CARNIVAL!!

This past weekend, I attended an event in Toulouse called Carnival! My host mom explained that there was a parade with floats and music, so I decided to ask my friends at school if they were going. As it turns out, they didn't even know about it, but decided to come along and were glad I told them! I took the metro into the city instead of my usual bus because the roads were blocked off and the buses were cancelled. I had a nice 15 minute walk to the metro were I already started to see people dressed up in costumes or with face paint on their faces. (Earlier that day I even saw baristas with face paint on when I was ordering my usual coffee!)

It took more than a few phone calls to my friends because it was so loud and there were so many people.  Once we were all together, we started walking and found a spot along the parade to watch. There was a variety of dancers and music and different types of instruments. One of the main parts of the festival was the confetti. There was more than enough confetti to fill the streets and more! Almost all the floats and musicians threw handfuls of the confetti into the crowd, into people's hair, and bags. It transformed the streets into a winter wonderland! I knew it was going to be a disaster later to get all of the little bits of confetti out of my hair.

After we watched the parade for a while, we walked down the street and got to get even more confetti thrown at our heads. At the end, we got a chance to dance in the parade to a band playing music ahead of us. I was so shocked at how many people there were-- I didn't even know there were that many people in Toulouse!