CaRnIVaLE!

It's Carnival (Mardi Gras) time in Switzerland and it gets pretty silly here. I guess it started on Friday on my way to work. I'm riding the bus thinking about numbers, assets, and liabilities when, out of the corner of my eye, I see a high school aged girl wearing what appears to be a 50 gallon black trash bag as a shirt with dirt all over her face. She was laughing, so I guessed she was not beat up and forced to wear a trash bag. I thought she must be protesting something, and didn't really get it. Then I looked up and saw the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz and one of the Ghostbusters. Then I remembered this weekend is Carnival.

Carnival here is Mardi Gras and Halloween mixed together. It's a very big event (it's actually called Rabadan if your into wikipedia, youtube, or flickr) in the city just north of us called Bellinzona. It starts on Thursday and continues until Tuesday (I guess that's similar to New Orleans??) Anyway, we decided we would go Saturday night. We heard people wear costumes, but I was not planning on wearing a costume because:

1. I don't have a costume, and
   
2. I have found the people in Switzerland to be generally quiet, polite, conservative, sober, and responsible. I have no idea what kind of "costumes" everyone would wear. I sort of pictured this being a party with people wearing the little masks on a stick that you hold over your eyes while you wear a tuxedo and sip champagne. The costume parties I'm used to going to typically involve dressing up in something very funny, offensive, or otherwise crazy and would not be looked upon favorably by people in tuxedos with little masks on a stick. I don't want to be that guy. I already feel weird enough.

I guess the first clue that it would be a wild party was at work when one of the guys who we were going to go with said to wear "your worst jeans and your worst jacket." Okay... still not thinking this is a big deal, because this guy is Italian and has very well dressed at all times. His "worst jeans" are probably still very nice. I took this information to mean don't worry about dressing as if you were going to a very nice restaurant.

Then I asked another guy at work if he was going. He answered: no, he was not--make sure to wear clothes you don't care about. I said "really?" Then he acted out someone throwing up on his shirt.... Sometimes there are benefits to not knowing how to translate every word. Acting things out is fun.

Despite these signs I don't want to wear a costume, because I really have no idea. We plan to meet my Italian friend from work along with another couple he is friends with at the train station to go to Bellinzona. One of Malinda's friends from school also decided to come down from Zurich to go with us. Malinda's friend has never been to the Carnival either. As we are waiting for the agreed upon time to meet my friend, he calls and says he will be late because his friends have decided that he should dress up as a woman and it's taking longer than expected to get his makeup right.

At this point, we decide that we could wear some Mardi Gras beads at least so we look festive. I mean, my friend is dressing as a woman! Malinda's friend from Zurich brought some swimming goggles to wear, just in case. Good move.

So we went to the train station, and EVERYONE has on a crazy costume (except for the random people who were apparently coming to Lugano for vacation and looking at everyone like they were nuts). I loved it! Some of the costumes were really great too. I saw Bender from Futurama, lots of priests having beers with terrorists, lots of animals (mostly pigs), devils, mummies, knights, and one guy with a long white t-shirt with a dishwashing detergent cake taped on the back!? When our train pulled up, it was already packed with tons of other people in costumes who were all singing!!! Their was nowhere for us to sit, but it was only about a 20 minute ride.

When we got there, it was great. It was Mardi Gras and Halloween mixed together like I said. If you have never been to Mardi Gras, it's like Tom Lee Park during Memphis in May. If you have never been to Memphis in May or Mardi Gras... come on... live a little. It was a fun party with lots of people outside. There were bands too! The first band we saw was on some bleachers and they were playing Rage Against the Machine.

The next band was in front of this super old church. They were all dressed like leprechauns and the conductor was real pumped!

So, last night was fun and it made me think that maybe some of the Swiss people do know how to let loose a little. I was impressed, and hope to go next year as a giant calculator.