Valencia, Spain: Las Fallas

Yesterday I went to Las Fallas, which are an annual festival in Valencia, Spain. The name of the festival is derived from the Latin word for "torch,"and rightfully so, as the final part of festival, called La Crema, consists of burning giant sculptures (fallas) in the streets. The celebration takes almost a full year of planning and fundraising, which culminates with a week-long festival of food, music, fireworks, and the burning. Each year there is a different theme to the fallas, so even though they're all different, there are common elements between them. I don't know what the theme was this year, but many of the sculptures had political figures, clocks, and music in them. I didn't see anywhere near all of the fallas during the day, but here are some pictures of the ones I did see:





This one is my favorite! She's a flamenco dancer with little musicians all around her.

Then here's what it looked like afterward.

The detail in the sculptures was beyond amazing. The colors and props are so lifelike! It was really fun to wander around and look at them all afternoon. Everytime we would turn a corner there would be a new one, and like I said, I didn't even see all of them. There was a parade at 7:00, and then the burning starts around midnight. It isn't just a simple act of lighting it on fire, though. There's a whole elaborate show involving fireworks and music. I took videos of both of the burnings that we watched, but for some reason they won't upload here, so I'll put them on my Facebook.

It was one of the coolest experiences I've had since coming here - something I know I'll never forget.

¡Buen camino!

I had a really long week of classes - my Syntax professor just told us about our semester project on Friday. We have to read 11 books and turn in summaries of each of them. The summary-writing can be done in groups, but we have to read all of the required texts because our final exam will be over them. Needless to say, I've got some reading ahead of me for the rest of the semester. However, my Friday was not lost. Later that day, Bre and I made guacamole, macaroni and cheese, and cookies as a going-away dinner for her roommate, Caterina. It was a really fun night!

The perfect avocado

Cocinera

¡Buen provecho!

 Then on Sunday, Bre's other roommate, Pepa, took us hiking. We went to the same place that I had been before with Alvaro, but we took a different route and I got some more good pictures:

The rest of March is going to fly by, I'm sure. This coming weekend I'm going to Valencia for Las Fallas, and then Jillian will be here on the 23rd. Spring vacations will be here before I know it!

Hope all is well with everyone. Postcards will be coming soon - I just need to track down some stamps. :)

Love to all - xoxo

Oxford comma

My friend Bre turned 21 yesterday, so we had a little birthday dinner last night. Kelsey made her mom's macaroni and cheese recipe - it was so good! I think we'd all been wanting some comfort food. We all made it together from scratch, so the whole process was about an hour and a half, start to finish. Of course, we had to take a few pictures before eating -

(left to right: Kelsey, Luis, Bre)

Our dinner conversation always tends to drift through many topics, but tonight we decided to keep it academic: we talked about grammar - particularly, the use of commas and semicolons in Spanish, because their uses differ from those in English, which is what my Normative Spanish class is discussing right now. It was the perfect topic to discuss over warm, gooey, wonderful macaroni and cheese.

On another note: the state of my room here in Spain has been hitting an all time low lately. Anyone who knows me well would say that my room is never really clean. I can't explain it - I'm a strange juxtaposition of obsessive-compulsive and terribly unorganized. For example, I always carry a dayplanner that is FULL of notes and reminders, however, my floor and bed are always covered with clothes and my desk is buried under books and papers. No joke - after seeing the mountain of clothes on my bed one day, my friend Makenzie asked me where I sleep at night. But yesterday I cleaned during my break between classes! And my friends were so excited to see it that they took pictures. It's slightly embarrassing that I'm sharing this not-so flattering side of myself, but it's just part of who I am, I suppose - you're all stuck with me, haha!

Now let's just hope it lasts... :)

xoxo

Carnaval and the Medieval Fair

The past 48 hours have been some of the best here in Murcia! On Saturday night, some friends and I went to a city called Águilas for Carnaval - and it was an adventure, to say the very least. So, we left the apartment at 8:45 pm for the train, in costume. We got some looks, let me tell you. Keyla was dressed as a pirate and Kelsey and I had masquerade masks. When we got to the train station there were a ton of people there I saw some of the best costumes I've ever seen. Some popular ones were Black Swans (however, it was mostly men dressed in this costume, which was hilarious), the Mario Brothers, Lady Gaga, pirates, and cowboys. I also saw a guy who looked exactly like Justin Bieber, but I'm not sure if it was intentional or not.

I was really excited to ride the train! I've never travelled by train before and the only impressions I have of them are from the movies, so I was expecting it to be something like the train on Harry Potter or something... but it wasn't. My first train ride is not something that I would like to repeat. Ever. The cabins were all full, so people had to stand in the aisles and sit in the compartments that link the cars. I mean, it was fine for the first 30 minutes, but it was a 2 hour train ride, so my feet were exhausted.

So, we got to Águilas a little after midnight and started following the crowd of people toward the city center. Once there, we were met with people dancing on floats and vendors selling carnival food (no corndogs, though - sorry, Keely!) We met up with our friend Laura, who lives in Águilas, and she introduced us to some of her friends. Then we spent the rest of the night chatting and dancing. It was wonderful!

