Jueves- Paella!!!

Thursday! Noche de Fuego! Night of Fire!

I pulled myself out of bed by 4pm, early, I know, and stumbled over to my falla to try on the traditional falla dress, which I wore on friday for the pass through the streets. Afterwards there was an obra de teatro (theater piece) for the kids of acrobatics and juggling and general good-funness. I got picked to participate in an act, and luckily one of the actors was from England so when they were explaining the rules (of which I was really confused- the dude talked really super fast) she whispered what I had to do in my ear. It was a super good thing, because what we were doing was sitting together without chairs. Reference the picture. Whew. Wierd.

Afterwards, PAELLA. What is paella, you might ask? Well, it's rice, garlic, and stuff left over in your fridge. Okay, joke, but really, there's a million different types of paella, and Valencia is famous for it. You have seven different types of paella each that serve 50 people, one spoon, and a hungry stomach. What a wonderful combination. I jumped from paella to paella, trying them all, eating until I almost passed out with a food coma. Terrific.

Paella! So goooooood. When I get back to the US I'm buying a pan for paella and we're having a "tastes of Spain" week...no...month!

food coma- best place ever to sleep- a roller bag. What a lucky kid.

After the wonderful eats I headed off to see the castillo (fireworks show) that lasts for 30 minutes, and I must say, this is the only thing that didn't absolutely impress me during fallas. Granted, I could only see half of it because a huge building was in the way, but I felt it was still missing something (possibly I was having intense AOSFB flashbacks?). After the castillo we decided to head back to my falla where there was a disco ball and a great dance party going on. We hit the sack around...something super ridiculously early in the morning.

Correr al Foc- Miércoles por la noche

I apologize once again for the great big lag in posts. I escaped to the country this weekend (don't worry, I'll post about that too).

After everyone was satisfied throughly with the yummy cena (dinner) we all got ready for the Correr al Foc (Correr al Fuego- Running with Fire, basically). This experience was the probably my favorite. So, now I'm faced with the difficult task of explaining Correr al Foc to you. A bunch of people dress up like demons (dimonis/demonios) and line up with their tridents with a band of drummers behind them, keeping the beat. They slowly process down the street with torches in their hand until they reach two special demon, dressed in black, carrying super awesome thing that I don't know what they're called. The torches light their petards (it's like sparklers on steriods) and off they go dancing. It's officially begun. This is a adrenaline pumping convergence of man and fire. I hope my pictures will explain better than my words.

the procession at the beginning

and it begins...

my favorite demon- Valentia!

dancing through the streets, fire being thrown everywhere, but what is awesome is that it's actually safer to be closer to the demons, under their tridents and torches, so what you do is grab onto the arm of a demon, they light their torches, and off you go, dancing to the beat of the drums, fire flying over your head

what was going on above my head...holy shit

we like playing with fire

dancing under the fire, running with fire, clapping, laughing, screaming, whooping, yelling

the finale

the streets are on fire!!!!

best foto of the night- this should give you a good idea of how amazing this night was

Afterwords, naturally, there was a fiesta in the casal, which was a little bit more crazy than usual because everyone's adrenaline was pumping fast. This was probably my favorite night.

Miércoles- El Desfile y Gazpacho Manchego (!)

Wednesday:
I slept til late afternoon after dropping Becky at the train station and then headed on over to my falla, of course. Today was the parade day. When I arrived all the kids were milling about the casal, waiting for the dragon to be ready. My falla has this dragon thingy that's like Chinese dragons and all the kids get under it, carry it, and dance in the streets while we have a band that's dressed like it's Halloween, but crazier, playing songs that everyone knows. Everyone is singing alone and our giant is dancing too. Jesús, one of my professors, and his friend, Roxane, came too. Jesús right now is on crutches because he's incredibly clumsy and tripped on some stairs, but for some reason he decided to follow the parade. So, imagine this: Roxane and I, being silly people, dancing, running around, singing, goofy, and then running back to get Jesús, who the whole time had a huge smile on his face like a little kid. That dude is a true valenciano.

the dragon and kiddies

el gigante- someone is under him and while the music and parade goes so goes the giant, dancing in the street. The person who carries the giant has to take turns because it's pretty durn heavy.

mi amiga Roxane!

la banda- not the best picture but check out their attire

Afterwards was GAZPACHO MANCHEGO. Best stuff in the entire world. It's tomatoes and rabbit and garlic and yummmmmmmy goodness. I helped out cooking, mostly because I was starving and wanted it to cook faster. Standing close to the fire, smelling the yummy smells, while your stomach is eating out your insides is torture. That gazpacho was the most satisfying thing I've ever eaten since I've been here.

