Las Fallas, part 2

In addition to walking around looking at the giant ninots, there's much more to see during Las Fallas.  The entertainment is non stop during these days of festival.  I'd say that yes, it's a family affair although there was a lot of drinking on the streets and parties.  It was more family oriented than Mardi Gras but on the same note, there were a lot of fireworks, firecrackers, and just noise in general...which babies were either crying or sleeping through it all.  Families venture out together in traditional fallera outfits, which I will talk about later in my third post. 

Events of Las Fallas

 

La Despertà

Each day of Falles begins at 8:00 am with La Despertà ("the wake-up call"). Brass bands appear from the casals and begin to march down every street playing lively music. Close behind them are the fallers, throwing large firecrackers in the street as they go.  Tara and I rented out an apartment and were centrally located.  So yes, the answer to your question is that we did..not..sleep..at all.


Then there's the ... Mascletà
 

Us waiting for the fireworks

A huge midday firework show that takes place in each neighbourhood at 2:00 pm every day of the festival; the main event is the municipal Mascletà in the town hall square. The Mascletà is almost unique to the Valencian Community, hugely popular with the Valencian people. Smaller neighbourhoods often hold their own mascletà for saint's days, weddings and other celebrations.  Why is it "unique?" because WHO does fireworks at 2p.m.?! The streets were packed full of people so excited to get to hear all this noise and then go home for their lunch.  We heard the firework show every day we were there, but only went to see it twice.

The aftermath

L'Ofrena floral (the offering)

In this event, the floral offering, each falla group takes an offering of flowers to Saint Mary. This occurs all day during 17-18 March. A statue of Saint Mary and its large pedestal (her skirt) are then covered with all the flowers. Everywhere we turned there was a parade of falleros walking with flowers walking towards the church where Mary was.  This process began at 3:30pm and went all into the night.  In addition to flowers on her skirt, there was a wall full of flowers and also big boquets put around the fountain in the Plaza de la Virgen.

This country is very Catholic, however it was strange to see this "offering" because in reality it was just a parade of Valencian people in traditional outfits, smoking, drinking, and making endless amounts of noise on their way to pay their resepect.  I don't understand that part but hey..the end result was beautiful!

Here she is!  The flower crew is just getting started on the work of art

He's thinking.."Why did I agree to this?"

The end result..flowers for daysss!

Now on to...more fireworks!!

Els Castells and La Nit del Foc

On the nights of the 15, 16, 17, and 18th there are firework displays in the old riverbed in Valencia. Each night is progressively grander and the last is called La Nit del Foc (the Night of Fire) We heard these fireworks every night at 1am sharp. Unfortunately, we didn't make our way out to go see them because we were exhausted but I'm sure they were nothing less than spectacular.

To end the celebration, there is a famous fire known as..

La Cremà

On the final night of Falles, around midnight on March 19, these falles are burnt as huge bonfires. This is known as the cremà (the burning), the climax of the whole event, and the reason why the constructions are called falles ("torches"). Traditionally, the falla in the Plaça de l'Ajuntament is burned last.  Tara and I had to catch our flight home so we missed this day but the pictures look awesome.  I can't imagine all of these creations going up in flames! Or maybe I can...but that's pretty sad considering how much time and money they spent.

http://www.travelocafe.com/2010/06/las-fallas-festival-of-fire-valencia.html

Starting in the early evening, young men with axes chop cleverly-hidden holes in the statues and stuff them with fireworks. The crowds start to chant, the streetlights are turned off, and all of the ninots are set on fire at exactly 12am (midnight). Over the years, the local bomberos (firemen) have devised unique ways to protect the town's buildings from being accidentally set on fire by the ninots: such as neatly covering storefronts with fireproof tarps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falles

It's too bad that Tara and I didn't get to stay to see this huge fire.  I'm sure the city was covered with a huge cloud of smoke, considering there are hundreds of Fallas.  I still feel as if our trip was worth it even without staying until the end.  We got to try typical food and experience one of the biggest parties in the country.

http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/society/holidays/las-fallas.asp

Las Fallas in Valencia, part 1

I'm not sure how to begin this post because there is so much I want to say about Las Fallas... I've been reading up on the festival and I decided to just use what I've read because I'm still a little speechless about the whole thing.. so here's what wikipedia says..

