More Carnaval!!

Julissa and me in Ilda´s place

Orquidea and me

A street in San Juan - notice all the motorcycles and motos!

A funny umbrella that was in the street...so we took a picture

In Ilda´s place, the bakery where we go to eat cake and pastelitoes and pizza haha

Ahh ok so the thing that he has in his hand is what all the boys use to hit the girls with on their butts...i still have a bruise on my thigh..and they´re hard and they hit hard too! I´m not exactly sure why, but they do it..and whenever they hit you you have to run up against a wall or find a guy to defend you...

Monopoly!!! in Spanish!!! I was playing with Orquidea, Ramona, Jimito, Julissa, and Felix Andres

Hamburger stand!!!! There´s lots of hamburger-hot dog-pastelito stands on the corners haha and they´re pretty good too.

El Carnaval...sponsored by Presidente.. ahhh theres always something about presidente here. It´s the Dominican´s favorite beer..

in Parque Duarte

The arc of San Juan... in parque Duarte, next to Caribe Tours...for Christmas it was all decorated and pretty

Lechosa!!!!

Mascaras...you almost cant see them but they´re the black looking figures

Ramona and a little boy in the Carnaval, with his costume he looked like a little chicken :)

El Carnaval!!!!

The parade on Saturday...fun! Lots of different groups, this was one of them with twin dolls....and of course they had to do inappropriate things with their twin dolls...hahaha.(top right)

These costumes were the coolest!! (up) they were attatched to people's arms and legs, so when the people walked, it looked like the big skeleton thing was walking...i have a video and i tried to put it up but there was an error...and i have lots more but they take alot of time so i'll put them up some other time..

Los Indios :)

a blue diablo

yes, those are guys...the pic explains it all. :)

Ramona and me...with a skeleton :) haha that was a sweet costume

haha you almost can't see him...but this costume it made out of strips of plastic pasted onto clothing...pretty sweet :)

yes that's a guy.

Los Brujos!!! the witches..they were in the parade, and their float won..it was pretty sweet. except he's smoking a cigar...eew.

I've got alot more pics and videos for later!!!!! =D

Helloo! Ok, so yesterday was the Carnaval for little kids. The Carnaval is a celebration in all of Febuary, where people dress up crazy, like devils or dragons or monsters, and go out into the streets whipping the ground and going in parades.. Yesterday I went to the one for kids that they had here in San Juan in one of the parks.. There were lots of kids with random costumes, masks, spider man suites, and everything.. It was funny. And of course there were lots of little boys playing with whips.. Which isnt really very safe.. Especially in crowded areas. And there´s lots of teenage boys running around with these hard balloon-like things on the ends of strings, hitting girls in their butts and backs..and yes they hit me about four times! And hard, too! And when they don´t stop, you have to run. This Friday, the 27th, is the normal Carnaval..which should be even bigger and better. But I´ll probably get hit more.. Haha. The Carnaval in La Vega, a city in the northern part of the D.R., is known to be the best in all the Carribbean, with huge parades and fairs and everything.

Sheila and me yesterday in the Carnaval for kids
Ramona, Carolina, and me..

The San Juan capital building..

El Carnaval! A typical costume.

Haha, when I try and take a picture of one person

everyone crowds in!

El Carnaval for kids, in Duarte Park

Kids playing with whips..fun!....

La Avenida - a big avenue on the north side of town

and it´s really long and has alot of these apartments

that all look the same on both sides

A rice factory!

In the campo! It´s extremely pretty there.

Normal houses in a village in the campo

It´s really pretty!

Antony, Andrina, Sahony, Jairo, Cristal

Riding in the truck on the way to the campo

From left to right Cheina, Sahony, Andrina, Jairo,

Ramona, and Cristal

Sheila, Orquidea, and me

Orquidea, Norman, and Me

Manuela and Julissa in the truck

My class! From left to right they are Norman, me, Jairo

Caroline, Ernesto, Erik, Daniel, Ramona, Cristal (in the middle)

Sahony, Emely, Cristofer, Jaciel, and Yomalsy

KC and our friends from Thailand in the AFS camp

Ramona and her house

KC and me in the camp

I got black highlights..

It´s easy to find random farm animals walking in the

streets of San Juan

the street outside Ramona´s house..to the right is

the fence to the stadium