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Friday was as full of a day as it gets. In the morning we had an excursion to the Museo Fallera (museum of the fallas) to learn about how the fallas are made and the importance of them in the Spanish community. Las Fallas is a traditional festival in Spain that basically consists of setting up these incredible huge paiper mache and wooden scenes all over the city. People come from all over the world to see this festival, and after seeing up close in the museum some of the fallas from past years I understand why they’re such a big deal. It literally takes people all year to construct these things; they are enormous and include so much detail.
There is an artists guild that focuses on the fallas, and if you want to participate you take your idea in the form of a sketch to the committee and they approve a limited number per year to be built and displayed around the city. If the sketch is approved, they begin construction of a small model of the falla, which they then use to measure the proportions of the large falla. They make infrastructures of wood to support the falla, and then using clay they sculpt the fallas and lay paiper mache over them to make molds. They then take the molds and use them to make the actual paiper mache creation to lay over the infrastructure. Then they start putting it together, and touching up and painting and in the end you get a scene with characters almost as large as the balloons in the Thanksgiving Day parade. No joke.
We walked around the neighborhood by the museo afterward to see some of the guild members in action creating the fallas. I took a lot of pictures, that I will post (I promise!) but it was definitely neat to see that people really do devote their time into making these things. The most interesting thing about it is that after putting all of this time and effort into creating these masterpieces, at the end of the festival every single one of them except for the winner of the year is burned, which of course is a huge environmental concern.
A lot of the fallera artists receive requests in between the festivals to create sculptures and other such things for wax museums, city projects, or even playground equipment. One fallera artist was asked to build a structure for the playground near the playa (beach) in the rio in Valencia. We saw the model of it in the museo but the real thing is actually close to where Amanda and Heather live, so we will definitely check it out sometime.
After the excursion Alicia and I walked back home for la comida (lunch). We had papas fritas again, with chicken meatballs, peas, and a sopa de crema de cebolla (cream of onion soup) with croutons in it. Afterward Alicia and I walked to the Correos (post office) to pick up her paquete. I had to leave directly from the Correos to head to school after though, because I had a cita (appointment) with my intercambio.
An intercambio is someone from Valencia who wants to learn English, and is interested in helping a native English speaker learn Spanish. The centro sets up these intercambios with the University of Valencia. My intercambio is Rueben, and we met for the first time on Friday. He’s a student studying law at the Universidad de Valencia, and he’s lived here his whole life. We went to a café near the centro and talked for half the time in English and the other half in Spanish. We had a lot of fun learning about each other’s culture and such. He invited me and Alicia to go out that night or some other night with him and his friends to see the typical hangouts around town, which made me really excited. It will definitely be cool to hang out with Valencianos.
Around 20,30 I headed back home for la cena, which was ensalada and pizza. Alicia was out ir de compras (shopping) with Heather and Amanda, and didn’t get back until 21,30. Apparently, part of the package that Alicia’s mom sent with Valentine’s Day candy was for me! I was so touched that Alicia’s mom had thought of me. She sent me a box of chocolates and a card, and she had also sent a card and chocolates for Lucía, and a bear with M&Ms for Claudia.
Instead of starting on tarea after dinner like we should have, Alicia and I watched “Tienes Talento” which is the Spanish version of America’s Got Talent, and “Al Pie de la Letra” which is like the show where you have to remember the lyrics to songs. We went to bed around midnight and promised ourselves that we would do tarea ALL DAY on Saturday.
There is an artists guild that focuses on the fallas, and if you want to participate you take your idea in the form of a sketch to the committee and they approve a limited number per year to be built and displayed around the city. If the sketch is approved, they begin construction of a small model of the falla, which they then use to measure the proportions of the large falla. They make infrastructures of wood to support the falla, and then using clay they sculpt the fallas and lay paiper mache over them to make molds. They then take the molds and use them to make the actual paiper mache creation to lay over the infrastructure. Then they start putting it together, and touching up and painting and in the end you get a scene with characters almost as large as the balloons in the Thanksgiving Day parade. No joke.
We walked around the neighborhood by the museo afterward to see some of the guild members in action creating the fallas. I took a lot of pictures, that I will post (I promise!) but it was definitely neat to see that people really do devote their time into making these things. The most interesting thing about it is that after putting all of this time and effort into creating these masterpieces, at the end of the festival every single one of them except for the winner of the year is burned, which of course is a huge environmental concern.
A lot of the fallera artists receive requests in between the festivals to create sculptures and other such things for wax museums, city projects, or even playground equipment. One fallera artist was asked to build a structure for the playground near the playa (beach) in the rio in Valencia. We saw the model of it in the museo but the real thing is actually close to where Amanda and Heather live, so we will definitely check it out sometime.
After the excursion Alicia and I walked back home for la comida (lunch). We had papas fritas again, with chicken meatballs, peas, and a sopa de crema de cebolla (cream of onion soup) with croutons in it. Afterward Alicia and I walked to the Correos (post office) to pick up her paquete. I had to leave directly from the Correos to head to school after though, because I had a cita (appointment) with my intercambio.
An intercambio is someone from Valencia who wants to learn English, and is interested in helping a native English speaker learn Spanish. The centro sets up these intercambios with the University of Valencia. My intercambio is Rueben, and we met for the first time on Friday. He’s a student studying law at the Universidad de Valencia, and he’s lived here his whole life. We went to a café near the centro and talked for half the time in English and the other half in Spanish. We had a lot of fun learning about each other’s culture and such. He invited me and Alicia to go out that night or some other night with him and his friends to see the typical hangouts around town, which made me really excited. It will definitely be cool to hang out with Valencianos.
Around 20,30 I headed back home for la cena, which was ensalada and pizza. Alicia was out ir de compras (shopping) with Heather and Amanda, and didn’t get back until 21,30. Apparently, part of the package that Alicia’s mom sent with Valentine’s Day candy was for me! I was so touched that Alicia’s mom had thought of me. She sent me a box of chocolates and a card, and she had also sent a card and chocolates for Lucía, and a bear with M&Ms for Claudia.
Instead of starting on tarea after dinner like we should have, Alicia and I watched “Tienes Talento” which is the Spanish version of America’s Got Talent, and “Al Pie de la Letra” which is like the show where you have to remember the lyrics to songs. We went to bed around midnight and promised ourselves that we would do tarea ALL DAY on Saturday.
