...


Day 4: Seixalbo

Costume: NO.    SHUT. UP.


Just when I thought I couldn't feel any more deprived of every drop of energy after our trip to Verin, I found out it was in fact possible. I slept until 3pm or so...and in reality I only woke up because we had already agreed to visit Seixalbo for more Carnaval festivities. I felt sick to my stomach, my eyelids barely remained open, I thought I was starting to catch a cold, I wanted orange Fanta...it was just a disaster. But I put my big girl pants on and we went to Seixalbo. The drive couldn't have been longer than 15 minutes; I was thankful for that because if it'd been any longer I would've had to launch myself out the car window because I was so dizzy. 

Seixalbo was...FREEZING. The temperature had dropped 10 degrees or so since we'd left Ourense, and a few days before I had broken the zipper of my treasured brown jacket so it was flapping open in the cold wind. What's more, it started raining. I just wanted to lay dowwwwwn for the rest of my life.

Contestants of the "Show"
Our purpose for coming to Seixalbo was to watch a sort of show that the village puts on. We had no idea what the show entailed of before we arrived. Turns out, it was was so strange hahaha it was a game show format with some of the local residents acting as contestants, and in between the spouts of "show" there were other people who came on stage and performed a lip-synced song by a famous Spanish personality. The people around us certainly seemed to enjoy the hell out of it all, but I didn't recognize even one of the famous personalities nor their songs. I take that back. Near the end of the show, the "Village People" came on to perform YMCA.

4 hours later, with numb legs and a growling stomach we made our way back to Ourense. I think this was the point where I concluded that Carnaval is just so MUCH. Day after day of partying and costuming and drinking and eating and staying out late, how do people keep up with this??
 

Day 5: Laza/Biggest night out in Ourense

Costume: Minimal effort-- Cat


I slept a lot the night before this day; it was a day I did not want to miss out on! We were going to the village of Laza for the infamous ant-throwing festival! People go nuts about this festival. Families breed ants particularly for this event. Essentially, the main event of the festival consists of people throwing large, angry ants at you. The ants have been doused in vinegar, because, well, wouldn't you get extra pissed if you were soaked in vinegar? So people throw ants along with dirt and flour, creating a disgusting mixture. The hype for this festival is insane. I quickly found out it wasn't worth asking any Galician person why it is this festival exists. No one seems to know, they just like it and go with it! Hahahaha crazies.

We arrived in Laza several hours before the ant-throwing commenced. There was still remnants of the event that had taken place earlier that morning in Laza. Instead of throwing ants around, that morning people had thrown rags soaked in mud at each other, slapping each other and just creating a big mud spectacle. That sounded painful so I'm glad we missed that! But, I guess getting bitten by a ton of ants doesn't sound particularly soothing either.

We waited for several hours and essentially just got more and more anxious for this thing to be over with. To further raise nerves, there were a bunch of peliqueiros running around causing havoc before the festival began. Another question I stopped asking is: What is the difference between peliqueiros and cigarrones? The most common response: "Eh, they're pretty much the same." My best guess is that they are just referred to as different names depending on the village. Anyway, peliqueiros wear these extravangant, 3000-euro-worth costumes, which include several loud, disruptive bells (similar to cow bells) on the back of their waists, and also an intricate and large mask. During Carnaval, they run around with whips, and you can hear them coming from miles away (Along with the Carnaval, Carnaval song, those bells also haunted my dreams). Who knows why they are given the authority to hit whoever stands in their way! Historically, they are supposed to imitate tax collectors from the 16th century who actually carried whips and wore similar masks.

RUN
What is my general feeling of peliqueiros? They scare me to death. They wear masks reminiscent of that guy in V for Vendetta, they can hit you without proper reason, they can run you down, and they're loud. I screamed bloody murder anytime one was within eyesight of me.

Finally, around sundown the event truly commenced. We were all gathered at the top of street and started making our way down to the village plaza. Things were initiated by la morena, which is a huge cow costume controlled by several people underneath. I was fortunate enough to be the first victim to the charging of la morena...I saw my life flash before my eyes. The cow was coming straight for me so I ran the opposite direction, screaming at the top of my lungs, only to find a brick wall and no escape. I got a good strong charge in the back hahahaha I'm such a wimp.
 
Modeling some fine Laza fashion
We continued down the hill in our Sunday finest (see picture), prepared for battle. Before we even got down to the plaza flour and dirt was starting to be thrown. Anna, Ashley, and I created a defense formation for the best protection...but when everything was getting thrown there was very little time to think about defense! I kind of just closed my eyes and screamed for the entirety of the event, which in reality was mostly over within 15 minutes. To be sincere, I was disappointed with the number of ants. We heard beforehand that there would be less ants than normal years, but no one in our group got bitten, and I found less than 10 dead ants on my clothing! I want my money back!!!!

It was such a Galician event and I'm so glad we hadn't missed out. Soon after, it started raining and people scrambled. We made our way back to Ourense. It was Monday night and supposedly the best night to go out! ...None of us were having any of it, though. I promise I tried my darnedest to rally and produce energy from the depths of my body to squeeze one more night of partying, but I just failed miserably. We thought it'd be a complete shame if we didn't at least go out for an hour to see the city, so we managed to do that. I was so over dressing up, I just threw on my cat ears, pinned on a tail, drew cat whiskers and called it a night. 

I am glad we went out because I don't think I've ever seen Ourense so packed and lively! And I don't regret coming home before 2am. I was spent. Pooped. Drained. Dead. Completely fatigued and with a cold. I felt that I had a genuine experience of Galician Carnaval without the extra late night out, and I went to sleep that night satisfied.

Day 6: Sorry, Carnaval, I'm done with you. I'm heading to the hot springs for some relaxation. 


Festivities all but ended the day before. There were a few other events, such as el entierro de la sardina on Wednesday (Day 8) but we were just uninterested. We spent this final morning at As Burgas, the natural hot springs in the middle of Ourense. It was a much-needed visit. We took the time to reflect on our feelings about Carnaval. We were in agreement that Carnaval is a neat experience and all, but it's just over-the-top. Excessive beyond measure. One night of hard partying and costumes would have been plenty for me, I would have maybe even understood two nights of it. But this week-long debacle? Never again, man.

Ashley left later that day, and Anna and I had to prepare for the next adventure we embarked on the very next morning...

our return to Granada :)

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