Carnaval!!

Carnaval...the time of year when you don't work, you don't go to school...but you do dress up as anything you can think of (NOTHING was off limits) and your age doesn't matter. From infants to the elderly, everyone is decked out! We went to the parade on Sunday and also the the traditional raising of the Mooswief. The Mooswief is a tradition in Maastricht, and is a woman who sells vegetables on the Vrijthof Square...a large representation of this woman is raised up a pole to signify the official start to Carnaval! (It was kind of anti-climatic, but oh well...). We saw hilarious costumes...my favorite was someone dressed as a shower curtain! They were inside, and the shower curtain went all the way around them...to get another beverage etc, they'd simple slide open their curtain and then close it again. Bah ha ha...I found that to be quite amusing. (Pictures are up on Shutterfly!)

We dressed up as traditional looking Dutch girls...mainly because they were cheap costumes! I've become rather fond of my hat...and have forgotten to take it off when I'm in my room. It is also quite the nice shield from the snow!!

I leave here in about a half hour for the Maastricht train station! We're taking the train to the airport Charleroi (right outside of Brussels) where we'll be flying to Budapest! The plan is the same as my last post, so I won't repeat...but I'll be getting back around dinner time or a little later (MY TIME) on Monday! Look for pictures and a new blog post sometime on Tuesday...as Monday night I'll be catching up on homework!

Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day (no one here celebrates it...guess it's an American thing?) and has an enjoyable week! I'll be back, blogging away, before you know it!

Cheers!