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Published: March 1st 2009
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Right, it's got to be a quick one, as I'm sitting here typing fast, hoping that my laptop battery doesn't run out because the power's gone in the flat this morning, I don't know why, but it's a pain as I'd just put a load of washing on. No-one else is up yet, and as it's a Sunday I don't really want to call my landlord, but if it goes on for muh longer, I think I'll have to.
Anyway, yesterday was amazing, because Carnaval finally hit Oviedo. The week-long celebrations for Mardi Gras travel around the country, with parades and festivities popping up in different cities each day. The excitement has been growing all week, with children dressed up and people taking random days off. But yesterday was the big day. After spending the morning grabbing things from Primark to dress up in, we left our costumes at Jo and Sarah's and headed out to watch the parade. We found a good spot on the road leading into the old town and the cathedral square; the end-point for the parade. We spent a happy half-hour spotting an array of costumes in the crowd including a baby dressed as a
carrot before the parade arrived. It was incredible. It went on for ages, with so many amazing costumes, and carnival music. We were all entranced for the entire time.
Afterwards we decided to have a quick dinner before we got ready to go out. But after waiting for an hour in a cafe-restaurant type place, the food arrived cold, so we left, starving by this point and grabbed something from a nearby Burger King and scoffed it at Jo and Sarah's. We had a giggly time as we got all dressed up; Jo and Sarah became tigers, Rosy and Caroline were hilarious neon ravers, complete with clashing neon wigs, and I was a showgirl, with a sparkly silver top hat and a pink feather boa. By the time we reached the square at about midnight, it was already full of people and everyone was dressed up. Some people must plan their outfits for months; there were Jokers, policewomen, flowerpots, sumo wrestlers..... it was crazy, but brilliant. It did get a bit claustrophobic when you found that you couldn't actually move through the streets, and it got a bit surreal towards the end, but it was an amazing night.
Other than that, Oviedo is becoming normal and we are fitting into the routine. I've finalised my timetable, and I'm actually enjoying most of the lectures here, except for the stupid erasmus language course from 7-9 every night. But that finishes in less than a month so it's not too bad really. I can't keep up with the level of partying that the others seem to enjoy, but I like the mixture of nights out with them and the occasional evening in by myself. I'm hoping to plan some trips around the area, so we shall see what happens!
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Katy abroad
Katy Stewart
power loss
Re power loss, turns out I'd managed to fuse the flat - it now seems that when using the oven there's a plus one rule, if any more than one electrical appliance is being used at the same time as the oven, the flat fuses. We've become dab hands at finding the switch in the dark now though!