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China part 2 – Culture shock sets in

I walked into my room at the hotel to a very frustrated roommate whose conditioner had split open in her bag. Our hotel room now has a lovely smell to it, but it ruined a few of her books and it was a mess to clean up. It’s a tribute to how well my mom knows how to pack that my checked luggage made it all the way from Detroit through Chinese customs, and into the hotel room without incident. I extracted a change of clothes from my bags and took a quick shower before heading to the cafeteria on the second floor (we’re on the tenth) to have something to eat.

I was lucky enough to have one of the guides, a lady named Jasper, to assist me in ordering some food from the café, as they understood my basic Chinese “我不吃肉” (wo bu chi rou, I don’t eat meat) but seemed somehow unable to fathom that it was true. After the fuwuyuan (waiter) engaged in a 20 minute conversation with Jasper (I wish that I were joking about the timing) I ended up with some steamed carrots and lotus root, which were delicious, and some bok choy cooked (soaked) in oil.

After the meal Katie and I felt up for exploring so we headed out and chose a random direction to walk in. We ended up attempting conversation with a few people working at KTV (their most popular Karaoke chain) and then wandered right into an open market.

It took me about 30 seconds to figure out that this market was very authentic. Reason one: there were a ton of old Chinese ladies yelling at me to “看一下” (kan yi xia, polite way to say look at this). Reason two: the smells were… pungent. Reason three: there were live animals that were clearly not being sold as pets (well, they were mostly live. There were a few exceptions, but you get the point). The Cantonese motto is apparently “anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies with its back to heaven is edible”. I can say that this is definitely practiced in Nanning.

( The paragraph herein should be read with discretion. The young and easily squeamish should skip ahead. )

We walked away for a bit and found a stand where we could buy water bottles. We looked at the array of snacks, but decided that the assorted dried meats (it’s anyone’s guess as to what animal and part thereof that they belonged to) and the pickled chicken feet (those were recognizable) were not our style.

Heading back toward the open market, we did find a place that sold hot baozi (rolls with filling) and bought some with a coconut paste inside. They were pretty good, definitely something I would eat for breakfast or dessert. We walked around, and continued attempting to convince people that we were just looking. It didn’t work very well.
We ended up back at the fish tanks, looking at the adorable turtles. These are a different species of turtle than the ones that we are used to, and they have a cute little nose that looks like the end of an ( elephant trunk. )

I cannot imagine why they want to eat these turtles. Then again, I can’t imagine why they want to eat a lot of what is eaten here.

A little girl was standing around the tanks and started talking to us about the different kinds of creatures that we were looking at. I was actually able to learn the names of a lot of them by using my very limited simple Chinese. She told me a lot about what the different creatures ate too, and I was surprised at how much of what she told me that I understood. (Score for Chinese language learning!)

We headed back to the hotel to meet up with everyone to go to dinner. We went to a place that served pretty simple dishes, all really typical, everyday, Chinese food things. One of the dishes was an egg and tomato dish that is the Chinese equivalent of macaroni and cheese. My favorite was the vegetable dumplings, made with leek and eggs. There were a whole bunch of leftover dumplings, and I made a joke about taking them home. Katie thought I was serious and said “dao bao” which roughly translates to “in a bag” or “to go”. So, somewhat embarrassed, I ended up with a bag of dumplings to eat for breakfast the next morning.

At this point in the day I should have had the urge to write this all into a post and put it up right away, but between fighting with the internet and attempting to wrap my head around the fact that I was in China I didn’t have the energy to write anything in depth, so I jotted down some notes and went to bed.

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China Part 1 - Every Journey Has a Beginning

My journey began on a bright and sunny day. It was also very hot. Mom and I had struggled through packing, used Kiersten’s Wii fit profile to weigh my suitcases ensuring I complied with the weight limit (ask Mom for details of this story), and eliminated many things that pushed us over the weight limit. For the bouts of homesickness that are sure to happen, we packed the cards and such from my going-away party (thank you, everyone!) and a photo album.

I was well equipped with an MP4 player, a new camera, Lara bars, hand sanitizer, and cautions galore as my parents somewhat reluctantly saw me to the security gate at the airport. I made it through security without issue and continued onto what would be the first of four plane rides toward my destination in 南宁，广西，中国 (Nanning, Guangxi, China).

I flew in and out of Chicago without incident. The routine of the trip and the general atmosphere in O’Hare reminded me of all the reasons that I love travelling and why I had missed it so much. Airports are great places to watch things happen. I had Chicago pizza and chatted with Michael and Anna on the phone (I hope that you guys had fun in Michigan!) while I simultaneously watched a little girl completely fascinated with the airplanes run up and down the length of the gates describing each plane in detail to her tired mom.

The counter to check luggage for my flight to China opened an hour and a half after I arrived at the airport in LA. I spent the time hanging out with my ( buddies ) in the line, and studying the language that I will be using for the next ten months. Once relieved of my suitcases I went upstairs to the food court to buy ( dinner. )

The restaurants were limited, two high-end American restaurants (way too expensive), fast-food versions of Asian and Mexican cuisine, or McDonalds. In the end I went with a tuna roll and some edamame from the sushi bar. Perhaps it was a strange choice for my final meal in the US, but considering the options, I think I chose well.

While waiting to board the flight from LA to Guangzhou, CHINA! I met four guys on the same plane also on their way to orientation. One of them is placed at Guangxi University as well, and the others are in small towns a few hours outside of the city. We talked a little bit about previous teaching experience, knowledge of Mandarin, etc. before the plane began to board.

The airplane in general was about as comfortable as the one I took to Spain, with the added bonus of having an overhead light that turned OFF. They kept the main lights on until after they served and cleaned up dinner, then turned them off for the majority of the flight. I don’t know how typical this is on long flights, but China Southern has a personal TV on the back of each seat that displays flight progress on one of the channels. It would toggle between a map showing approximate location of the plane and statistics showing elevation level, outside temperature, speed, time of flight remaining, and the local time at both our destination and origin. It would show everything first in English, then go through the same information in ( Mandarin. )

I was in the window seat in a row of three, and the people who sat with me were both native Chinese, but both also spoke English very well. I talked at length with Chen Xiansheng (Mr. Chen) about his work in engineering power supply equipment, as well as the city he lives in near Guangzhou. Every once in a while Li Tian would chime into the conversation. Both invited me to come and visit them at some point during my time in China (this is a very normal cultural thing. If I took them up on this offer, they would bend over backward to accommodate me and ensure that I saw everything in a 50 mile radius that was slightly interesting). After a few hours of conversation, and the exchange of skype names, we all closed our eyes. I think that Chen Xiansheng was the only one to get sleep, however, as Li Tian appeared about as restless as I was.

Over the course of the flight my ankles seemed to swell to twice their size, and no amount of getting up, walking around and stretching would help them. Since keeping them elevated wasn’t an option at the time, I just tried to massage them a bit when possible.

