The last week has been all about carnival. It has been an exciting and exhausting time. I am uploading some pictures on facebook so you can look at them later tonight.
The weekend started last Thursday for UWI Splash. It was a pre-carnival fete, the only one we went to because all the other ones were really expensive and sold out already. It was a little north west of Port of Spain in the city of Chaguaramas. It used to be a military zone, and the party was at The Hanger. I'm pretty sure that it used to be a lot where they kept planes. It was a huge party, with a great stage with a lot of performers. We got in about 10:30, and the performances started around midnight. One of my favorite songs, "Bacchanal" by Destra, was performed lived. It was super awesome!!! We got back to hall around 8am...it was a good night, it didn't feel as long as it should have. We danced the whole night!!!!
Friday night was Soca monarch...the annual soca competition to see who would be the nation's best soca artist for the year. We didn't go to the show because the tickets were pretty expensive, and some people on hall said we might find it boring since it would be a lot like soca star. We watched it on TV, and the artists are amazing performers!!! They are so energetic and get the crowd into the song....it is pretty amazing to watch, even on TV.
Saturday we went to the Panorama finals--which is the annual steel drum competition. We didn't buy tickets to get into the stands. Instead we walked around the Savannah to watch all the bands practice and hear them before they went on stage. Apparently this is the popular thing to do....there were sooooo many people around the bands. The band that won did an arrangement of the popular soca song this year "I'm nt drunk" by KMC...it sounded sooooooooooo amazing on the drums!!! The way the Treble drums (that play the melody) and the alto drums (that play a harmony), and the bass drums worked together to play the song, and how the composer added his own changes and variations, sounded fantastic....I loved it!!!
Sunday was Dimanche Gras!!! It is the combination of the Queen and King of carnival and Calypso Monarch competition. The Queen and King competition is where you can see all the huge, extragvegant, sparkly, and amazing costumes...some of them had to be on wheels so the competitors could walk on stage with them!!!! Calypso is a type of music here that talks about social and political problems. It was really interesting to listen to...especially since 2 different artists had songs dedicated to Obama...and both of the performances started with clips of MLK Jr. "I have a Dream Speech". Some of the songs were more difficult to understand because you needed to know a lot about the politicians in parliament...and besides a few key names, I didn't know most of them....and most of the people I was with had no idea who they were talking about.
Dimanche Gras ended around 1am. We went from the Savannah to where our pre-party was for J'ouvert. We joined a band for J'ouvert, which meant we had a definitive group to follow and had drinks and breakfest. J'ouvert is a celebration to bring in Carnival. You walk around the streets with your band, getting into mud and paint fights until you're completely covered. This is in remembrance of a civil disturbance in Port of Spain, when the people smeared themselves with oil or paint to avoid being recognized. It was another long day....the pre-party started around 2am, and we walked around for about 6 hours through the city. It was a lot of fun...but crazy at the same time.
Tuesday was Mas. Thousands of people join bands for the Mas parades, people are in sparkly costumes (with very little clothing), and they walk around Port of Spain dancing to Soca music. There are just as many people that line the streets watching...and "storm" a band to dance with the particpants. It was sooooo cool to see all the differnt bands themes, colors, and costumes. It was really exciting and there were so many different people that join Mas!!!!!! There are some pretty cool pictures you can look at.
Now it's just getting back to reality, and catching up on the mountains of work I have to do. It's a little daunting to think about how much I haven't been done, and need to....
This weekend we're heading to Tobago. We'll be leaving Friday evening, and coming back late Monday morning. We rented 3 villas, since there are about 20 of us going. It'll be nice to just relax all weekend on the beach!!! Pretty sure i'm going to come back as red as a lobster!!!!
I hope everyone is doing well...and enjoying the end of winter/almost the beginning of spring!!!!
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