Tenerifi and Carnaval!

This last weekend we went to the Canary Islands, Tenerife to be exact to play one of the teams there, Santa Cruz.  We won in 4. This weekend was particularly a good weekend to go because a holiday in Spain, called Carnival, was on its last weekend fiesta.  

Here is a blurb from the wiki site about it:  

The Santa Cruz de Tenerife is together with the Carnival of Cadiz, the most important festival for Spanish tourism and Spain's largest carnival.^{[10][11][12][13]} In 1980 it was declared a Festival Tourist International Interest, by the Secretariat of State for the Tourism. Every February, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital of the largest of the Canary Islands, hosts the event, attracting around a million people. The celebrations could be declared by UNESCO as Heritage of Mankind in 2011. Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife now aspires to become a World Heritage Site.^[14]

In 1980 it was declared a Festival Tourist International Interest, by the Secretariat of State for the Tourism and it is one of the most important carnivals of the World. The Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife now aspires to become a World Heritage Site.^[14] This declaration by UNESCO will, occur, further promoting international had Santa Cruz de Tenerife, being the first Carnival of Spain to obtain this recognition, for its permanent in time and it would reach the five continents through UNESCO. In 1987 went to the "Carnival Chicharrero" Cuban singer Celia Cruz with orchestra Billo's Caracas Boys, attended by 250,000 people, was registered in the Guinness of Records as the largest gathering of people in an outdoor plaza to attend a concert, a record she holds today.

Basically it is one huge party. They close off the center of town and there are a ton of people dressed up in costumes. This is also like a 2 week celebration AND they start dressing up and partying at like 9am.    One of the things I thought was pretty cool about it was, that unlike being in America for Halloween, which is one giant excuse for girls to dress in as little clothing as possible, here costumes have a lot of thought put into them and people really go to extremes.  I was able to borrow a costume from a girl on the team we played who was from Australia. We have a mutual friend who realized I would be on the island for that weekend and she got us connected.  I was a roman lady, 2 of the girls were statues, 1 boxer, 2 police women and a flapper were in our group. It was a really fun time and I was able to stay out until 4am before I had to go to bed or suffer the consequences the next day while we traveled home. I found out the other girls didn't get into bed until about 9 am! Crazyness.  Here are some pictures of our adventure :)

Here is the view from out Hotel

 Another

 I was a roman lady getting in trouble by the policia!!

 This was a picture for Crystal Matich, fellow wolfpack member and jumping-while-taking-a-picture-extrordinare.

 Two of the girls I was with who painted their whole bodies silver. hahah it was awesome. They were SO silver. They would be walking alone surrounded by people and would stop, (like a statue) for a few minutes. It was hilarious and funny to watch what other people around them did.

 Lauren and I :)

 The whole group I was with

 Fun times. The street was PACKED. You could barely walk through it.

 Brigitte and I. (A girl who plays for another team in Tenerife and an American.)

 SL<3VE

 Me with a friend dressed up as Scooby Doo haha

 Grr baby Grr

One of the streets we were on. All of them were like this!

I was so happy I got to experience this fiestsa first hand. It was madness and I loved every second of it! Traveling home was not so fun, but I think it was well worth it :)

Home game this weekend and on Sunday the whole team gets to go out on the ocean for Yacht races! We could choose to watch, be on a boat and not race, or be on a boat that races! Guess which one I picked?? ;) I am so excited!!

I will post all about that next time and show you some awesome pics (hopefully!).

Ky

March 4th-11th :)

Whoa its been a month since I have last posted! Sorry about that. The last few weeks have gone too fast.  Since loosing to Murcia,  we have won every match. We continue to work hard at practice and get better so we are ready for Playoffs.  We only have 2 regular season matches left and we only need to win 1 of them to secure out 1st place spot in the Spanish League! Yay us! Playoffs start the beginning of April with quarter finals being the best out of 3 matches, semi finals and finals being the best out of 5.  

I cant believe I have been here to months! It is really starting to feel like home. I am getting to know the girls better and my spanish is improving daily.  

My boyfriend Nate was able to come visit me in the beginning of March for a week. It was so nice to have him here and have him able to see what its like to live and play overseas, plus it was the first time he had ever seen my play live and not on a computer screen :)   I am sure it was not the most exiting vacation he has ever taken given the fact that it is still cold here and there is not much to do on the island, but we did get a chance to see the town and walk around a bit.  I was happy to see him and the week went way to fast!  

Here are some pictures we took while he was here....

We walked around the town and went and ate some brunch at a little place overlooking the port. It was gorgeous.

There was a park that had an outdoor gym....it was random and this was the bike available to ride haha

We went to another part of the port and looked at an old lighthouse and explored. 

Nate being silly...

They had dug out tunnels and rooms in the rock for lookout posts. You cant see very well but that is the ocean out the hole. 

This was the entrance to the caves. Nate was inside and took a picture as I were leaving...

On the cliff over looking the water...

:)

He is so strong! haha

We went over to my roomie, Janine,  boyfriend's house for some fajitas and beer one night and had a great time!

Besos!

I had so much fun with him, I was sad to see him leave....but the months are flying by and soon enough I'll be back in the states!  

Next blog will be from the trip to Tenerifi and all about Carnaval!! 

Ciao!