End of Fallas

Fallas has continued to be more awesome. tuesday night we watched the fireworks again. This time they started at 1 am. Everything happens so much later here! Then we continued to meet up with a bunch of friends of ours in the program and wandered down to Barrio Del Carmen, where there were tons of young people drinking and dancing on the street. It was a lot of fun. The guys had fun throwing petardos at each other...they're actually pretty fun. I no longer jump evey time I hear one go off, since it happens all the time! Yay! Wednesday we went to the Mascleta again. It was so powerful that we could see the glass windows of the buildings around us shaking. Later, we went to watch a parade of Falleras and Falleros bringing flowers to a huge Virgin Mary wooden frame (ofrenda). People attach all of these one little bunch at a time to form a dress with crazy patterns. It's insane and goes on for two days. We have to check it out again tonight when it's finally finished. Then Jenna and I checked out a bunch of little artisan stands that were set up. They had some really neat stuff. At night, we met up to go to an Irish pub to celebrate St. Patrick's Day a little bit. It was fun and there were so many people there! We ended up making friends with some guys from Manchester, England who were really cool. Then we went to the fireworks, which were magnificent again. After, we headed toward Carmen but wandered around a lot, seeing new Fallas and drinking and talking. Then, we came across one of many neighborhood party tents and asked someone if we could go in. He said yes and we ended up dancing with a bunch of Falleros to Spanish and American music! It was soooo fun and such an awesome experience. We made it home by 6 am and then woke up at 12, the same times as before, so that we could go to the Mascletas. This is such a crazy week but it's so so fun and I'm just so happy that I'm actually here in Valencia experiencing this! Yesterday, Friday, was the creama, or burning of all the Fallas. We chose to watch the violin one (picture in a previous blog). It was amazing! They set off all the noisemakers and sparklers and fireworks and then burned it. It was like the biggest bonfire I'd ever seen! There were electric cables pretty close to the enormous fire which seemed kind of dangerous, and I think that's why the bomberos had to keep spraying water all around the Falla. The problem was, all the ash falling mixed with the water, and when the wind blew slightly toward you, you'd get covered with wet drops of black ash. Kinda gross, but the fire was epic enough to make up for it. Tonight I'm going to a bull fight, which will hopefully be really cool. And, it's 21 degrees! Hot day! Woo woo! Yay for the end of Fallas, it was definitely the most exciting celebration I've ever been a part of.

Beginning of Fallas!

Fallas is amazing! We got back from Granada and in just about every little square all over the city there is a huge Falla! They're these constructed statues that are stories tall and of cartoon like characters (often charicatures of famous people). They're so cool! Luckily I've been here long enough to recognize a lot of these people! And there's so many of them! People are going crazy here. We went to the Mascleta on Monday and there were so many people there. Everyone was drinking beer in the square and the noise was sooo loud. We learned that you can't plug your ears or the force of the fireworks might actually rupture your eardrum. Ouch! It was really cool though. The whole ground rumbles! Later that night we went to fireworks, which were so much better than any I've ever seen in the states. They made us stand so far back because they were so strong and huge! They do this every night and I'll definitely be going. All around us people were just chillin, watching the fireworks and drinking in the streets (botellon). And throughout every day there are so many people with little fireworks (petardos) and noisemakers and things that make loud sounds. It's INSANE! Then we went to check out the "iluminacion", which is a ton of lights along a couple neighborhood's streets. It was so gorgeous. We were surrounded by lights. Amazing. Then, around 2am, we saw a big fire in the park, we went to investigate and saw that a TREE was set on fire!!! So insane!
Today we walked around town some more and saw parades and parades and groups of Falleras and Falleros. They wear traditional clothing and the women wear their hair in a sci-fi like manner that looks wicked sweet. I guess all the neighborhoods have groups and they dress all the kids up and lots of the older people, and each has a band with them and they walk around the city. It's just crazy. We had our first churros and chocolate from a stand and they were AMAZING! Fallas is just going to keep getting better and better. I'm psyched.