Look! Arnau is hungry too! feeeeeed us!!!

gazpacho=heaven

the other dish- rice something (I forget the name) which was equally as good, of course it helped that Vicenta was dressed like a proper chef.

Martes- La Jam Sessión

Amazingly, Becky and I woke up in time to go to the mascleta at 2pm on Tuesday, and this one was a kicker: body shaking, ears popping, heart pounding noise level. I think this one scared her a little bit. We went back to the house and relaxed for a bit, and then I made my way to my falla.

peoplepeoplepeoplepeople

Today for the little chitlins' there was a mechanical bull. yusssssss I rode it with Marisa, a fallera that's...a bit...older than me. We lasted quite awhile, but when I fell off I hit heads with some kid on the sideline, which kinda hurt. There was also a blow-up obstacle course, but after the bull I was kinda wiped and Marisa and went into the casal to share a drink.

living out my roots, good ol' country days, yeeeeehaw

Tuesday was one of my favorite days in my falla because it was the night of the jam session. For those who know me, ya'll know that when music is around and I'm allowed to participate, I'm the happiest person in the world, so a whole night of music with my falla was the best thing EVER. Pep and I started a little early with some American classics, where I made up the words because I forgot them and everyone else sang the melody, and trust me, my words didn't make in spanish or english (I blame wine and lack of practice in english, the silly language). We took a break to chow down on some yummies and then around midnight started the show.

Pep, doing the piano man

making up words to American Pie because I couldn't remember them all

we be singing, while we're drinking...tubthumping!!!!

There was an accordian, two electric guitars, soprano saxophone, percussion, and of course, microphones for some good belting. I sang "I'm Yours," because my good crazy-ass Valencian friends Maria and David were there and they love that song, "Change" by Blind Melon (because I miss my Emily), and "5 Years Time" which has the same chord structure to La Bamba, so when that song was over the entire casal burst out into PARA BAILAR LA BAMBA, swaying and singing, eyes closed and chin up, mouth wide open to produce the most amount of sound. Next we did some blues improv, where I made up some more silly lyrics, because luckily no one but Becky understood english, and she made fun of my lyrics profusely afterwards. A reporter from "El Pais," one of the biggest newspapers in Spain, saw me sing and asked to interview me, so we had an interview (whoa!!!!), but sadly there wasn't enough space in the paper for the article. O well, it was still awesome to realize that I could talk fluently and answer all her questions.


Tuesday was Becky's last night, so we made the rule that she was forbidden to sleep, so we were all up til 10ish in the morning, walked her to the train station, and then crashed til quite late in the afternoon the next day. Becky got home safely and promptly went to sleep for 2 days straight while the party raged on in Valencia.

Lunes- La Noche

Around 6ish there was always activities for the kids in my falla, and today was spinning thingies that I don't what they're called, even in english. We all made them and played in the street (don't worry, dad, there were no cars and I was safe).

Afterwards was buñuelos y chocolate. yummmmmm I might have ate way too many of them, but fresh buñuelos done right, o god, that's heaven. Buñuelos are kinda of like donuts, I mean, they're dough deep fried and then rolled in sugar, then dipped in chocolate. Diabetics, beware.

feeeeeeed me

Right after gorging ourselves on buñuelos it was time for morcilla, or blood sausage. I have to be in the right mood to eat morcilla, and that night was not one of them. Becky and I enjoyed our bread. We all chilled, rubbing our bellies and having a couple of drinks, and around 11pm it was time for our concert with Pep Gimeno and Josep Aparcio.

I didn't stay long because Becky and I ran off to see Cristina and her falla. I believe that was the night that we went to see the lights in Calle Sueca, but never made it because we found a street party outside of another falla and we hung there for awhile. By the time we got home we just crashed for hours.

poor Becky, not used to Spanish living hours (everything starts super late, around 2am) I believe this picture was taken at 5am. Yay for making it that far Becky!!! When she got home (England) from Spain she slept for 2 days straight and she was only here for 4 days while the party was still raging in Valencia. Maybe it was a good thing she couldn't stay the whole week.

Un Paseo-Lunes durante el día

For those who didn't know, Becky (Rebecca Kelley) visited me for a couple days during the beginning of fallas. Right now she is studying in England, so it was easy to visit for a jiffy. After recovering on Sunday from a long night on Saturday, Monday we were ready to take a walk around the city to see some fallas. We went to the mascleta, where I think Becky almost pissed her pants because the buildings were vibrating so much it was so loud. Her face looked like a little kid she was so excited.

