Saturday 25th Feb- CARNIVAL!!!!!!!!!!! After getting back at 5 i did not get up until 12 and had a great lunch at the Grandparent's house. I then met some more of Fernanda's friends and we headed down to the streets of central Floripa for a drag queen parade and lots of bloco parties (huge floats with music and lots of crazy people going mad and dancing in the streets!). It was such a fantastic atmosphere, the guys dressed as girls looked hilarious! We then went home to change into our Parade clothes- it suddenly dawned on me what i had let myself in for! When we got to the Sambadrome at about midnight, there was a sea of costumes and i could not see a thing because everyone's hats where so huge! I had no idea what was going on, but the atmosphere was so buzzing, and i was so excited about (attempting to dance) in the samba parade! We set off, and danced through the crowds for about an hour. After our parade, we watched the other 2 schools, and finally got home at 5 in the morning!!Great start to Carnival! Sunday 26th Feb- i got up at 6- yes after ONE hour of sleep! Headed to Sun's where we left to go to Roberta's friend's beach house in Lagona. We slept a bit on the way and stopped off for an awesome breakfast, there was a huge cow working hard, and we also tried a great Brazilian sugar cane drink called Caldo de Cana. We also sampled some raw sugar cane! We finally got to the house and met some people from the house next to ours, who were preparing for the local bloco party. We then headed down to the bloco party (see picture above!) There was such a local, almost English village like atmosphere!! We came back for a rest and then... finally after hours of waiting (Brazilian time again!!) we headed to Lagona. The beach was packed, and there was a stage with a live band playing fab music. There was a main street with lots of blocos and people's cars with huge speakers blaring out very loud music..there were so many people it was so crazy! We met a random Brazilian guy who was with a Scottish guy, the Brazilian shouted out òh look its your brother- because the scott had very pale skin, blue eyes, blonde hair and freckles- yes a bit like me! Very amusing! We stayed for hours and ended up back home at 6 in the morning! Was such a beautiful day outside- shame we were just about to go to bed!The countryside was amazing- such a contrast from the city centre. Monday 27th Feb- Got up at 2 and went for a swim in the sea then i sunbathed. Got interupted by this guy talking in Portuguese, we then had a conversation in half portuguese and half English and he invited me to his house just up the road. So, Sun and I went to his house and sat outside and drank some beers with loads of his family and friends- talk about Interigation!!They tried to persuade us to go to their local Bloco party- we were the first English people they had ever met...but we were off to Lagona again for another crazy night of partying!We went back to the house and had some Caipirinha and we spoke with the guys a bit more- one of them gave me his Carnival hat as a memory for me- so cute! We headed off to Lagona. Yet again, a great night was had in the crazy beach town Lagona! Tuesday 28th Feb- Got up again at 2 in the morning as we did not get home until 7 am! Played lots of chess with Sunny and then we said goodbye to everyone and headed to another beach area called Guarda do Embau. We got there early evening and went to Roberta's friend Fernanda's house. We had a great meal and then Sun and I headed out to the local area to check out the shopping- it was so buzzing- it was quite a hippy town and the smell of insence was everywhere, there were some crazy dancers with drums too- bliss! We then headed back to the house and had a BBQ and lots of caipirinha to celebrate the engagement of Fernanda and her boyfriend. I made my first caipirinha too! Very tasty! At about 1 we headed back out to check out the nightlife in the centre. It was quite good- we checked out a not so fab club and then walked along the sea front for a bit- we then headed back at half 4! Wednesday 1st March- Today we woke up at 7 and had to go back to Floripa as Roberta was working. We went and watched George do some early morning surfing, and were sitting on some rocks and a really dodgy guy would not stop talking to us- we ran for it as i had my phone, digital camera and ipod with me!We got back at 10 am and i slept right through to 5- i was quite impressed i managed to make my caipoeira lesson! Thursday 2nd March- Back to work today. I managed to fall over in exactly the same place that i fell over before, and re-opened the almost healed wound on my knee- doh!!!In the evening, i said goodbye to Fernanda's grandparents who are off on a 3 month cruise round Europe. We then went to Fernanda's cousin's birthday party.......the birthday cake had condensed milk in it, oh and so did the truffles- there is a national obsession with the stuff over here!!! Friday 3rd March- Today there was a fire in 3 of the houses near to the project. Some bodies had also been found by the police... i hope none of them are relation to the children at school. We had chicken stew for lunch; the whole chicken had been left in the serving bowl, and one of the boys preceded to chew on the whole of the chicken foot- i guess he does not get fed much at home. Had my first lesson with the music teacher today- very good teacher indeed!Caipoeira was fun today, we tried out some very difficult and interesting moves!We got stuck in the most ridicolous tropical rainstorm- we got absolutely soaked through even in the bus shelter!