Granada

Hola! Granada was amazing! Friday night we went to a flamenco show in this place called "La Cueva" or the cave. The dancing was so gorgeous. There were two guitars, and older man singer, 3 female dancers, and 1 male dancer. It was really pretty, with graceful arm movements and tapdance like feet tapping to the beat (very quickly, like 32nds!) It was really moving. The older man's singing voice was raspy and it sounded kind of like a husky blues singer. Everything was gorgeous. Saturday morning we went to visit the Alhombra, the palace which was the last threshold of the Muslim sultans in Espana before the reconquest by the Catholic Kings. It was the most gorgeous place I've ever seen. The gardens were so pretty, with amazing fountains and plants. And inside the actual palace was soooooooo gorgeous. There were intricate carvings and tiling on every wall, with beautiful columns and views of the hills which are covered in cobble stone streets and old white houses. It's just amazing. Words and pictures just can't describe it. Another awesome part about Granada are the tapas. It's so cheap to eat and drink! When you go to a bar and order a beer or sangria, you receive a tapa, which is basically a little snack with it. this can range from little sandwiches and french fries to potatoes with interesting sauce and meat on them. They're delicious and you can make a dinner out of them by having a couple beers. And it cost the same as beer in Valencia! Awesome! We also wandered around some of the Arab markets, which were cute and had some neat stuff. We went to the huge cathedral and saw the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabel (the ones who gave Christopher Columbus money) and Juana la Loca and her husband Felipe of Portugal. There were amazing carvings! We saw Isabel's crown and scepter as well. Pretty sweet. Then we walked up some of the hills and looked around the beautiful white houses. It's so pretty. If I'm ever rich, I would buy one of those houses, overlooking the Alhombra. Saturday night we went to a discoteca that was high up and had an amazing view of the lit up Alhombra at night. It was super cool. Overall, Granada was pretty amazing. Now let Fallas begin!

