Well, I celebrated my very first birthday out of the US in February and my very good friend Jovan traveled all the way to Spain from New York to celebrate with me. We had a blast – I got to do a bunch of those touristy things that I enjoy so much while showing off in my new surroundings. The thing that probably made this birthday so memorable, though, was the fact that it landed smack dab on the same weekend as Carnival (car-ni-VAHL)! Joe, my Argentinean friend Gabriel, and I traveled south to a very cool beach town called Sitges for one of Spain’s largest fiestas of the year. I don’t know how many thousands of people were crowded into this little village, but I think half of them were dressed in drag. Joe powdered his face and added some fake blood around his mouth (not too much) and Gabi and I each sported huge afro wigs (his was orange and mine was blue) and a bit of face paint just for the occasion. We stood and watched the street parade that lasted for at least two hours filled with robots, drag queens, show girls, aliens, McDonalds workers, Zorros, more show girls, and even people in black face playing Dixieland music (that would never go over in the US) before we hit the discos and bars of the area. With no cover charges at any of the bars, we bounced from place to place until the sun came up and our legs gave out. We met some interesting people and saw some interesting things that night (use your imagination). If I remember correctly, we woke up at an impressively early 3pm the next day.