Food on the flight was interesting. I ended up with orange chicken, rice, and steamed vegetables for dinner, and an omelete and potatoes for breakfast. As far as airplane food goes, both were decent. My breakfast looked much better than the porridge that is popular with most Chinese. I hope there are additional options in China, because the plain rice porridge is okay, but the kind that’s cooked with pork is not something that I enjoy.

As we were flying into Guangzhou airport, I attempted to take some pictures of the sunset, but they did not even come close to doing it justice. The sky turned itself into its own wide rainbow with a deep red at the bottom, fading to bright oranges and yellows, mixing into green where the blue overlapped before darkening again to indigo.
( A sad attempt at a picture. )

Getting off the plane at Guangzhou was a bit of a blur, but somehow I met up with Katie, yet another one of the other program participants, who had previously studied in Beijing. She and I claimed our luggage and made our way through Customs without incident, and then brought it to the transfer flight counter to have it re-checked for our flight to Nanning.

The line to go through security was massive, but luckily it moved fairly quickly. While in line, I noticed a little boy hitching a ride on his father’s suitcase, hugging an ( alligator stuffed animal. )

I kid you not, as the line moved the boy actually stayed on the suitcase and was dragged along. It was pretty adorable.

In order to get to the gate after security, we had to ride on a mini shuttle that drove through the airport. It was not a peak time, so the hallways were pretty clear, but the driver was still going faster than was really warranted. It felt a little bit like the boat ride in Willy Wonka.

An uneventful flight to Nanning later (the airport in Nanning is tiny. It reminded me of the airport in Valencia.) we arrived, gathered all group participants that arrived on that flight (about 12 of us) and made our way through the luggage claim over to where our group gathered at the airport.

Unfortunately, the bus was nearly full when we arrived as several of our flight times had changed significantly, so only a few of us left the airport immediately. The rest of us stayed around chatting with our guides (Ou Lei and Jesse).

At one point, an American couple asked us if we knew how far their hotel was from the airport and how much it was to take a taxi to get there. Ou Lei tried to help them, but the woman had a very poor attitude, and fought with her, saying that she must work for one of the cab companies and was trying to rip them off. Ou Lei was very nice about it regardless of how rude the woman was to her. It’s interesting that my first experience with discrimination in China was that of an American toward a Chinese.

We finally did begin our drive to the hotel. The bus was air conditioned, to the relief of many as it was in the mid-eighties and humid as heck. We had fun watching and attempting to decipher the signs as we drove past on our way to the hotel.
( Signs in Chinese because I am in China. )

As I looked around I finally had the feeling that I was actually in China. There were crazy people riding mopeds and bikes in the busy street without helmets, and with small children without helmets sitting in front or behind them. There was construction everywhere (the mark of a fast growing city that needs a lot of business and housing space) and street vendors on most corners. I knew that all of these things would be here, but seeing them in person sheds a new light on this world and culture that I’m here to learn about. It should be an interesting ten months.

Spain Part 74 – Oceanográfico y el ensayo

I woke up around 8,30 on Friday and got ready quickly since Alicia and I were meeting Liz and Chrysten at the corner of Quart and Gran Via at 9,15. We met them and walked to the centro commercial (mall) called El Saler to meet the group from the centro to go to Oceanográfico, a Sea World type park. It took us about an hour to get to El Saler, because it’s on the other side of the city, and according to Alicia’s pedometer we walked a little less than three miles (¡dios mio!). When the whole group got there, Maria, who works for the centro, explained the area to us and then told us that we were free to wander through the park as we wished but that we should first go and see the Delfín (dolphin) show that would be on at 11,30.

It was definitely a good piece of advice that she gave us. I absolutely loved the show, the delfines did flips and jumped through hoops and pushed their trainers around by their feet and flipped them up into the air and all kinds of fun stuff. Megan had been to Sea World before and said that it was a pretty similar show except that they had whales there as well. After the show we went and explored the park, there were a lot of different fish tanks from different parts of the world, a small penguin exhibit, and a tunnel with sharks and fish from the Mediterranean area where they can swim over you, similar to the arctic exhibit at the Detroit Zoo.

My favorite part was the dolphin show, but what came close was an exhibit with the pinkest birds in the world, which aren’t flamingos. In Spanish they’re called Rosaves, but I don’t know the English word for them. They eat lots of shrimp just like flamingos and that’s what makes their feathers all pink. They also have red eyes, not just red like an albino but blood red. It was slightly creepy when they looked at you but from farther away they were very pretty.

Megan and I left the park earlier than a lot of the students and went down into the Rio to eat la comida. We were planning on meeting up with Heather to have an ensayo (rehearsal) for our skit later, so we were just hanging out until she was ready to join us. We went by the Palau de Música (Music Palace) which is a very nice building with an enormous fountain in front of it by which we stopped to eat. There were also a lot of skate parks, playgrounds, cafés, fútbol fields and whatnot in that area of the Rio. We sat down in a café for café con leche and chatted until Heather met up with us. We started by reading our lines out loud (the people in the café must have thought we were nuts) and then left the café to find a place to practice the acting part of our skit.

I am extremely glad that we practiced outside of our usual rehearsals because I think that we really got a lot accomplished and are on our way to improving. I just wish I had as much motivation to do my tarea as I do to practice my skit. I guess I should have just been a theater major like Heather. After our ensayo Heather and I walked back to our end of town and stopped at a candy store on the way so that she could pick up some dulces (sweets) to eat this week. She let me try one of her favorite kinds of candy which was like a really soft Swedish fish in the shape of a heart. I walked home after that and ran into Alicia on the way waiting at the bus stop to meet up with Amanda to go to a movie. We said hasta luego (see you later) and I headed up to la casa (the house) to hacer la tarea (do my homework).

I worked on tarea until Lucía and Alicia returned home in time to watch pasapalabra and prepare la cena. We had pasta with tomato sauce and cheese, and though it was still delicious it didn’t quite make it on par with the baked version. After la cena I decided I needed to do some serious blog updating so I worked my butt off until I had almost all of fallas done and all of the more recent ones. The ones that I’m missing in between I think are almost all from my Belgium trip. I also wrote an email to send out once I get all of them posted so that I could make sure everyone knows there’s a LOT of new material, and most importantly, pictures.

Spain Part 73 – La Carta Llena de Noticias Buenas

On Thursday I went to my práctica, and we arranged to eat lunch again with all of the professors next week (exciting!). Afterward we went to the juice bar to get some refreshment. I got a juice with strawberries, bananas, watermelon, and pineapple juice this time and a piece of organic banana bread. I noticed that when they made it they didn’t take the seeds out of the watermelon, but later they poured it through a spout so that any big pieces of seed didn’t get into the drink.

