University parade

This tuesday marked the start of the annual ``Academic Week´´ which is basically a week of straight partying for all students. The university students had a parade to kick things off called Quema das fitas, or Burning of the ropes, I´m not sure what the deeper meaning or historical context of that is but I bet I could find out. The parade started in the lowest point in Viseu and would work its way up to the city center, or Rossio, the downtown, kind of like the plaza in Ashland, this is where the city hall is and it´s big and nice with fountains, long rows of trees etc. Each section of the universities had a float, for example, the economy kids had an economy themed float, the veterinary students had a vet float, etc. you get the idea. Most of the floats were being pulled by tractors and had a big trailer behind with the float, music, dancers and the most important thing, TONS-O-BEER. Each float had either kegs set up with taps and a mountain of plastic cups or a giant bucket of ice, probably the size of a hot tub, full of beer. Behind each float was a proccession of students from the respective classes all dressed to match in either suits with canes and tophats or t-shirts, or other forms of uniforms, and they were all dancing to the blasting music from their float, drinking and, of course, since the students couldn´t possibly drink all this beer alone, they started having beer fights. These beer fights consisted of throwing cups of beer on to one another, themselves and anyone watching the parade. They got pretty creative in their beer hurling techniques, some making make-shift grenades while others came equipped with super soakers and hoses. It didn´t rain that day but anyone walking down the street would have thought that the area had just been hit by a flash flood, the gutters guided rivers of beer into the storm drains carrying along cans and used plastic cups, the sides of buildings dripped with the amber liquid. Once everyone was thoroughly drenched in beer, had drank enough or just wanted to be nice, the students would open up their floats to the public and would hand out as many cans of free beer one could carry. This went on until night started falling and too many people had taken a trip to the hospital so everyone went home, more or less stoked.

Another update

Hey just saying I´m working on a lot of stuff to post. This post is as much for you to know what is coming as to remind me of what to write about.
Spring break, algarve, serra da estrela, pascoa, uhm, and a bunch of other stuff.