Carnival and the Superbowl

So since the last time I wrote a lot has happened. First there was carnival - a three day Catholic fest of drunkenness and partying. Then I watched an American football game for the first time in my life and actually enjoyed it.
Carnival is an interesting time here in Maastricht. It is only celebrated in the southern part of the Netherlands in the two Catholic provinces. The people from the North-west (Amsterdam, the Hague and Rotterdam) think of the southerners as farmers and a lot of the students we met at the Hague were surprised that we decided to live in the "boring" part of the country. But for Carnival Maastricht was anything but boring. I have never seen so many people dress in such weird costumes ever in my life. There were a lot of fuzzy tiger suits, clown outfits and some not very politically correct costumes. Dressing up as Indians (not my kind) and wearing black face is not a very big deal at all. I also saw some "Jamaicans" dressed up in camouflage. All ten of us dressed up in costumes and went to the main city squares to watch the parades and the raising of the moosweif (or market lady). Fed at the last minute decided to wear one of Eleni's dresses as a costume and got hit on by a couple of men. By the last night of Carnival the entire city was littered, and there was broken glass everywhere. We spent the night club hopping and also dancing along to some weird music coming from a float from the parade that was being driven around the city center.
On Sunday night, which was also the first night of Carnival, we went to a bar and watched the Superbowl game. Since Eleni is from New York, I wanted the Giants to win, but I surprised myself by how into the game I got. I still don't understand any of the rules, and barely understood what was going on, but it was still great. So oddly enough after spending 2.5 years in the US, I finally got into football in Maastricht. Jack and Eleni told me that games are usually not as exciting as this one was, but for now I think its great.

Apart from that all I have done recently is class work since we had a paper to write for Samatar. Since we only have one actual class for the first half of the semester, I really want to go and travel a bit, but Europe is expensive! I know I am going to be broke by the end of this thing and my tax refund could not come at a better time.

The picture there is of the Markt Square, on of the main squares in the city centre.

Sinasappel = orange (the fruit)