I walked home in the beautiful sunshine and 26 degree weather afterward. In order to introduce the story that I’m about to tell I need to give some background about a very important cultural difference here. It is normal, and not offensive or suggestive at all, when a girl or group of girls is/are walking down the street for a guy or group of guys to yell things along the lines of “guapa” (pretty) “bella” (beautiful) or in my case “rubia” (blonde-haired girl). This does not apply to just foreign girls, this applies to all girls, and any Hispanic guy between the ages of 12 and 60 (60 might be an understatement, I’m sure there are some viejos verdes out there older than that). Foreigners usually just ignore them, but most of the native girls will smile or wave, like it’s a compliment.

Anyway, Alicia and I were talking about it one day and I said that I wondered if anyone ever said something back to them, like yelled “guapo” or something. I made up my mind that I was going to try that the next time I was in a safe situation and someone yelled something at me. However, since that conversation, over a month ago, the opportunities have stagnated. The great amounts of weight that I have gained eating Spanish chocolate might have something to do with it.

Today, however, I got my chance. I was walking in the Rio back home and I walked past a group of guys and girls and one of the guys said “oye, guapa rubia” (hey, pretty blonde). I answered “hola guapo” (hi handsome). The guy was obviously speechless but all of the girls started laughing, and one of them said “acércate” (come here) but I said “disculpame, pero tengo prisa, que tengáis un buen día” (sorry, I’m in a hurry, have a good day). They waved goodbye to me as I walked away. Overall, I think it was a successful experiment.

I spent most of the rest of my day sitting out on the terrace and doing homework/writing blogs. When Lucía came home at 18,00 I had a surprise however, a letter from G&G West! Grandmother had obviously written a lot of little comments in it that gave me an idea of the big events (and some small ones too) of the past months of their lives. I was glad to hear that they got a copy of my blog that Mom printed out and sent them (thanks Mom!) and was happy to hear some of the comments. One of the things that Grandmother mentioned was that she wants to see/taste the food that I describe in my blogs. I think I need to write out recipes of a lot of them so that I don’t forget what to do.

For la cena we had a mixture of leftover sopa, ensalada and whatnot from the previous few days plus half of an eggplant. No, I’m not kidding, we really did eat half of an eggplant that was cooked in the microwave like you might make a baked potato. It wasn’t bad, but I think I prefer it baked in the oven or on the stove with olive oil instead. Still, overall it was pretty good. After la cena I practiced the violin for the first time (oh boy, do I need to practice!!!) while Lucía watched tv and Alicia talked to her Mom on the phone. Alicia’s family was doing much better after the death of her Grandmother, which was nice for Alicia to hear. We didn’t end up going out or anything, but that was okay since we had a trip with the centro to oceanográfico (a sea world type place) the next day.

Spain Part 72 – La Migraña

This might have been another normal day, except for the fact that I woke up with a migraine. It was bad enough that it would have kept me from concentrating in class, so I stayed home for the day and slept it off, all day. I woke up around 15,00 and decided that I should probably have something to eat, even though my head still hurt and was telling me to stay in bed. I ate, took more ibuprofen, and tried to sleep some more. I woke up again around 19,00 and felt much better.

I studied for a little while until Alicia got home from class and Danzas del Mundo. Nacho had finally brought the violin, so now I have a violin to practice on!!! I’m really excited, even though I don’t have music or anything yet. That’s the next step. While we were eating la cena (soup with potatoes, onions, carrots, and fish) Alicia received a very sad phone call. Her family had called to tell her that her grandmother had passed away.

I feel so sorry for her and I know that if it were me, I would feel so guilty for not being there, for being halfway across the world when my family needed support. Her grandmother has had Alzheimer’s disease for years, and she was in a hospice but it doesn’t make the actual death any easier to handle. Apparently it was very peaceful though, and she was surrounded by friends and family when she died. I hope that Alicia will be okay, even though I know she probably is feeling crappy right now.

Situations like this make me realize just how far away we are, and how different it is here. I think I’m going to go through reverse culture shock when I get back. Either that or I’ll just have a bad case of jet lag like everyone else.

Spain Part 71 – ¡Ensayos!

There was definitely a lot of tarea to be done on Tuesday. I got up at 8 and started with my first essay for Latin American Lit, and by the time I was done with that it was time to go and call my mom on skype. We talked about those everyday mundane things that you never seem to think are important until you aren’t there to see them happen. After that I headed to the centro for el ensayo de teatro (theatre rehearsal). I didn’t need prompting for too many lines today, which makes me happy. It’s getting really fun to rehearse because we actually get to act out the funny parts. Pilar (one of the profesoras) watched our rehearsal today and laughed almost the whole time. I’m excited to see what the students think of it.

We only have 3 weeks left of rehearsals before we have the Cabaret, and I’m getting nervous because I said that I would play the violin, but I still don’t have a violin and I haven’t practiced since about two weeks before I left the states. I hope I won’t have to back out of it because I didn’t have enough time to prepare. I’d really like to do a piece of Spanish origin but I don’t know if I can learn something new so quickly.

I went back to tarea after teatro and worked on it until Alicia came by and asked if I needed a break. I did indeed, so we went to the juice bar on the corner and bought some fresh juice. Alicia got a blend of tropical fruits, and I got the “conejito” (it means little rabbit) which had carrots, ginger, strawberries, and apple juice. It was amazingly delicious and definitely helped me to plug away at my tarea until the taller de abanicos (fan workshop).

María, who works at the front desk, showed us how to paint fans and gave us each one to paint. It’s traditional to paint flowers on them, but I decided I wanted to be untraditional so I started painting music notes. Next week we get to finish them and then María is going to teach us how to use them. I know that in general they don’t use fans like they used to but it’s common to be walking along the street on a hot day and see women/girls fanning themselves at the very least. It’ll be exciting to learn how they used to use them at any rate.

Alicia and I walked home after the taller and had la cena which was an ensalada with arroz y pollo (salad with chicken and rice). We plugged away at tarea after that until bedtime. It was unusually quiet in the house, and we couldn’t figure out why until we realized that for the first time in months Lucía was not watching television. Normally she watches tv every evening. Unfortunately it didn’t last because as soon as we got into bed she put the tv on, so we could hear it as we were falling asleep. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

Spain Part 70 – Películas en dos clases

Monday was class as usual, but in our first class of the day Augustín had a surprise for us…it was Movie Day! We got to watch the first part of “Lenguas de las Mariposas” which means “Tongues of the Butterflies,” a movie about the beginning of the Guerra Civil (civil war) in Spain. It was a lot of comedy (a little boy about 9 years old is the main character so I’m sure you can imagine) in-between the ultra-serious/sad parts about the republica (republic/democracy) in Spain and how Franco came in and tried to take over. Basically the operation was only supposed to take 3 weeks but the resistance was stronger than anticipated and boom, three years of civil war.