The train ride home at 6:45 was . . . less than ideal. The people literally stampede onto the train and take whatever seat is open. So, Bre and I ended up sitting on the floor in the cabin, but my feet were aching so bad that I didn’t really care, as long as I was sitting down. When we got back to Murcia at 8:45 I was completely dreading the walk back to my flat – the train station is on the edge of the city, and I live in the center. By that point my feet were going numb and I thought about just hailing a taxi. However, I sucked it up and practically crawled back home. I put the blinds down in my room and slept until about 3:30. My bed has never been so comfortable.

Also, there was a Medieval Fair in Murcia this weekend in the Jardín de Floridablanca. It was so cool! The whole central walkway was lined with vendors selling handmade jewelry, crafts, candles, lanterns, food – everything! I went for a few hours in the afternoon with my friend Bre and then came back in the evening with my roommate Keyla. 

Thanks for reading! The full albums are on Facebook! Love -

"Time is all around, except inside my clock."

I had a coffee date this afternoon with Bre and Julie. We all needed to get caught up on some notes and plan a few weekend trips, and there's really no better way to do that than with cafe con leche. :) In less than two hours, I booked two flights. One for a trip to Barcelona in April and the other for a trip to Ibiza in May. While we were trying to get all our plans lined up I realized how little time 4 months is. I mean, clearly, we have a lot of time here, but on the other hand I feel like it's escaping me. I guess I'm gonna have to sit down and really start planning out (and budgeting, ugh) how I'm gonna get to all these places that I need to see. Good thing I have my Fodor's travel guide to help me (thanks, Dad!)

I met with a group earlier this morning for a project for Phraseology/Translation class. We had to find 2 phrases/idioms (one in English, the other in Spanish) and a) research their origin, b) discuss the context it's typically used in, and c) provide the equivalent in the other language. So the phrases we chose were "to smell a rat" (“estar la mosca detrás de la oreja”) and "to be caught red-handed" ("coger con las manos en la masa.") That class is really interesting and actually kind of fun?? - which is really nice because its 2 hours long!

That's about it for now. There's a fiesta tonight in the Plaza de Toros that my roommates and I are going to. Other than that, it's just another night in Murcia. :)

Love to all -

“Poco a poquillo hace el pájaro su nidillo”

I’ve been having a great couple of weeks here in Murcia. Classes are going well, the weather is beautiful, and I feel like I’m finally comfortable with the language. Clearly, I still have a lot of room for improvement, but at least I’m not afraid to try to talk to people anymore. I feel like I'm really starting to make a life here for myself, which is why I thought the title for this blog was appropriate - it means, "Little by little, the bird makes his nest."

 I’ve been spending a lot of time with my friend Julie, who is from Germany. She speaks 4 languages (German, Spanish, Norwegian, and French) fluently and she also knows some English. However, she’s really adamant about only speaking Spanish while she’s here in Spain (which makes sense, right??) Anyway, when we’re together we only speak Spanish, which is helping me tremendously. I also have my two roommates who are from Mexico with whom I’m so, SO grateful to be living. We all get along really well in the flat and we spend a lot of time just chit-chatting in Spanish. For the most part we all understand each other really well. They laugh at me sometimes because I’ll be talking in Spanish and when I say something wrong I always say, “dammit” under my breath when I correct myself.

I’m really excited because my friend Jillian is coming to visit me toward the end of March! She’s studying abroad in Sweden right now and wants to come down to Spain to enjoy the sun and the beach. My friends and I have also been discussing the possibility of going to the Basque city of Bilbao, which is an art/architectural epicenter of northern Spain.

I’m also trying to start planning my 2 week vacation that’s coming up in April. We get all of Semana Santa (Holy Week) and the following week off from school. Almost every city in Spain has festivals to celebrate Holy Week, complete with parades and really historic rituals. We learned a lot about them in my Culture of Spain class last year at Wesleyan and I’m so excited to see it in person! A lot of people are using those two weeks to travel around all of Europe, but I’ve decided that I really want to get to know Spain while I’m living here, so I’m gonna stay in-country during those weeks with all the historic tradition and such.

Well, once again, this has turned into a pretty long blog post without me even realizing it. :) But – I have homework that I should be doing. Luckily the weather is kind of dreary today, so I’m not tempted to just pass my time outside when I should be studying.

Love to all -

A view from the top

On Saturday, Alvaro and David took the 3 of us (Keyla, Ale, and myself) hiking in the mountains around Murcia. We met up around 10:30 and drove out of the city to where the trail begins. David had his two dogs, Bella and Bianca, with him, which was so fun! They were really sweet and it was nice to get in some time with some animals. 

It was a perfect day! The weather was warm and sunny and there were a lot of people out and about. We got passed by mountain bikers every couple of minutes. Some of them rode past us going up the mountain and others flew by us on their way down. It seemed like they were having a lot of fun - but I’d be scared out of my mind riding down a mountain that fast!

We ate lunch at the very top of the trail. You could see all of the valley and the city of Murcia. It was breath-taking. Definitely worth the long hike up the mountain.