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Well Carnival is in full swing. Last night was amazing. We all went to the Linden for the big costume party. The guys were all dressed up as kings and princes and the women had all sorts of weird costumes. Everyone was drunk, it was so funny. I had on my cute little backless shirt I just bought in Venlo. Some Emerson kids came dressed up in various costumes: a pirate, an Indian, police man… They had a live band that played pretty much every kind of music. They played traditional Dutch music, that I am now addicted to, and they played awesome techno music, and then they played stuff like Elvis Presley and other classic American music. so funny how they become so fond of American music. We danced pretty much all night; it was such a great time.

Today was the parade. It was, oh my god, the BEST parade I’ve ever seen. It lasted an hour and half, it was so long. It’s weird because the town is so small, I don’t know how there was anyone to actually watch the parade because everyone in the town was in it. There were so many floats, they had different themes: 70s retro, the queen of hearts, the police and a bunch of other stuff. It was scary, the police float threw fake grenades at the crowd and they smoked, and it was scary, all the Americans were like, “umm…. Why are they throwing grenades at us?” There was a Harry Potter theme float too. The other really big part of this parade was, surprise, surprise: alcohol. Everyone in the parade was drinking on the floats. And they don’t throw candy at the crowd, they throw alcohol. They were throwing individual shots in little bottles at us, I got an apple shot that I gave to Kevin. One float was giving away full cans of Heineken. I think the whole theory behind carnival is that you get really drunk all weekend, up until Fat Tuesday and then you fast for 40 days. So everyone will be partying tonight too. I have to study for midterms. This is the absolute worst weekend to do so, no one wants to study, there are so many parties going on. Its crazy.

I can’t believe its March already! It really feels like the middle of may, still! The first night of Carnival was so much fun. I went with Emily, Courtney and Liz. Emily and I had our little crowns on, and Liz and Courtney dressed up as men. We were the only Emerson kids at the Vink for two hours. This was very nice because the locals found it fun to teach us about their customs and about their traditions. They were amazed that we don’t have Carnival in America. It was all women at the Vink. I was told that it was a celebration of the 1900s when women were given the right to enter a bar. All the women were dressed as they would have been in the 1900s, it was really cute. Around 11pm, the “kings” of this year’s carnival came, and they danced to Dutch music. They taught us some dances. They also were really big into conga lines, and they kept pulling us into them. It was great! They had Dutch food, that they insisted we try, and it was really good, even though I have no idea what it was! When the Vink started to fill up with all Emerson kids, I left, and came back to the Castle to watch “Pretty Woman”. Good Times.

I went to Venlo and booked my Eurail tickets for Switzerland. It took me like an hour and a half to finally get them. Apparently, next weekend is vacation week and everyone is going to Switzerland. But I got them. Then I walked around and shopped for a bit. I got really excited about clubbing sometime, so I bought club clothes that I’m probably never going to wear, but they were cute, so I bought them anyways.