My other classes were actually just as interesting. In grammar we role played different characters and gave people orders, or asked genies to grant us wishes and such. Basically it’s to help us learn the subjunctive, a tense that doesn’t exist in English so it’s one of the more difficult ones to learn. In Mass Media we watched yet another movie, or rather an old television program that was something along the lines of what The Goonies would be if it were a television show. Finally, in Economics I gave a presentation on the Spanish company called Camper that makes high-end casual shoes. I’m not sure I did so well on the presentation itself, but the paper that went with it I’m sure I did okay.

After classes Alicia and I stuck around to use the internet for a little while and then headed home for la cena. We had tortellini pesto and ensalada, which is one of my favorites, but I don’t think that Alicia likes it as much. It’s not the best of tortellini, but we eat pasta so rarely here that I’m excited whenever we do get to eat it. It’s weird eating pasta only occasionally right now when just last semester it was basically the main part of just about every meal. After la cena Lucía sent Alicia on an errand to the farmacia (pharmacy) and I helped Lucía hacer las camas (make the beds) because she had just washed our sheets. I finished up my tarea after that and went to bed.

Spain Part 69 – Tarea, tarea, tarea

Since this day was rather boring I’m going to include in this entry a bit about a cultural difference that I have noticed here in Spain. One thing about the Spaniards is that they are very forward when speaking. It is not considered impolite for example if we interrupt Lucía while she is telling us a story to let her know that we need to go and do homework. She simply says “vale” (okay) and finishes her story before we go to do our homework. In general, I think that they interrupt a lot here. At times it has actually frustrated me because when you want to learn to speak Spanish it is nice if the person that you are talking to lets you work out in your head what you want to say instead of saying it for you. Lucía seems to do this to me and Alicia very often.

Alright, that’s the end of that tangent. On Sunday I got up and started doing tarea right away since I still had a lot to get done. I managed to get almost everything that I needed to accomplished before la comida, which was leftover paella de verduras, and so afterward I took a siesta and then started updating more of my blogs. I think I’ll be caught up at least to the end of fallas soon. The next step is posting pictures to the old entries as well since I think it’s better to have pictures with most of the stories that I tell.

Para la cena we had bocadillos again and we sat for a long time at the table watching an American Idol type of show before we got ready for bed/school the next day. I love the fact that I can understand a lot more when I watch television in Spanish now, because they speak so fast and I can remember how lost I used to be trying to take in everything that they were saying. I’m proud to say that my comprehension skills are improving. My high school Spanish teachers would be proud.

Spain Part 68 – Feliz Cumpleaños Ryan

On Saturday Alicia got up early and went shopping at Boin Aire, which is an outlet mall close by Valencia, though far enough away that you have to take a shuttle bus to get there. I stayed home and worked on getting my blog updated instead since it has been a really long time since I have posted anything. I managed to get a few of the ones from fallas and Belgium finished, so hopefully I’ll be able to get caught up and post everything eventually.

When Alicia got back we ate paella de verduras (yummy!) for la comida and then we went to work on tarea/take siestas. It worked out to be more tarea than siesta, so that was a good thing. I need to really step it up a notch and get things done ahead of time because I feel like every time the week comes up I feel overwhelmed, even when I spent half of my weekend doing tarea. I should probably take a full weekend to do tarea and nothing else one of these weekends.

After la cena (we ate bocadillos with ensalada de pollo or chicken salad on them) Alicia and I decided to give Ryan a call because it was his cumpleaños (birthday). We got a hold of him and decided that we would meet up with him and Heather at a juice bar called Zumería Naturalia (the first word means juice store, and the second means natural/organic). Their regular size for serving juice is huge, and it’s always crowded there. If you want to sit down, you actually have to take a number and wait until a seat becomes available.

Anyway, we decided just to get some zumo para llevar (juice to go) and walked over to the Plaza de la Reina to sit and chat while we sipped our juice. After we finished it was getting a bit chilly outside so we decided to go into a discoteca or bar and dance for awhile. We went to Café Madrid, which generally attracts an older crowd, but is nice to go and just chill because there’s good music and creepy guys are rather scarce. We danced to techno for a few hours and then decided to head home since we were all tired (well except Ryan, but he takes ginseng pills for energy so he doesn’t count).

Spain Part 67 – El Último Gran Mago

Unfortunately we had classes on Friday, so we had to miss another day of beautiful weather outside (high 70s for the US people, mid-twenties for the European ones) sitting in and learning of all things. There were some interesting points to the day I guess, like the presentation on Inditex in economics (they own a clothing store called Zara, all the Virginia kids are crazy about it but I’ve never seen one in Michigan) and the fact that we got into a huge debate in Mass Media about the right of the government to censor what’s in the news.

Alicia had gone home early since her classes get out earlier than mine, so I walked back with Catherine and Liz who both live nearby. We started talking about bilingualism and how people who know two languages often have jokes that only they can understand because you have to know both languages. Our conversation got me wondering what it must be like to know more than two languages. The opportunities for those sorts of jokes must be endless if you know four or five languages.

When I got home we ate la cena (pizza y ensalada) and Alicia and I debated about what we would do that night. In the end we came to the conclusion that we would go to see a película (movie) in Spanish. The cine (theater) is close to our house so we just walked over to see what was playing. We decided on The Last Grand Mage or, El Último Gran Mago as it is called in Spanish. Before the show we walked around checking out the theater, which is different than any I’ve been in before. First of all, it’s about 6 stories high, I guess to get all the movie theaters in, and the main floor is the third, where they have a little café area. They sell things to take into the movie theater as well, but you can just sit there and have a coffee before the show if you wanted. Also, when you buy your tickets you actually pick where you will sit in the theater, it’s not just a free for all.

When we went in we were a little bit afraid that we weren’t going to be able to understand the movie or that it was going to be difficult to keep concentrating after awhile. We shouldn’t have worried, it was not at all hard to understand, and I caught myself at a few points understanding without trying. It was a really good movie, so if anyone is thinking about seeing it I definitely recommend it. After the movie we walked home and went to bed.

Spain Part 66 – Regresa a la Práctica

On Thursday I had my práctica for the first time in three weeks, and if that wasn’t exciting enough our supervisor had invited us to eat la comida (lunch) with him and some other professors afterward to talk about the cultural and educational differences Spain versus the US. In the práctica I finished translating an entire page of one article (I know, it takes a long time, but it is about a psychological study, the vocabulary is hard to master) and about 5 resúmenes (summaries) for other articles.

When it was time for la comida we went into the cafeteria where Francisco (our supervisor) showed us around. It was noisy and full of students eating and studying and I was just wondering where we were all going to sit when he led us into another room where there were tablecloths on the tables and waiters serving food to the professors. That’s right my friends, we dined in the professors’ cafeteria and got our orders taken, and had two courses of food plus dessert and coffee. The food was pasta with mariscos (seafood) in it and then a tuna steak with green beans and broccoli, and then for dessert we had the choice of chocolate mousse or flan. I chose the flan since I’ve never had it here (it’s like a custard) and decided that overall it was almost too rich and sugary for me.