Valencia is Spain's 3rd largest city after Barcelona and Madrid.  For some reason, it tends to be overlooked in regards to tourism although it is one of the largest cities.  There are wayyy too many awesome cities to see in this country!

((Las Fallas = the name of the festival in Castillian Spanish...Falles is in Valencian- they speak their own language in Valencia...yes, this country is strange..and very divided! ))

"The Falles is a traditional celebration held in commemoration of Saint Joseph in the city of Valencia in Spain. The term Falles refers to both the celebration and the monuments created during the celebration. Each neighborhood of the city has an organized group of people, the Casal faller, that works all year long holding fundraising parties and dinners, usually featuring the famous specialty paella.  Each casal faller produces a construction known as a falla which is eventually burnt."

My desire for wanting to visit Valencia during this festival all began just from viewing pictures my friend had posting during her visit, which was over a year ago.  I thought that the figures I had seen in her photos were awesome and the festival looked like Mardi Gras in a way.  I'm a huge fan of Mardi Gras...but sorry New Orleans, Valencia goes all out with this! It was super impressive. 
 
First things first; a "NINOT" is a puppet or doll built out of paper-mâché. Each neighborhood builts their ninot in a themed manner, which usually is a satirical jab at anything or anyone who draws the attention of the critical eyes of the falleros (the people who built it). Needles to say I went overboard and took over 300 pictures in 3 days...you can't blame me though because there are around 700 of these displays all over the city.  It wasn't possible to see them all but I think we got to see a LOT of them.  Valencia is a huge city and we were super sore after walking from one main neighborhood to the next. Here are some of them.... many of them displayed nudity or naughty themes so I'll post the PG ones.

This is a display talking about the corruption in Spain and complaing about the 21% tax rate

 

Only one ninot is saved from the fire every year and it is on display at the Museo Faller in Valencia



This display is of the "Familia Irreal" the "not-real" image of the Spanish family

 

and below the IRREAL family..it the REAL Spanish family..a begger which represents the current situation in Spain.  The country is in a serious crisis with 25% an unemployment rate.  A little ironic considering Valencians are paying for all of these figures to be built only to be burned.  In addition to these amazing ninots, there are fireworks, food stands, lights, cleaning crews, and several other expenses to be paid for during this festival...all in the middle of a crisis!

 

The Valencian tour bus.  This ninot was in the plaza of the town hall

 

The ninots can be very large! Often costing up to US $75,000

 

The most expensive falla ever build was in 2009, it had a 900,000euro budget and it was burnerd along with all the others

"The Apple tells the story" The history of the apple and how this symbol of wisdom has influenced us in the history of mankind. Adam and Eve, Isaac Newton, and Steve Jobs surrounded by angels are all in this amazing Falla

 

The idea of this display is very creative! Behind us you can see the snow white and the witch who gives her the posion apple too.  I liked the Steve Jobs representation because he is surronded by angels in heaven.

History (wikipedia) One idea of how this all started is when artisans  (in the Middle Ages) disposed of the broken artifacts and pieces of wood they saved during the winter by burning them to celebrate the spring equinox. Valencian carpenters used planks of wood called parots to hang their candles on during the winter, as these were needed to provide light for the carpenters to work by. With the coming of the spring, they were no longer necessary, so they were burned. Over time, and with the intervention of the Church, the date of the burning of these parots was made to coincide with the celebration of the festival of Saint Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters.

Spain is known to have crazy parties; throwing tomatoes, running from live bulls, carnivals, and now I can say I know Las Fallas- an expensive/unnecessary but awesome party. Traveler and pyromaniac Janet Morton says, "The scene at Las Fallas is extremely cathartic and difficult to describe, but resembles a cross between a bawdy Disneyland, the Fourth of July and the end of the world!" http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/society/holidays/las-fallas.asp

¡Qué mono!

¡Qué mono!

Spanish 101... I took this class like 5 years ago but my teacher sure didn't teach me these words/phrases.  I've been picking up on the things people say in Badajoz because, well..they all have the same vocabulary. It makes me wonder if my hometown of Urbandale all sound alike too.  Not sure.  Disclaimer! I live in a rural part of Spain so don't assume that all Spaniards are alike :)

Too many different variations!

