Lady Gaga and her body guards

So as I mentioned in my last blog entry, I am officially out of school for the next week due to Carnaval along with every other student in Cádiz which means Thursday was party night.  I think it's time to explain Carnaval to those who don't know what it is:  Mardi Gras is famous in New Orleans for parades, costumes, and partying.  This is routed in the Christian tradition of preparation for the Lenten Season (40 days of fasting, no meat, no pleasure until Easter Sunday).  Since there are so many restrictions, people use up all the old food they can't eat for the next 40 days and get all of their sinning out of their system.  Well Carnaval is like Mardi Gras but it lasts 8 days and everyone from all over Spain and some parts of Europe flock to Cádiz.  Cádiz IS Carnaval.  We were told that our front entrance way had to be closed to avoid people urinating, defecating, and sleeping in the door way...this is how intense this should be.  Saturday to Monday everyone goes out in a costume like for Halloween  (just without the candy).  There will be singers in the street, free concerts, churro stands, cotton candy stands, people with Kazoos, etc etc.

Since this was pre-pre-carnaval, all the clubs/bars were having costume nights, my friends and I met by a lamp post in Plaza San Antonio to walk down to Nahú (the erasmus dominated bar).  Then from the balcony she appeared; the star of our night out, the stylish mess that is Lady Gaga.  Wearing a necklace with Christmas tree ornaments, cans of soda in her hair, and face paint that would make any star jealous, Lady Gaga arrived to party and things were about to get good.  Chelsea, Jacqueline and I acted as body guards for the night; wearing all black with sunglasses and head phones to look like headsets.  It was brilliant.  We started in Nahú where the DJ blasted "Alejandro" when he saw us walk in.  All of our German friends met up with us there dressed up as Candy Girls and colorful fashion disasters.  Snacking from their bags of candy and dancing the night away was perfectly fantastic.  The bar got so crowded that dancing turned impossible so a couple hours later we moved onto the next one.

At about 2:30 we moved over to Magdala's which is another bar/discoteca around the corner.  Ironically, Davide was there (keep in mind he went back to Napoli after the semester ended weeks ago).  I also ran into Vera and Eva who both went to Morocco for almost a month. This bar was slightly more crowded than  Nahú...almost impossible I thought, but there I ran into all of the New York kids and made friends with some more British/Irish people.  It got too crowded to handle there too so at around 3 we went to another spot: Umec.

Umec was almost completely empty when we got there (we were REALLY early).  Within the next 15 minutes though it became as packed as Nahú. I saw Davide.  All of my American friends left in Magdala and I stayed with the Brits and New Yorkers in the new club until 5.  That's when I had to call it quits.  People were still coming in and I was sick of being pushed around by people trying to use the bathroom. I ended up going home early before we could go out to the actual discotecas but I still had a bunch of fun and am looking forward to the craziness of Carnaval...a rezar