We talked during the meal, mainly about politics, we were asked the same question every Spaniard asks “Hillary or Obama?” and the professors even tried to speak in English some of the time! It was really interesting to hear them try, and they seemed to enjoy practicing. We also talked a lot about the different college degrees that are here and in the US. They don’t have minors here, and they generally don’t do more than one degree at a time which is becoming almost habitual in the universities in the US, but it also takes them only 3 years to finish school generally. I asked a lot about their graduate programs, and all of them started telling me that I should apply to their school because it was so awesome and the professors here were the best in the country etc. I don’t know if I’m coming back to Spain to study, but it’s something to think about.

After la comida we thanked Francisco and then walked back to the centro to start la tarea. I worked on it all day, and then thanks to the fact that there was a movie playing “De boda en boda” (the wedding crashers) I got to keep working on the internet until they brought in pizza and snacks for after the movie. There was guacamole and chips, which Chrysten especially enjoyed, and the pizza was kind of different, they had weird combinations of toppings on them, and one even had French fries! It’s supposedly a specialty of the pizzeria across the street. Unfortunately it was pretty late, about 20,30 by the time we walked home so we got ready for bed right when we got home.

Spain Part 65 – Por Fin Tenemos Danzas del Mundo

This Wednesday was the first day that we had Danzas del Mundo in 5 weeks. We had to cancel the first three weeks for exams, the trip we made to see Ay, Carmela and then because Nacho couldn’t make it, and then we had two weeks of break. It was nice to get back to it since it’s something that I really get to look forward to during classes on Wednesdays.

This week’s Danzas del Mundo was especially entertaining. When I first got there it looked like it was just going to be three of us, Alicia, Heather and me, but then we went and got Ryan to join in as well. After that someone from the revista (another taller, writing a review of everything that happened this semester) came to take a picture, and somehow or another Nacho convinced the entire taller that they had to dance with us. The taller normally only lasts until 20, but we actually went until 20,30. It was amazing.

The first dance we did was a French dance in which you have a rio (river) in between two lines of people facing each other and the people travel down the rio in pairs. After that we did a dance from Israel called (translated into Spanish that is) el Sabio y el Loco (the wise man and the fool). It basically has two parts; you dance in a circle the whole time but the first part you hold hands and it’s very formal and stiff and the second part is where you get to be the loco. For the last dance before we headed home we did Pop Goes the Weasel since it was an easier dance that everyone could get the hang of.

When we got home we told Lucía all about the Pop Goes the Weasel dance, and the game that goes along with it and Lucía said that we should teach it to Claudia. I think it will be really fun to show her how to do it, and it should be interesting see if Alicia and I can explain it well enough that Claudia can understand what she needs to do.

Spain Part 64 – No hay día de flojos aquí, tenemos clases

My planner said that it was April fool’s day on Tuesday but I don’t think that they celebrate that here. I wasn’t April fooled all day. Classes did start back up again however, even though I didn’t really have classes. I talked to my Mom on skype in the morning and then I headed to school for teatro. Megan wasn’t there (still in Ireland) so we concentrated on memorizing our lines and then tried to do the whole thing without looking at the script. Let’s just say that we have a lot of work to do.

I stayed at school to use the internet and worked on my Trabajo del Campo (field work) for Mass Media. The essay for the Trabajo del Campo has to be 8 pages, so I figured I had better start it early. My trabajo is going to be about the viñetas (political cartoons) here, the themes that they reflect and all jazz. It’s pretty cool actually to see the differences between here and the US in the viñetas. For instance, there are a lot more viñetas here that depend on dialogue or the captions as opposed to relying on the drawing itself.( This vi�eta is one of my favorites here: )( Read more... )

I also worked on uploading pictures to my computer and began adding them to my blog. I’m adding them to past entries as well as the new ones, so be sure to check out the old entries to see the pictures that go along with them!

Spain Part 54 – La llegada de la familia de Alicia

Thursday morning, the day after la cremá, Alicia’s family was supposed to arrive pretty early in the day. They were going to be staying in an apartment in Valencia for a while before heading to Madrid and then Barcelona. I got up early and ran around the city for awhile trying to find a locutorio, without any luck. When I got back for la comida, Alicia was still at home, and wondering where her family might be since they hadn’t contacted her yet. We had just sat down for la comida (ensalada and baked pasta) when the phone rang. It was Alicia’s father, letting her know that they were stuck in Barcelona because they had missed their flight after their first flight had been delayed. Alicia’s sister speaks a little Spanish, but unfortunately they were still having communication difficulties. They had managed to book another flight to Valencia however, and they would arrive at 19,15 that evening.

To make things easier on them, Alicia contacted the owner of the apartment that they were staying at and arranged to pick up the key before they arrived. At around 15,35 Alicia and I headed over to the part of town where they were staying. It was close to the center of the city, and just a short walk from the Plaza de la Virgin, where the flower figure was still up. When we got there we met the owner who showed us around the apartment. He was British, which was funny because we were expecting someone who spoke Spanish. He gave us a map and pointed out some things in the area like the nearest Mercadona (it’s a supermarket) and Corte Inglés.

Alicia and I left the apartment and headed to the store to pick up a few things for her family since we were sure that they would be hungry/thirsty after spending all that time in the airport. We got on the metro and took it to the airport, which took a shorter time than we expected, only about 20 minutes, so we had some time to kill before the flight arrived. We had our cameras with us, so we looked at some of our fallas photos.

I can’t tell you how relieved Alicia’s family seemed to meet her at the airport. I can’t imagine what they went through…trying to arrange transportation in an airport is hard enough without a language barrier. We exchanged hellos and then got back on the metro to head to the apartment. I parted ways with them after we arrived and walked back home for la cena.

Lucía and I had a really great conversation as I ate my bocadillo, it consisted of everything from the weather to politics to our personal lives. I especially enjoyed the parts where she told me about all the guys that used to ask her parents if they could date her and how she would get really mad if they said no and all. It’s crazy how much things can change in just a few generations, especially in between a few generations from different continents.

After I ate I finished packing for Belgium and then went to bed. I was super-excited to see John and Carole again and of course Luna, Emma, Sady, Fien, Caramel, and Doep! (In case you didn’t read that part of the blog, those are the names of all their dogs.)

Spain Part 53 – Fallas; La Cremá

This was the last day, Friday the 19th of March, named “La Cremá” because they were about to burn all of those beautiful works of art that had been up for people to enjoy for the last 5 days. The fiestas would be over, the fireworks would be over (well, for the most part) and the city would practically empty overnight. This, my friends, is the end of fallas.