When I lived in Costa Rica, I thought I was learning a universal Spanish.  Now that I'm in Spain, I'm starting to think I don't even know Spanish because their accents, grammar, and vocabulary are all different. 

¡Qué mono! =  How monkey!... How cute!

When they put QUE in front of a word, it translates into "how or what a ________" MONO means monkey..but to them, it's cute so...oh look at that baby! "¡Qué mono!"

¡Qué guay!(gw-eye) = cool, how cool, that's cool. In Costa Rica, they say "Que chiva"

¡Qué chulo! = again, cool, how cool, that's cool

¡Hostia! = damn, hell

Vale (ball-eh) = Okay.  I hear this about 100x a day.  Costa Ricans never said this so this was new to me.

Me tiene negra = literally, "you have me black" ...but it means, you're making me mad

Mala leche = literally, bad milk..but it means, bad luck, or something/someone bad

Esta pisando huevos = literally, he is pissing eggs..but it means he's moving slowly (someone who is driving slow)

Y no sé qué no sé cuánto... = literally, I don't know what or how much but it means "blah blah blah" or "and so on" when someone is saying something boring or irrelavent.

Estoy harto = I'm fed up

Achooooo = No this isn't the sound you make when you sneeze, it comes from "muchacho" or "man, guy" They say this all the time and it's usually drawn out and in the most annoying tone you can ever imagine.  Almost like they're whining.  "Achooooooo" - Like "come on man/F*&^ Man, WTF dude"

Tio = They say this all the time too.  Usually it is combined with acho. "Acho tio" It's another form of saying "man, guy, dude". Literally, it means uncle.

Out of all of these, I've only used "vale" because it is very necessary here in Spain.  You will never hear me say acho because I hate that expression! There are a lot more to add to the list but I'll keep the bad words written down in my notebook instead of posting them on here :)

23 in Spain!

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday! This is my second birthday in a Spanish speaking country.  Besides the fact I don't have family around, I seem to always get lucky and meet amazing people to make it special. 

The birthday glasses, thanks to Tara!

 

Google creeped me out a little bit, it says "Happy Birthday Samantha!"

 

 

On Wednesday night, my roommate Tara and her mother prepared an amazing dinner for the occasion. We invited over some Spaniards and other English teachers to eat and have some drinks. Tara's mom (Roula) made delicious Lebanese dishes, she's an amazing cook!

This was amaaazzzinggg! Zucchini and beef sauce that we put over white rice

 

Baba- Ghanoush (spelling?) this was my first time trying it.  It's like hummus made out of egg plant- yum

 

Okay so these cookies are not Lebanese, but they are my favorite! I made these from the butterscotch chips my mom brought during Christmas. 

Stuffed grape leaves.  Inside is a mixture of veggies and lentils. Roula spent hours making these.

Roula passing out the grape leaves to John and Mikey

 

Group photo!  6 other English teachers came over as well as 3 of our close Spanish friends

 

Sofia, our good Spanish friend

 

Tara and I enjoying her mama's cooking

 

An amazing friend!

Everyone came over around 8 and we immediately cracked open the delicious Spanish wines that the guests brought.  (Our lives are pretty stressful)  I was lucky to have everyone come over to celebrate my birthday, it was a good one!  Now for the photo roll....

Daron!

Patricia, Tara, and John

 

This cake was one of the best I've ever had.  Tara knows me all too well and covered it with cinnamon (I'm a freak about cinnamon).  It was an orange, vanilla, and yogurt cake.  It was perfect and I'll have to make it again one day!

This birthday was fun because when the cake came out they sang Happy Birthday in English, French, and Arabic! That was a first :)

 By the time I went to sleep, all my American friends were just waking up.  I received birthday wishes all into the next day :) No complaints there.  Since it was a Thursday, I went to my village school.  You will never believe what happened the morning of my birthday....it SNOWED! Yes, snowed.  The village people were so excited to see snowflakes, something very rare in this region of Spain.  The weather here is so crazy, it was in the 60's a week or two ago. 