Ciencias, Cine, y Cultura

Hi! Saturday night we went to a discoteca which was really fun. We tried to live the Spanish lifestyle and made it to staying there until 5 am, but then we decided to go home and get some sleep. Still a little early for the Spaniards though. Sunday, me, Allison, and Jenna went to the science museum. It was so fun! They had lots of hands on type things for kids, which we had a blast with. I am the best at tying shoes with surgical equipment, my back is the hottest (learned from a heat detector), and my feet are Egyptian type (learned from some type of computer that told me about my feet). Hmmmm. Mostly I just love science! :) When Jenna and I went for a run through the park earlier in the day, there were so many kids throwing fireworks! They're just things that make really loud sounds. We even saw a bunch of parents teaching their very young children how to throw smaller ones. I unfortunately jump every time someone throws one. They're just so much louger than in the United States! And it's an entire week and a half before Fallas even begins! Ridiculous. Apparently during Fallas the older kids (with the bigger firecrackers) start to target anyone who flinches, so I need to work on that. We also learned about popular fireworks called "Borochos" (drunkards), that travel in crazy paths and you never know which direction they're going in and are dangerous if they hit you! Ahhh! Fallas will be crazy. We also went to the Mascleta, and there were tons of people there. Suppsosedly, they increase in intensity each day and this one was even crazier than before! This time there were colored rockets and a bunch of louder ones. Very exciting!
Monday night I played basketball with some of the ISA kids (no soccer fields available) and we met some cool Spanish guys. It's cool how easy it is to get in on a pickup game or how people will ask to join. It's really relaxed and everyone is so friendly. Tuesday, Jenna and I went to a street market by the Plaza de Torros. It was huge! The markets here have EVERYTHING you could possibly need. They have kitchen accessories to lingere to baby clothes to toilet seats to lamps. Awesome! They have so many clothes that are cheap. I bought a dress that was a knock off of one that I fell in love with in a really fancy expensive store. yay! I also bought a cute shirt that I managed to barter for, and had a good conversation with the vender. It was really fun. And I got a pair of really cute comfy flats for only 4 euros! Markets are definitely the best place to buy cheap clothes, especially since rebaja season is over now. Wednesday night I went with my grammar class to a movie theatre and we watched El Secreto de Sus Ojos, the Argentinian film that won an Oscar. It was good, but I found it difficult to follow in Spanish. I think, since I don't have that much difficulty with movies we watch on tv or Aguila Roja, that this is because the accent was completely different than what I was used to. Overall, it was a pretty good movie though. The theatre was similar to a US one, but had a weird slope that went down in the middle and back up again. I'm not sure how, but it worked out so everyone could see. And there was no popcorn. There were only vending machines for drinks and candy. It wasn't a big huge cinema though, and one friend told me that there's a cine where you get bags of candy like a candy store! We're going to Celda 211, the winner of best picture for the Spanish awards, the Goyas with our cine class. Speaking of the Oscars though, our host mom got up at 5am to listen to the Oscars on the radio to hear who the winners were. She gets very excited about those things, and it's adorable.
Today I had my first and only midterm for my vanguardia class. I think it was pretty easy, but who knows since it's all in spanish and we had to write an essay and such. It's a pretty good class. Otherwise, I've continued to observe differences in Spanish culture. They cook with mainly olive oil and hardly ever butter. I don't think I've seen butter the entire time I've been here. Our culture professor says it's a lot healthier. The food is delicious. I'm going to take a paella cooking class sometime in April! I've also learned a lot about the politics here. There's two parties, el Partido Popular (the popular party) and the PSOE (Socialists). Basically, the PP is the conservative party like our republicans, they protest abortions and like religion in schools, no rights for homosexuals, etc. The Socialist Party is the liberal party, and not the same as socialists are in the US. The current president is Zapatero, who's a part of the PSOE. Our Senora likes him and is pretty liberal herself. She knows a lot about politics, and famous people, and everyone we see on the news. So, I suppose that makes me a Socialist here. It's all very interesting. Politically they have a lot of the same issues as us. For example, they wanted to put in a power plant, but there were a lot of protestors, for each side. Putting in the power plant would provide work for many many people, but also risks environmental problems in the future. Ultimately, they aren't going to put it in. Their economy is also pretty bad. It's kind of funny, because they call it "La Crisis", rather than saying the economy is bad. Our culture teacher told us we only needed to print out pictures in black and white since we were in the crisis, and restaurants advertise their deals with slogans like, "our solution to the crisis". It's almost how we named the Great Depression. Unluckily for them (but very luckily for me), the value of the Euro is dropping. It's now about $1.4 to every euro which makes a big difference with large amounts of money.
So, tomorrow we go to Granada, which will be GORGEOUS, and after that we don't have school for the crazy week that is Fallas. After that, we have one week of school, and following that, 2 weeks of vacation in which Jenna and I will be in Italy! We have so much time off! And Fallas is going to be amazing. I can't wait. I'll write soon.

More Pre-Fallas

The Mascleta was amazing! It was so loud and you could feel the rumblings deep in your chest. I'll try to get a video up soon. This week has been pretty good. On Monday I played some soccer and basketball with a bunch of the ISA kids. It was pretty fun. On Tuesday, a few of us went to explore downtown Valencia. It was our day to be tourists in our own city and we took a bunch of pictures. We went up a tower called Migueleta that was over 200 steps in this winding narrow spiral. When we got to the top it was amazing though! We could see the whole city! Then we went into a cathedral and saw the arm of San Vicente, the patron saint of Valencia. Yes, an arm. In a box. It was kind of gross...but kind of awesome. We got some chocolate con churros after. I guess during Fallas they set up vending stands of Chocolate con churros all over the city. They're like our fried dough! Yummmm.
Today we went to the Falla museum and got to see ninots from winning Fallas since the year 1932! We also got to see pictures of the entire huge thing! Some are bigger than buildings!!! I'm so excited! And they only save one small figure (sometimes taller than me) from the entire huge, elaborate Falla. The rest are burnt which will also be awesome. The weather hasn't been overly great this week so I haven't been doing too much exciting. Well, not too much happening. Next weekend we get to go to Granada in the south. The architecture there looks amazing from what I've said. There is a huge palace from when the Muslims inhabited Spain. I've been learning a lot of spanish history and it's fascinating. They were taken over so many times! That's what you get for living on a peninsula that basically connects Europe and Africa I suppose. Well that's it for now. I'll write again soon. :)