The first thing we did today was visit the falla at Na Jordana because it was Alicia’s favorite and she wanted to see it again before it burned. We went from there into Plaza de la Virgin, which had transformed from the wooden statue into another marvelous piece of art. ( The statue was beautiful )

( I managed to get a picture of a fallera in a pretty purple dress up close at this time with a good example of the hairstyle as well )

There were so many people in the Plaza that Alicia and I could hardly walk. As we were passing,( I got an adorable picture of a fallero baby in a carriage: )

We made our way (slowly) toward the Plaza Ayuntamiento for the last mascletá. Alicia and I took lots of pictures, and a video, telling of our feelings about the ( last masclet� )

As we were walking home we saw some cool works of graffiti and stopped to take pictures when we saw( two children dressed up as Fallero/a, so we took pictures of them too: )

Even with all the pictures, we did eventually make it home for la comida, and a short siesta. When we woke up we each had a message from Heather y Amanda inviting us to come and eat chocolate and buñuelos with them at a café near their house that was famous for making buñuelos. We decided that it sounded like a very good idea, so we walked down and met them there. We had our chocolate and buñuelos and were about to head back home when we realized that there was a parade going by. I’m not exactly sure what this parade was supposed to represent, but there were a lot of representations of middle-eastern warriors and dancers and such, so I’m assuming that it was about the history of Spain from when the Muslims had control of the country. Alicia and I had to hurry home after watching it though because we were pretty far and we had to eat la cena and then come all the way back to that part of town to see falla sueca and then watch la Cremá.

La cremá began with all the fallas infantiles, or the really small fallas that accompanied the bigger ones. We saw quite a few fires on our way to falla Sueca. The unique thing about Falla Sueca is that they put more into the street leading up to the falla than the falla itself. The street leading up to it is covered with lights. We wanted a picture of all four of us together in front of the lights, so we decided to ask someone to take the picture for us. This unfortunately was no easy feat. We took our time and made selections wisely, asking nicely and trying not to bug anyone who was in a hurry. ( See the light. )

Finally when we had enough pictures we shoved our way into the crowd that was already gathering for the cremá of the falla at the end of the street. We actually got really close to the front, though we weren’t quite as lucky as those people who lived on the street, who could watch it from their balconies, ( but as you can see we were still pretty excited: )

We had a nice surprise when we randomly ran into Kiesha (another student from the center) and her brother who decided to go to the same falla as us. We waited for them to start burning, and saw the Castillos from nearby as they burned other fallas. Finally, the bomberos (firemen) arrived, and they soaked the buildings around the falla to prevent them from catching fire. Then it began. It starts as a Castillo, they drape fireworks around the falla, and the falla lights from the flames from the fireworks. The way that they make it isn’t random however, if a falla burns correctly it stays up until the last minute and then collapses in on itself. It’s quite an art. We took videos of the burning, and breathed in the smoky air that was the only unpleasant part about ( the experience. )( Read more... )

Afterward, Alicia Heather and Amanda all needed to stretch because they had been ( cramped surrounded by people: )

As Alicia and I were walking home we saw the falla of Ayuntamiento burn from a distance. There were burnt remains all over the place, and the streets, except around the burning fallas, were almost completely empty. It was a strange phenomenon after the crowds from every day before that. My last picture of fallas was a picture of some of the lights that hang over a lot of the streets in the city. These lights were special because they were in the shape of moons, and Rachel had wanted to see them lit while she was here. Unfortunately, she did not get the chance to see them, so I’m( posting it here so she can see. )

Spain Part 52 – Fallas; Vamos a ver la falla que ha ganado

First thing in the morning (after waiting for Lucía to wake up so that we could tell her we were safe and well) Alicia and I went to the falla Nou Campanar which is north of the city far away from the center where most of the big fallas are. It’s financed by the construction company who built the neighborhood that it sits in and it’s the most expensive falla, worth around 1.6 billion dollars to build. I guess it all paid off, since that falla won the grand prize, which made it a must-see.
As we were walking, we stopped by one of the street vendors, a guy who was selling loose leaf tea. I bought some of my favorite kind of tea, rose petal, which was extremely cheap, 3€ for a good-sized bag of it. We also looked around at the Jewelry vendors because Alicia was looking for a ring, no special reason, just because she wanted one to wear.

Nou Campanar was a pretty cool falla, definitely extremely detailed and well built, but I must say that I was a little disappointed in the fact that I couldn’t see a clear critical message in it, since I know that’s the point of the fallas. I know that it also depends on the beauty and majesty of the fallas, and this one was superb, but I still wondered if the fact that it cost so much to make somehow wormed its way into the judging as opposed to the need for a critical message. Ah well, another example in this world (as though we need any more) that money can buy everything. That in itself may have been the critical message, come to think of it…

We continued on and saw the fallas between there and the old Campanar, which was by far the funniest falla in my opinion. I could describe it, but I think nothing that I say will be enough without the pictures:

We checked out more of the street vendors and talked ourselves into buying cake from one of them. As we were walking home we decided to be random and spontaneous and eat a piece of cake while sitting on a wall because we just couldn’t wait until we got home to taste the sugary goodness. We then decided it was a good idea to sunbathe while laying on the wall. I’m sure that people walking by thought we were absolutely insane.

We did finally make it home for la comida, and then instead of our traditional fruit for dessert we ate the rest of the cake. It was definitely delicious and so worth the 4€ we had paid for it. After that we took a siesta and generally bummed around for the rest of the day, relaxing and making the most of our time off of school. I did some reading in English for a change, and started the book A Tale of Two Cities. I haven’t finished it yet but I would definitely recommend it. It’s dry at the beginning, but it gets really intricate as you keep reading.

Spain Part 51 – Fallas; La Ofrenda

Alicia and I woke up at 7,00 and got ready to go out and take some serious fallas pictures. We walked along Calle Quart where there were a lot of different fallas around and took our time getting angles of each of them. This part of the story is better told in pictures, so we’ll let the fallas speak for themselves.

At one point we passed by some people that were obviously just leaving the discoteca from the night before. They were all dressed up, very drunk, and singing through the streets. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence over the next few days since the fallas are a time to party hard. The streets, which were swept completely clean each morning, were absolutely FULL of garbage by each night. I took a picture right before the trucks came through.

We kept on until we hit the Plaza de la Virgin who was still an empty wooden statue. Not for long, however, because this was the day of la Ofrenda, and starting at 16,00 there would be parades to offer the flowers and she would soon be clothed in a beautiful robe made of sweet smelling flowers. From there we went down to the Plaza Ayuntamiento to see the famous falla, which was one of the largest in the city placed there. The falla was one of the best I had seen, there’s definitely a reason that it’s so popular. It was a big genie and the scenes there were the desires of people, or what they would wish for, mostly based on the culture of Spain. They were written in both Castellano (Spanish) and Catalán so we could actually understand all of them.