These are some of the little kiddos who sang to me.  This is them during Carnival, a couple weeks ago

Once I got to school, I was welcomed by little 1st graders singing me a broken-English version of Happy Birthday, too cute!  I carried on with my usual Thursday schedule and went to my two private lessons later that night and waited for Kate to arrive to Badajoz.  We went out again for a sushi dinner with some friends and soon we will be off to Lisbon! We have a cute hostel room booked for the weekend and are looking forward to going. 

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday! Love you all :)
 

Um..what!?

After 5 months, I have started to get comfortable with my life in Spain.  However, once in a blue moon I have those days...those days where I completely disconnect myself from everyone Spanish or speaking Spanish.  I start to have this "homesick" feeling and I have all of these "not so positive" thoughts about certain things.  I have thoughts like, "Why do they do that! Why do they say that, eat that, etc".

 I know that when you move abroad you shouldn't compare your culture and life to theirs, but some days it is unavoidable. The good thing is, I eventually snap out of it.  I am smart enough to know that no one can be judged nor stereotyped.  Do I eat cheeseburgers every day because I'm American?  No, actually I hardly ever eat them.   When I start to make a comment about Spain I take a step back and realize that I am living in a city that lacks diversity.  Badajoz isn't a fair representation of the entire country, just like Iowa doesn't exactly represent the USA.  

The following are a few things that Spaniards do that continue to baffle me.

1. "Now" = "Later"

This is very typical of the Spanish culture, many people make jokes about how Spaniards always put things off for "mañana" tomorrow. Number 1 on my list is the use of the word ahora (now).

Example: "Teacher, teacher, can we sit?" Her response, "no, no..ahora sentamos" = now we sit.. she really means, later we will sit- hmmm why not just say later? LUEGO!

2. Saying see you later or bye in passing instead of hello

Example: I see this happen every single day while out and about in the streets of Badajoz.  Since the city is small, everyone knows everyone.  When you pass someone on the street (or grocery store) do you keep walking past them and just say bye? or see you later? No.  Where I come from we say "oh hello!" "how are you?" However, the Spaniards won't stop walking. Instead, they shout "bye!"

hasta lueggooooooo

3. Kids cussing in class

Example: Either these curse words in Spanish aren't that harsh, or their perspective on foul language is different than ours because my students are always cursing in class. Last week the teacher took away some kid's paper airplane and he screamed "JODER!" (F*&#) She didn't even flinch!! Oh man, if anyone ever said the F word in school that was not going to go over well.  They also say MIERDA (S&#%) a lot.  I won't be able to wrap my brain around this....to me it is just disrespectful and not okay to let your little kids curse in public.

4. Lack of planning (in my village school)

Example: This isn't true for all teachers, however many of my teachers will approach me the day OF class and ask if I have anything prepared to do.  My thoughts are, well...YOU are the teacher right? Lesson planning is rare and most of the time we just do whatever we want in class and hope the kids learn a new word or two.  I understand that Americans have a different view on work and we are workaholics but I can't help but think of my mom (who works very hard in school) every time the school bell rings and the teachers are half way out the door.  School starts at 9:30, we arrive at 9:28 on a good day.  School ends at 2:30, we are half way out the door at 2:29.  Amazing.

5.  Peeling apple skins yet eating pig cheeks

Example: Every day at school we have a little breakfast break in the morning.  Most teachers bring a healthy snack to tie them over until their midday feast.  Apples are a popular fruit here in Spain, however the peel of the apple isn't so popular.  I have never seen a Spaniard eat the peel of their apple.  I've even asked one of them once, why don't you eat that? Don't you know that a lot of the vitamins and fibers are in the skin of the apple? They don't care.  What blows my mind is that they will eat every and all parts of the pig but they can't eat an apple peel.  They eat blood sausage, livers, pig cheeks..but apple skin!? EW!

6. The verb "tocar"

Rule number one in speaking other languages = do not translate literally.

