Carnavale

moi et 'tatiyana" aka David my co-workers bf

I participated in my first (and maybe only) Carnavale celebration. In Dunkerque, Carnavale is celebrated from late January to sometime in March. If you want to understand it, do a little bit of research on it. What i know is something about the old sailors leaving to go to iceland to fish for 6 months on a very dangerous trip and before they left they would have a big party because hey they might not make it back. but it was the night before they left, all of their clothes and belongings were already packed on the ship so, why not! they wore their wives' clothes. and that is why today men dress up as women. or more specifically, they dress as slutty women. There's many parts of carnaval: bands, parades, parties and balls. and drinking. you are supposed to drink a lot. One of my co-workers invited me to go to le bal des corsaires last night. Before the ball, she had "chappelle" at her house which is pretty much a big pre-funk party. Everyone comes to eat and drink and dance and be merry.

me and the "ladies"

I learned (or tried to learn) the carnaval songs. Which are impossible for me to understand. And we danced some carnaval dances. one was a big congo line. which went in and out windows, in and out of the kitchen, up and down stairs. and all around. a lot of jumping and lines and yelling. which made no sense to me. i got caught drinking water once in the kitchen and got in trouble. because it was water and not booze. so i snuck in every once in a while to get a little h2O.

le queue loulou

we finally went to the ball sometime after 1am. im not really sure. but everyone i had talked to told me "dont get lost. its important to stay with someone that you know. because once you're lost, thats it, there's no finding your friends." once i got inside (the ball is held at the kursaal, a huge convention center on the beach) i could see why. Not only were thousands and thousands of people there (i mean a whooole lot!) but everyone was dressed up. and it all just blends into a mix of colors and umbrellas and fake breasts. (on the men.)

 

can you spot Wario? 

The whole space was hot. And sweaty. And smelled like fake sweaty fur because everyone wears these little fake fur coats. And each man has a hat that he wears that he made all by himself and they take pride in it. there was the big room which had a pirate ship in the middle. one hour of music by a live band. they were groovin'. followed by an hour of carnaval music by the carnaval band and people going crazy. in the smaller room was the "pop" band where i danced to the worst covers of "womanizer" and "poker-face" and "lady marmalade" 

throughout the kursaal there were signs that said "no smoking!" yet left and right people were smoking cigarettes. I had one accidentally put out on my wrist. you can't tell the french not to smoke when they want to. 

 

moi, nico et virginie

I danced danced danced and danced all night. Which was a lot of fun. Learned how to "rock dance" which i was highly unskilled and clumsy at. but enjoyed it a lot. kind of like swing. Wario (see above. also a stranger.) took each girl from our group one by one and danced with us. and dang, he could really dance. danced with a man wearing plaid coulottes. saw a man my father's age with the biggest belly wearing a school girl outfit. had a hard time deciding if people were men or women. sang lady marmalade with maybe a transvestite. and had a lot of fun. 

now i see the people of dunkerque a little differently. they are usually (not everyone, but a lot of them) very negative about their city. But during carnavale, they come out of the wood-work. they love it. and today i went to the market, i looked at the people around me and wondered if i had seen them last night, jumping up and down in a bad wig and a dress.

la bande des pêchers ici à st pol sur mer

the fisher man band. they've been around my neighborhood since 10am causin a ruckus. and thats the mini fair next door. 

Im movin to Brugges

I went on a little day trip yesterday to Brugge, Belgium which is about an hour away from Dunkerque by car. On of my co-workers asked a few weeks ago if I was interested in going, and since I hadn't been yet, I took her up on her offer. Got picked up in the morning from her and another one of the English teachers and then picked up one more. Foggy, foggy day in Dunkerque, on the road and in Belgium.

We (Naima, Christine, Eglantine and I) walked around the town for a while, popping into little shops to look around. We took a tour on a canal boat which was freezing, but well worth it. Brugge is considered the Venice of the north. It is built all along little canals (not as many as venice, but still canals.) Our tour guide was very interesting, giving the tour in flemish, english and french.

Something interesting about belgium is that its split into two parts. The flemish part is in the north where they speak Flemish. (its very similar to dutch.) The southern part is Wallon and thats where they speak french. The country is kind of divided by this fact. And the french that they speak is a little different from "standard french." not that anyone really speaks standard french.

However, I really liked the city. The architecture was beautiful, typical flemish  architecture with these stepped gables. it was really pleasant to walk through. Not a lot of cars and not very much dog shit either. a big change from dunkerque! It reminds me a lot of Amsterdam, almost like a mix between the netherlands and france. two things that i enjoy a lot! there were bikes all around (the little dutchy ones) and everyone was riding around.

three things that brugge smells like :

1. frites. yum yum yum! didn't get a chance to eat fries from a friterie (i had some with lunch, they werent the real thing. ill have to go back to eat some.) however the whole main square smelled like frites. deeeeelicious. plus they fry them in cow fat. so thats even better.

2. chocolate. chocolate in brugge is like what starbucks is to seattle. or what hair salons is to dunkerque. (we've got a lot...) one on every corner. not even every corner. some right next door to each other. And they keep their doors open. to lure you in. not forgetting to mention the visual stimulation (windows filled with little chocolates) its the smell that gets me. walk by a store and you get this whiff of pure chocolate. walk into the store and you're lost. I was able to restrain myself from buying any chocolate. one because i will go back to get some. and two, they all had weight limits. and i know that if i buy as much as they want you to buy, i would eat it all in about 5 minutes.

3. Horses! they had horse carriage rides in the city. You could hear the clip clop of the horse's hooves and as they passed you they left the smell of horse in the air. maybe most people wouldn't have noticed it, or maybe they would have thought it was gross. but for me it was, i dont know. kind of comforting. it made me nostalgic. and i realized that i havent even been around a horse since september. and i miss it so much. it made me a little more homesick (oh, i've been homesick for real finally too) and wonder if i'll ever ride again. We walked by their resting spot, where the horses were having lunch and all i wanted to do was go up and pet one. it made me feel kind of silly. like how i would get so excited by the pony rides at the fair. Christine offered to take a picture of me with one, but i declined for some reason.

i will post pictures once christine sends them to me. it really is a beautiful city and i would love to live their, all of their cute little cobbled streets and chocolate shops and tea rooms. i think it is perfectly me.