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.