Plaza de Ayuntamiento before the mascleta, we had a great spot, even though we were so squished arm movement was limited

the plaza afterwards, yeah, we valencianos like to blow stuff up

Afterwards we shoved, pushed, stepped on feet, and swerved to get to Sol i Luna, the favorite bar of people in the Earlham crowd, to get some typical spanish grub. We met up with Kaitlin and Cristina, and Chris, of course, popped in. I have a wonderful picture of Kaitlin and her crawling on the floor looking for the back of Kaitlin's earring, but I thought I'd respect her pride and not post it. After throughly stuffing ourselves full of yummy goodness we parted ways and Becky and I wandered the city.

La Ofrenda- each falla (except mine) dresses in traditional garb and offers flowers to the Virgin, by the end of the week the empty wood space is filled with beautiful flowers and the entire plaza smells wonderful

one of my favorite fallas, everybody gotta love them granny panties

falla infantil de falla Corona (falla de Kaitlin)

falla gran de Corona, it was their 150th anniversary so their theme was the phoenix

a HUGE falla, unfortunately my fotos of its size didn't turn out well

Falla Arrancapins

each falla hangs lights in the streets

Right, sorry, I know I've been a rotten blogger, but the past week has been fallas, so, obviously, I didn't want to even touch a computer, I was busy partying with Valencia, so, to catch up, there's going to be a slew of long posts to satisfying my thirsty followers.

First, I must explain my falla. Each person from my university is placed in a falla, and I had the great luck of being in Arrancapins. Why luck? Because Arrancapins is probably the most alternative falla there is: no fallera mayor (a woman of about my age who dresses up in traditional clothing and waves and smiles at people) because it's sexist and they don't have any real power, doesn't have the normal president/court of honor set-up because they believe in equality and democracy, and constructs their own falla because it's closer to tradition. What does all that mean? It means that for the past 2 months I have been helping to construct my falla, only to have it burn. It means that when they burn it I got a whole different perspective.

paint brushes, dragons, and the bar in the casal

The construction was great for me, because I love working with my hands and building, and also it was a lot easier for me to talk with people because I would be working with someone on a project, so if there was silence, it wasn't awkward, it just meant we were focusing. I sewed, hammered, painted (a lot), and made a fake mascleta. Basically I helped with a little bit of everything. Everyone in my falla was really welcoming and made sure i was always having a good time, which I was. Some spoke a little bit of english so they practiced their english with me, and also helped translate when I didn't understand something. Of course there were times when I couldn't understand anything so when I got home I would rush for my dictionary to figure it out.

working in the streets, rushing to finish the construction

work work work

la plantá- putting it all together, its a huge deal


falla infantil (falla for the kids), an aquarium

falla grande- the theme was "llenya de foc" which means "full of fire" basically, we were commenting on the connection between Valencia and fire, with a lot of play on words, of course complete with political criticism

the dragon, my favorite part

Now you understand a little bit more about my falla, and later I'll start posting about the actual festival, 7 days with little sleep and lots of party.

La Despertá

Impatienly waiting for 7:30am

Last weekend was the official beginning of fallas, which lasts for about 3 weeks. On Sunday at 7:30am was the Despertá, meaning all the early risers (or partiers who never went to sleep) gather in Calle de la Paz with petardos, which are kind of like Snap Dragons in the US, but better, stronger, and louder. Now, sit back and imgine this:

Hundreds of roudy people, smoke so thick you can't breathe or see, explosions all around you, little bits of rock hitting your legs, foot aching because Josep told you to step on a petardo to explode it and you being incredibly stupid and tired did, ears ringing, head fuzzy from little or no sleep, and at the end a mascleta, which is bigger and better than any fireworks the US could ever come up with, probably because we're much too obsessed with safety.

Smoke and fire

Panuelos (handkerchiefs) so you have a better chance to breathe

¡GOOD MORNING VALENCIA!

So what does it mean that now fallas has started? It means that every day at 2pm (the only time Spaniards are punctual) thousands of people gather in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento and watch a mascleta that vibrates your whole body. Someone told me it's bad luck to cover your ears, but it's so loud that you feel like your brain might get dislodged. It means that ninots are getting put up all around the city. It means that every weekend there's even MORE fiesta and partying. It means fireworks in the river every night during the weekend. It means limited mobility through the center of the city. It means Valencia is coming ALIVE.

Mascleta, right in the middle of the city