Fallas...uno

Oh Fallas...I don't know where to begin. I don't know that I can explain it to you. The pictures may have to suffice. It's one of those things I'm not sure I believe... and I saw it. WOW! What! it was crazy. Something I'm really glad I got to experience and I'm really glad I got to experience it with Andrew. That was nice. SO.. here we being with Part of the week.. I'll start with When He got here and maybe make it to the end of the week.. we'll see...

Thursday:

I took my last Midterm...all of the midterms were easy. I had three papers and 2 tests. The papers were cake and I almost laughed at the difficulty of the tests. I'm glad I wasn't motivated to study. :) After finishing the midterm I played for an hour on the computer and then left to pick up Andrew- still not believing that he would be coming. He was at the airport. I jumped into his arms and felt a flood of emotion come over me when i saw him. I was so glad and so relieved to be with him. We rode the metro back and I just hugged him. it was grand. We got back and he had paella to eat while Kelly and I got to enjoy a nice vegetable puree. BOO!!! I was quite jealous. We walked around with him showing him part of the city and keeping him awake to beat the jet lag. not a bad day.


Friday:

We went to school in the morning to put some pictures up to avoid getting utterly behind as a result of Fallas... it didn't help all too much as I took a ton of pictures. Andrew and I walked around and I showed him some of the older parts of the city and we walked to look at some of the bigger fallas in the center. It was nice to walk and talk and the Fallas were RIDICULOUS! I can't believe these people put this much money into the Fallas that are supposed to satire the economic crisis ... oxymoron?

Saturday:

I know the moment everyone is terribly curious about. The Bull Fight. oh wow. It was intense. haha. We got there following closely behind Esperanza...which was nuts! She essentially drug the 3 of us through a crowd. Losing Andrew and I and dragging us through people. It was stressful. She was dodging these things like a fly flying around a room. It was INTENSE!! Just saying. SO then we finally find our seats. after much stress and I called the friends that we were supposed to meet outside to tell them that we were not going to be able to meet them as we had already made it in. ugh. SO these things are just concrete slabs with numbers painted on them.it goes all the way around the stadium in rows on concrete slab seats...no stair cases or anything. Therefore, we were right next to the people beside of us. And.. they weren't made for comfort. As I had a mans knees in my back and my knees were hitting the man in front of me in the back. Poor Andrew being as tall as he was couldn't have been comfortable.

So the bull fight starts. It was kind of interesting and we were actually really enjoying ourselves. until the first bull died...it was all sport until it dawned on us that the bull doesn't die right off. What happens... they toy with it a little bit...bring a guy on a horse out and poke it in the shoulders (a picador). Then a guy comes out with these other speary things and stabs them (6 of them 2 at a time) in the shoulders of the bull. Finally, the matador comes out and toys with the bull some more. Bringing the bull really close to him to show how courageous he is or something. El Juli patted him on the back...what!?!?!?! Then the matador drives a sword through the bulls spine... killing it. But not instantly. The bulls stops.. waivers for a few minutes. Some of them try to keep going. basically the guys crowd around it for a few minutes. until it topples over. You can imagine my reaction as I tried (unsuccessfully) to watch the first bull die... a little unnerving.

Then, still a little shaken, but okay with being there (I had just decided not to watch the end) the second bull comes out. They come out and got through the two parts I thought were kind of neat (the horse and the spear things) and I was really just dreading the end. little did I know...a bandeador?.. the guy who stabs the speary things in. Took a horn to the gut because he didn't get away fast enough....ugh. He hit the ground. All of us Americans gasped (everyone else seemed strangely unaffected) a guy grabbed the bandeador to get him out the ring.. dropped him. and then a couple of others came to help and got him out. OH MAN!!!!! I did NOT want to watch the rest of this bull fight but.. we tried to continue. Luckily, this matador was arrogant and terribly entertaining.. otherwise i dont know what would have happened (we found out later the guy was okay and will be fighting again in the next bullfight Juli has - he travels with Juli).

So, by the end of the madness we found ourselves enjoying it. I know slightly barbaric right? i was amazingly unaffected by the gore by the end of it and stood up cheering with crowd. I was surprised too. NUTS. I couldn't believe it. The last matador got a standing ovation and 2 ears from the bull(as his prize) for putting on such a good show.

