CANAVAL!

I woke up early today to go with Amanda to Body Boarding lessons on the beach. I laided down in the sand in read my book/slept for about four hours. I really have to coat myself with sunscreen even if I am lying under an umbrella. I don't think I have ever been anywhere so bright and with such strong rays. I have not gotten burnt yet, except I got a little red in Rio when I didn't wear any sunscreen.

Most of the rest of my day was filled with falling asleep while trying to do homework. I still am not getting much sleep here, but I am tired very often. It is hard to get quality sleep when the strong Brazilian sun and loud Brazilian melody wake you up at 6AM.

After a little sleep, it was time to go to Carnaval. The parade was in Victoria, so Nicole's mother drove us there. To preface my description of Carnaval, I have to say that it was nothing like the Travel Channel portrayed in Rio. Even though Vitoria's Carnaval is rough half the size of Rio and has a couple less million people, Vitoria is still a good example of the spirit of Carnaval. Carnaval is when all the samba schools in an area enter a competition to determine the Champion samba school. As seen from the picture, the parade route is about a half of a kilometer long and each school has 70 minutes to get their samba school to the other side. There are many specific judging guideline and specific individuals ( Porta Bandeira, The Bateria) involved in scoring. There are multiple floats for each school and a couple thousand dancers (Remember that this is a medium scale of Rio). The uniforms and costumes of the dancers are pretty expensive and very ornate. Most of the men and women are wearing little to any clothing that only covers the minimal necessary spaces.

The really impressive part of this party is the crowd. I have never seen so much energy, especially so late at night. The parade started a little after ten and went until 8 the next morning. We only stayed till 5, but we were definitely not on the same level of partying of most of the attendees. By the way, I wanted to scream "party" but I figured: a) no one would understand me b) this people were absolutely crazy c) I think we are the only ones that find it funny to yell party while at a party.

At about 2 in the morning, the fourth samba school was not ready to go on, so another samba school stepped in. By about 4, I was really lagging and almost falling asleep standing up (everyone else was still dancing, drinking, going crazy). We waited about two and a half hours for another samba school to go on, but it was worth it. As seen in the picture, their floats were huge and they had thousands of people dancing down the parade route. They were the defending champions and definitely deserved it. I was I could paint more of a picture of this crazy event, but I am still exhausted from it and need some sleep!