Example: Sometimes I can't stop my brain from doing it.  I am so comfortable with English that when I'm hearing Spanish, I literally am going over the translation in my head.  It rarely works out to be correct if you say something literal.  Yo tengo 22 años = I have 22 years..nope, doesn't work.  When the verbs are used for meanings that don't make any sense in English, I often think about how strange they sound.  One day in class, my teacher was having the students draw names out of a hat for an activity.  She didn't want a student to choose their own name, so she would ask, "te has tocado a ti mismo?" Now..Tocar = to touch or play... In English this would literally mean, "Have you touched yourself" but what it means in Spanish is, "Did you pull out your own name/did you get your own name?"  see what I mean? I couldn't help but giggle when she kept repeating this phrase.

                                                                                            Vale, venga, hasta luegooooo :)

Favorite things

Okay, so I'm not Oprah.  I can't give you all cars and trips to Australia but if I could, I would.  What I can do is share some useful websites and apps that I use while I am traveling or while I'm planning a trip. 

If only Oprah was still on T.V. :(

The things I'm going to share with you probably won't make your faces look like these....

Oprahh!!!

But I'm going to share with you anyways...

I am really big on planning and I like to read into reviews before I book a trip to any place or any hostel.  Actually, I obsess about it a little bit, especially when I am hosting someone. My list of hostels is rapidly increasing and some have been great, others....not so much. It is important to figure out what you want out of a hostel. Free breakfast, comfort, cleanliness, location, friendliness, etc.  I use the following sites to read reviews and find the best ones.

Hostelbookers


You can see pictures, reviews, rates, info, maps, etc all on www.hostelbookers.com

Trip Advisor

You can find anything and everything on www.tripadvisor.com
 

Trip Advisor:  There are a lot of websites similar to this however, Trip Advisor leaves their symbol all over restaurants, hostels, hotels, bars, in major cities all around the world.  They give out rewards for places with great reviews or for excellence.  I trust their website and you can find info about tourist destinations; what to see, what to eat, where to stay, what to do if you only have 3 days or if you have 10 days. 

Bla Bla Car (RideShare): which is like organized car pooling with strangers.  I've done this only once but it was a legit experience.  My roommate and I contacted a young girl who was driving back through Seville to Badajoz.  We paid 1/3 of the price of a bus ticket and got home an hour faster than usual, plus we were able to practice Spanish during the car ride.


Bla Bla Car- easy to navigate and a great way to carpool

Couch Surfing: I haven't personally done this yet but I know people who have and loved it.  I still read profiles every now and again to get an idea of the kind of experiences people are having who choose to do it.  Couch surfing is entirely free and was created for travellers to meet new people.  If I did decide to couch surf, I would only do so with someone who had a lot of positive reviews.  There are ways to verify the people who have space in their homes to host you

Couchsurfers can be very experienced.  For example, this man has 850+ references and is verified as a reliable host in the city of Dublin, Ireland. 

Songza.  This is my new and favorite music app.  I listen to Songza all day and all night.  It has EVERYTHING you could want and it even helps you figure out what you want.  It is pure genius and organized by genres, moods, singers, holidays, activities, etc.  I am even listening to it this very moment while writing this post. 

I love that it asks you what you are doing.  If you don't want any of these options then you can go into explore or popular playlsits.

 

Songza is definitely with it...during Mardi Gras time I found this playlist and felt like I was literally in New Orleans.

Instagram: Another app that I use all the time is Instagram.  It is an app where you upload photos that you take with your phone.  It lets you edit your photos or add different types of shades and colors to make your pictures prettier.  I usually upload my Instagram photos on to my Facebook anyways, for those of you who don't have it.

www.northjersey.com (this isn't mine)
 

SpanishDict: If you are travelling in a Spanish speaking country, the Spanish Dictionary app will definitely come in handy. I use this all the time! It doesn't require wifi to use it and it is very quick and has a large bank of words.

I use this app a lot during my private lessons when I don't know how to translate something

Shutterfly: When I'm done travelling, I will turn to one of my favorite websites to make books, albums, or to print all of the 1,000,000 photos that I have taken.  I have been using Shutterfly for years now and it always is offering specials and discounts for it's members.  I have made calendars, cards, stationary, photo books, you name it.  I plan to print out my blog and put it in a book using Shutterfly.  If you haven't used it, try it out!

www.shutterfly.com

Hopefully you can use one of my favorite things if you haven't been already :) -hasta luego