Also entertaining at the bullfight was the crowd! OH WOW! apparently one guy brings wine, another bread, another ham, another cheese and they all share! AH! Soo... somehow it got out that it was our first bull fight **cough**Maria Jesus**cough** and we kept hearing "EHHHHHH KENTUCKY!! QUE PASA?" And they proceeded offer us wine and a smoke on their cig...kelly and andrew got bad cheese and some decent ham thrown at them for awhile. I got out of it and the guy just called me stupid for not wanting it...I think I would've died watching all of that bloody goodness and eating at the same time. ugh.

Overall.. it was cool and an experience. I dont think I'll be returning any time soon. haha

After the bull fight we went to look at a street famous for lights during fallas. They were NUTS. I have pictures. But, I have to say for an economic crisis to be the talk of the country. These people sure didn't seem to be phased by it. This light show was nuts.. and had to use a lot of electricity as we could feel he heat coming off of them when they came on and we were close. I think I could have tanned myself with them. Just saying. haha. It was cool. We walked around and saw some fallas and admired the lights. Overall... not a bad night. But I was WORN OUT from taking it and trying to understand everything happening at the bullfight.

Sunday:

Lucky for us: 1. a Beach is 20 mins. away from the apt. and 2. Fallas = beautiful weather! Sunday morning we got up to go to the beach (andrew, Kelly, and I) and layed out there for about 3 hours. It got a windy and the sun went behind a cloud so it got chilly. We came back. We couldn't figure out where to swipe our metro cards so we got to go for free.. we figured it out now and are trying to avoid cheating the system that is basically on the honors system. The beach was nice.

That afternoon we looked at some more fallas... some of the big ones in the center of the city. We did a little souvenir shopping too...That night.. we thought there would be fireworks at 12 midnight to start off fallas. As that is what Esperanza told us. SO, we all went and sat. there was no one else there. and there were no fireworks. oh Esperanza.

Monday:


To come later... you'll know why when you read it...

Tuesday:

We slept a little bit and got up to go see more fallas- I think. That's basically what we spent the week doing. Looking at fallas. All kinds of them. I think Tuesday was the day we got up later and then took a LONG walk around the city to look at 3 of the big 5 fallas. The fallas that win prizes every year. There was one about 10 minutes walking from our apartment (we later watched it go up in flames) and the other 2 we saw that day were amazing as well!! those pictures are intense. They were so big and looked realistic.. amazingly. People apparently work on these things all year and they are incredibly elaborate. It was ironic that they spend millions of dollars to satire the economic crisis...bear in mind they were going to ignite these things in flame at the end of the week. I still don't understand it but I guess it's tradition and the Valencianos sure do love it. And I rather enjoyed seeing them. Though I am glad the people and small children with fireworks are gone.

Tuesday and Wednesday...there was an "offering of flowers" in the Plaza de la Reina. All of the falleras (girls in big dresses) took bouquets of flowers to the center to put in a big wood slatted form of Mary. The flowers made the design on her dress and basically surrounded her. We were trying to get to where we could see them throw them in. We didn't realize every major road in the plaza was going to be shut down due the falleras parading down. Therefore, we couldn't walk anywhere! you could cross the street at specified places. Hoards of people would gather there until a police officer told you to walk. it was nuts and you usually had to cross several times. Annoying. We ditched that plan but it still took us about 40 minutes to even get out of the traffic. Andrew and I were going to look for a beach towel (I dont have one and there were no shops on the beach... NO BEACH SHOPS!!! What kind of beach is that?????? I was confused. We gave up on that upon seeing the hoards of people still in the other plaza. We made our way to the metro ... we though we would avoid the crowds of people. It didn't work. There was a HUGE line for the metro. TONS OF PEOPLE!!!! we waited patiently and got on knowing it would be worse to try to walk through the people. We also swore we would not be in the plaza again when this stupid thing was happening ... From 4-11 pm on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday night we skipped out on fireworks since we were going to be meeting my intercambio (spanish friend that wants to learn english- so we help each other out) early that wednesday morning.