One of our favorites was the “fallera mayor” which you have to know a little bit about the Spanish language and the tradition of falleras to understand. The Falleras are the girls and women who dress in the traditional Valencian clothing and hairstyle and parade around the city. Each neighborhood can have as many falleras as they want, but they always elect one fallera mayor. How they elect her is a complicated process that would take me three pages to explain, so I’ll just get right down to the point. It’s a beauty contest combined with a “coming out” into society tradition for the rich girls of the neighborhood. I’m not exaggerating about the rich part either, the fallera dresses cost a ton (at least a thousand euro, and that’s for a dress that was not specially fitted or made for you) and the fallera has to have one for at least each day of fallas. They also have to have the matching shoes, have to pay to get their hair done, etc etc.

Anyway, back to the falla de la Plaza de Ayuntamiento. The desire to be the fallera mayor is a desire that many girls in Valencia have, however, the desire is stronger when the fallera elected is “mayor mayor…” (in Spanish, the word mayor means major, but it is also a polite term for “old” like “elderly” in English). Basically, they’re making fun of the tradition of fallera mayor as being a “coming out” year.

After our visit to that falla, we met up with Amanda and she and Alicia went to get their hair cut. While they were busy with that, I took a walk through the city, and then ended up sitting in the Plaza de la Reina and watching all the different types of dresses as they paraded through on their way to the Plaza Ayuntamiento to begin la ofrenda. When Alicia and Amanda were done getting their hair cut we shopped at some of the stores nearby and then met Juanjo (a Hispanic guy that we met when we were out one night at La Café Infanta, he and Amanda hang out from time to time) and went to watch the mascletá. When it was over we went home for la comida. Lucía was out but she had left us paella de pollo (chicken), so we ate and then took a much-needed siesta. Lucía finally got home at about 19,00 and asked us an interesting question. She wanted to know where we had slept the night before. Alicia and I gave each other a very weird look, and then said that we had slept at home, like every night. Lucía however shook her head.

Okay, before you disbelieve me let me explain what had happened. It’s a cultural thing for Spanish mothers to look in on their children (or host children) while they are sleeping. This used to bother me and Alicia a little because we would sometimes wake up when she looked in on us in the middle of the night, but we’ve gotten used to it. What Lucía was trying to say was that she didn’t see us sleeping in our beds the night before, but it turned out to be a “series of unfortunate events” (thank you Lemony Snicket) that led to her believing that we had not actually spent the night.

When Lucía looked into our room the first time at about 11,30 (she had gone to bed much earlier than usual) neither Alicia or I were in there because we were on the roof watching the Castillo. Lucía then assumed that we had gone out for the night after she had fallen asleep (even though we told her that we weren’t going to) and decided to check in on us if she got up later in the night. At 2,00 Lucía woke up yet again, and went to check in on us. This time Alicia was asleep in the room, but I was in the sala de estudios updating my blog. Two things in this scenario aided our series of unfortunate events 1) Lucía saw my empty bed and assumed that neither Alicia nor I were there without checking Alicia’s bed and 2) With the door to the sala de estudias closed you cannot see the light on inside the room, so passing by the closed door Lucía did not think to check the room.

The next unfortunate event was that because we hadn’t gone out the night before Alicia and I woke up early and left before Lucía woke up, so that when she finally did wake up and check our bedroom once again, it was empty. She waited at home for quite a while to see if we were still out and would return, (it was fallas after all) but when it was 10,00 and we still hadn’t come back, she got worried and called Carole Harris (the lady from the center who oversees housing and the general happiness of students) and told her what had happened. Carole told her not to worry just yet, since it was possible that we had spent the night at someone else’s house and were going to come home a little later and simply had fallen asleep at a time when it was too early to call her and hadn’t woken up yet. Lucía tried to explain that we weren’t the type of girls to leave her worrying, and that we had always called before, and that neither one of us was the type either to spend the night somewhere other than home. Carole told her that she understood her concerns and that she would keep her phone on hand just in case, but that it was too early to tell if it wasn’t just a mistake. She said that if we didn’t turn up for lunch to call her then.

Now I know what you’re thinking, why didn’t Lucía just try to contact one of us? I mean, we have cell phones and everything…well, just to add to this series of unfortunate events, the day before this one Lucía had lost her cell phone, and thus the numbers for our cell phones, and therefore had no way to contact us. She did have a number to the house of one of the people who also houses students from the center, but the students didn’t know Alicia or me very well, and didn’t have our cell phone numbers either.

At this point Lucía was very upset and worried, and called one of her daughters for comfort. Her daughter told her that she needed a bit of distraction while waiting for us and took her out to the playa (beach) and for lunch. Lucía, being so sweet and caring, made sure that we had la comida prepared for us before she left the house. So, the hours pass by with Lucía telephoning the house every half and hour to see if we’re home yet. Finally 15,00 rolls around and Alicia and I get home. About halfway into our paella the telephone rings, and I pick it up. It’s Lucía, who sounds very upset at something, but is extremely happy to hear that we are home (me alegro, me alegro she kept repeating, I’m so glad). I told Alicia about it, but since we have no idea what she was worried about we just thought that we would ask her when she got home.

Well she did get home, and the story spilled out. After about an hour of explanation, a bit of crying on poor Lucía’s part and much thanking of her from me and Alicia who were extremely touched by how much she cared about us, we got everything figured out and back to normal. We prepared la cena together, laughing about how horribly perfectly everything had panned out. Alicia and I also wrote down our cell phone numbers by the home telephone just in case this situation ever arose again, though we sincerely hoped that it wouldn’t.

After la cena we made sure to tell Lucía that we were in fact planning on going out that night and not to worry because we would DEFINITELY be home later. After a few more hugs Lucía decided that she was prepared to let us out into the world again. We walked over to the other side of town where there was an Irish pub, because it was St. Patrick’s Day, and met with a group of students from the center there which included Chrysten, Catherine, Natalie, Dana, Adriana and a few other people. The plan was to stay there until the Castillo, which took place right at the end of the street, and then to meet Francisco, Dana’s intercambio to go out dancing for Dana’s birthday.

The Castillo up close was incredible, absolutely incredible. They shot the fireworks off from in the Rio so they were actually closer to us than a lot of fireworks can get since we were standing almost directly above where they were setting them off. It was one of the best firework shows I’ve ever seen, right on par with the show we saw when I went to Disneyworld with Mom, Bill, and siblings. It was just incredible to see them that close and that intense.

After the Castillo we walked around town, and sat in a few different plazas for awhile, just talking and drinking a bit of Sangría that Adriana bought for everyone to share. We ended up in the Plaza de la Virgin where the ofrenda went on and on and on until 3,00! Alicia and I decided that we wanted to go home after that even though we hadn’t gone dancing yet because we were tired. We wished Dana a feliz cumpleaños (happy birthday) and went home.