Sorry it's been a while! Here goes: On Sunday, we went for a walk downtown and came upon a parade! It was really neat. There were lots of children dressed up and I had to laugh at some of the cultural differences...some were churros, and one was a windmill (Don Quixote)! There was lots of music and people. This is because we're coming upon Fallas, a huge celebration for Valencia. It celebrates their patron saint, Joeseph the carpenter. The actual festival begins March 15, and we have that entire week off! The central part of town will be covered with ninots, huge intricate carved figures. These are of all sorts of things, from political figures to disney characters, to charicatures of normal people. On Monday we got to go to an exhibition where we could see a bunch of them. They were amazing! At this exhibiton, people vote for their favorite figure, and on the last day of Fallas, the favorite of the people is selected for the Museo Fallero, and everything else is burned! We only saw small figures. The actual things are 2-3 stories tall. And all on fire! It's a pyro's (AKA my) dream come true! I'm so excited! Apparently Fallas is just one huge week-long fiesta, and I can't wait. Also, everyday during Fallas, and starting two weeks before, there are mascletas, which are huge firework shows at 2pm each day. Why during the day, you ask? I think it's more about the smoke and noise. Apparently it's like 5 minutes long and becomes more and more intricate each day. Also, since Fallas is apparently the best thing in the world, tons of tourists come to Valencia for that week. It should be very interesting.
Yesterday, we walked around a lot. We went to the beach to a market we'd been to before and found lots of cheap knick knacks. I got a pair of sweet earrings for 2 euros, a fun scarf for 1, and a sick pair of tights, which all the spanish women wear, for 2.50. Pretty good deals. The weather here has been gorgeous. Apparently there was a snowday at Hartwick, but it's been in the 70s here! I'm not complaining.
There are so many cultural differences! I already think it's going to be hard to adjust to going back home...and I've only been here a month and a half (which is also kind of crazy to think about). One thing is how people greet each other and introduce each other. For girls, with either another guy or girl, you kiss them on both cheeks. It's weird kissing someone on the cheeks as an introduction, but it's kind of nice. It's way more personable than an American greeting. If you were to shake a spaniard's hand, they would think you were rude, and it's insulting to them. Our culture teacher said that it's like basically saying that they're too ugly for you to kiss on the cheek! Anyways, it's just cute.
Today we went to the IMAX theatre and aquarium, which are in some of the really cool mod buildings here. The IMAX theatre was HUUUGE! We watched something about Egypt and mummies. I couldn't get my headphones to go to english so I listened in Spanish, which was good for me. Luckily it wasn't too difficult to understand. The aquarium is the biggest in Europe! I don't think I've ever really been to an aquarium before, except for sea world when I was really little. It was soooooooo cool! There were so many different kinds of fish and SHARKS! And beluga whales! And seals! Basically, I decided that my dream is to scuba dive in a steal cage in the ocean with sharks! The aquarium just reminded me of shark week on the discovery channel this summer, and how fascinating I find them. There was also a dolphin show which gave me dreams of being pushed through the water by my feet and being thrown in the air by dolphins! They're so cute! Maybe I need to work with animals. My psychology training does give me a good background in behavior and reward and such. Hmmm...
There's a huge book festival going on! It's kind of strange because most of them are in spanish, but it's still awesome. I bought an old The Shining by Stephen King from there in spanish and I plan on working my way through it. I'm also looking for something simple like Harry Potter in Spanish or maybe some Greek myths. After finishing all the english books I brought, I also splurged at a legit store and bought The Road by Cormac McCarthy in english, which I've been wanting to read. So far it's really dark (right up my alley) and awesome. But besides all of this my life has been fairly average. Speaking spanish is just a part of daily life, and though I tend to talk english with my friends, everything else in our world is in a foreign language. Coming home is going to be so weird.