Wednesday:

We got up to meet Carmen. We went to the beach with her and she showed us the Americas cup Port - site of a big sailing competition a few years back. It was beautiful. So we took some pictures. We had a coke as usual and chatted. When we got back we ate lunch and Andrew and I took a nap (as was customary this week... we took one every day. it was a tiring week).

Wednesday afternoon we went to the Palacio de los Arte Reina Sofia for pictures and to the mall for a little while.. refer to the post about what happened on Monday.

Wednesday night was the final fireworks show at night. It started at 1:30 but we thought it started at 2. We met by the site and Andrew and I got some churros. We played cards and talked until the fireworks started. I promise... the 4th of July is now dwarfed forever. The fireworks shows here are insane. You can feel the force of some of the fireworks. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and you could see the MONSTER smoke cloud from the fireworks after they ended. They even set off car alarms! It was nuts. And some of the prettiest things I have seen. I also need to note that I am sad to see those fireworks go but thrilled that the small children will not be setting off firecrackers that sound like bombs anymore. I like not having to watch everyone I walk by to make sure they are throwing a firework I should be prepared for. I am also glad that spinning in the air fireworks will not longer come shooting at my body as I sit or stand waiting on fireworks. I can't explain to you how excited I am that 10 year old kids will no longer be throwing fireworks... their parents think it's cute. I think it's irresponsible and stupid. :) I know you wish you could have had the experience. I promise.. you would have wanted to punch the children just like we did. The booming sounds were constant... and frustrating...


Thursday:

The big day... the day of Burning. YAY! That means it stops. We got up later- we were worn out from the night before and the day before. We went to look at Mary full of flowers but without the inconvenience of the parade. I think that was a good Idea. She was beautiful and I can't believe that put that much into flowers either. but they did and it was sure interesting. The flowers were amazing and beautiful and you should definitely look at the pictures. We made it back in time for lunch... Every street had their own mini mascleta on Thursday... Car alarms were going off in the street. Kelly and I couldn't hear each other in the same room. Basically... it was intense. At least it's over.. no more mascleta. YAY!

Thursday afternoon...Esperanza and Azucena (the daughter from Madrid) informed us there would be a parade that afternoon on a street. It was supposed to be a reenactment of the battle of the war between the moors and the Christians in Spain. There were supposed to be dancing horses and great costumes and we HAD to go see it. Against our will... we went. Early... as they insisted we had to leave at 5 to secure our spot up front for the parade at 7...it was interesting. The parade...gotta say I didn't enjoy it at all. There were about o.. .2 horses. neither of which did any form of dancing. One did some crazy stepping thing (like a Tennessee walking horse)... over all not impressed. The costumes... were as authentic as... I don't know... a yeti? . I doubt they had the amount of feathers and things the moors would have worn... but it's whatever. We didn't stay for all of it. i hated most of it. but i guess not many people can say they've seen that... i wouldn't recommend you do if you get the chance.

Thursday night we went to watch the thing burn... We went to the big one down the street and secured our spot near the Obama part of the Falla to watch it burn. we wanted to be close to see it all. They lowered the flame resistant sheet blocker things, poured gasoline on the falla, lit some fireworks and lit her on fire. A brief moment of HOLY CRAP! and then...OH WOW THAT'S HOT!!! We ran away from the falla as did the rest of the people. and began to cover our faces and look away as it was too hot to be anywhere near it. The firefighters we thought were "just in case" weren't a precautionary thing. actually.. .they were totally and completely necessary. We watched it burn for quite a while. Took only a few pictures of the fires... that's very much sarcasm. I would also like to point out... barack obama was in this falla. And was also one of the last things standing. haha!!! Took pictures of that! it was quite a funny thing to experience.

I didn't sleep that night because Andrew was leaving super early. we got back at 2 or so... caught the Metro (subway) to the airport at 4 and i came back at 6:30 before he went back to get on his plane.

Thus fallas ends... I must see I am glad to see it go. The children with their fireworks and the hoards of people were just too much. I am also glad that Esperanza will no longer be asking us to go see the falla in ayuntamiento even after we've seen it about 12 times.

Hopefully I didn't forget anything. It was quite the busy week.