Spain Part 50 – Fallas; Los Premios

Alicia and I slept in after our late-night Castillo (firework show) the night before and then relaxed in the first part of the day before heading to the mascletá where we met up with Ryan. It was so crowded when we got there that we couldn’t even make it close to the center of the Plaza Ayuntamiento, so we went down a side street and watched it from there.

The mascletás get longer and more intense each day of fallas, and then the one on the last day of fallas is supposed to be rather calm (comparatively) because that night they have Castillos to introduce each of the burnings.

We all parted ways and went home for la comida after la mascletá, and Alicia and I were lucky enough to live far enough away from the center of the city to take a short siesta before we headed out again. We met Amanda Prince (the Amanda we usually hang out with) and Amanda Moore by the centro so that we could explore the fallas on that side of the city.

While we were checking out some of the fallas we saw a guy wearing a shirt that said “Michigan Forestry Club” on it, so we asked him (in Spanish of course) if he was actually a part of the club. Well, of course he wasn’t, and he didn’t speak any English and had never been to Michigan, but he had the shirt because his roommate from college had studied for a year in Michigan, so he had heard a lot about it and was excited to actually meet some people from the state. We chatted with him for a few minutes and then continued. I think it’s so interesting how many people you can meet just walking around and the connections that you make.

We took more pictures of fallas, including one of my favorites in the whole city which was a big mask on a stick with scenes around it. I liked it a lot I think because it was so simple and unique.

As we were walking back, we saw an adorable little girl wearing a fallera dress, and I asked her mother who was with her if I could take a picture. She sounded VERY proud as she said “claro que sí” (of course) and stood her daughter up and smoothed out her dress. The little girl just seemed happy to be the center of attention.

Continuing on we saw a tent near one of the fallas where there was loud music, obviously from a live band inside, and we decided to check it out. I’m not sure that we were permitted to enter the tent, but we did anyway just to watch them for a while. We got a lot of weird looks, but no one really seemed to care that we were there. It was getting pretty late after that so we all headed home for la cena. Alicia and I decided that we would stay in that night and maybe watch a Castillo from our roof again so that we could get up early and walk around on calle quart before it got too busy.

Spain Part 49 – Fallas; La Planta

We’d been waiting for fallas since the beginning of the semester, and it had finally arrived.

Alicia and I headed out after la cena on Saturday to meet Ryan and Amanda at the Torres de Serrano, which was near the falla that Ryan had helped with as his Práctica. We had some time to kill when we first got there before the Planta was to begin so we started by watching the concert that was happening down in the Rio one of the puentes (bridges) right above it. It was a type of electronic music, and it was hard to see much of what was happening on stage because of all the lights, but it was enjoyable all the same.

Amanda finally arrived to meet us and we shopped around the outdoor market for awhile. There were the usual jewelry vendors and odds and ends, but some of the things that I noticed that were kind of special were the soap stands, where they had a bunch of different smelling soaps, an herb and tea stand that smelled even more delicious than the soap stand, and a stand that sold mini books and bookshelves.

It was almost time for la Planta, so we headed over to where Ryan’s taller was and took some pictures of them putting the falla up.

Amanda’s favorite part of the falla was this dog, which she wasn’t allowed to actually pet, but pretended to anyway.

After that we wandered around looking at different fallas that were coming to life. We got a good look at Na Jordana for the first time, which is one of the fallas that is almost always in the running for the grand prize. It’s a very environmentalist falla, and it almost always criticizes the treatment of the toros (bulls) in Spanish culture. It also usually has something to do with the criticism of the farm lifestyle that Europe works so hard to preserve, trying to make the point that not all of the rural culture is important, especially when it includes mistreating animals and/or using it as an excuse to follow old traditions like arranged marriages and such when it takes the rights away from women.

One of the more blatantly political parts of the falla was a “carnival game” on the side (not a real game, just part of the falla) with pictures of the previous candidates for president of Spain (the elections were just last week) with their mouths open. On the table in front of them were pieces of poop (again, not real, just part of the falla) with signs stuck into them so that they represented different issues such as the economy, foreign relations, and so on.

It was almost time for the castillos (firework shows) to start by that time so we hurried back to our casa (all four of us) and went up to the roof where we could see the castillos. The first one, one of the closest, began at 1,00 but there were a TON of them and we watched quite a few (sometimes several at once) until it got very late (about 4,00) and very chilly outside, and we decided that it was time for bed.

Spain Part 48 – Fallas han llegado

Friday the fourteenth, the day before fallas began one of our professors, Jesús Peris-Lorca, gave a presentation on the fallas about what we could expect, what actually happens each day, and how much noise there will be. The schedule goes like this:

15 Marzo: La Planta – It means “the planting” basically, the smaller fallas will be put together and the bigger ones will be finished on this day.

16 Marzo: Los Premios – This is the day of “the prizes” when they decide which of the fallas are the best of the best. There’s an award ceremony in the Plaza Ayuntamiento and the builders of the fallas get to parade through with their award. They also choose the grand prize winner this day, or the falla that will NOT be burned. All the rest of the fallas will be torched on the last day.

17 Marzo: La Ofrenda – This literally means “the offering” and it has only been a tradition of the fallas since the 1940s because Franco decided that there had to be more of a religious message included in the celebration. Basically all of the Falleras (that is, the women who dress up in traditional Valencian clothing and do their hair in this ridiculously complicated style) offer flowers to this HUGE wooden statue of the Virgin Mary. The bouquets that they offer are mostly taken apart and used to construct a dress for the statue. Without the flowers, the statue looks like this:

The parade to offer flowers is a LONG parade. It begins at 4pm and usually goes until midnight, and that’s just the first day. It resumes in the morning the next day and goes until all the people who want to have offered flowers and the dress of the Virgin is finished. Jesús suggested that we watch a few hours of the parade, but that it gets old after awhile. There are only so many different styles of dresses and so many different bouquets to look at before you get bored.

18 Marzo: Sin Nombre – This day does not have a name. It’s basically an “everyone party, let’s finish the ofrenda, fallas are going to be over tomorrow night so see them while you can” day.

19 Marzo: La Cremá – The name of this day is interesting because it’s the only one that is in Valenciano that they don’t translate to Spanish, ever. It’s pretty obvious from the name, but this is the final day of fallas, and the day that they burn every one of them except for the one that won the grand prize. The fallas infantiles, small fallas that accompany the bigger ones, are burned first, and then they burn the rest of them periodically. Some of the bigger ones, like the one in Plaza Ayuntamiento, have specific times, and others just begin whenever the bomberos (firemen) arrive at the site. There are obviously more than a few safety procedures that have to be followed when you’re burning three hundred 8 story high structures. Jesús said the best idea is to get to one of the big fallas early to watch it burn close up, and then to follow the bomberos as they go from falla to falla so that you can see more of them burn.