On Saturday morning, I tried to go to a gastronomic festival in a nearby town with Brianna, another Ambassadorial Scholar in Valencia. We had seen information online, and at the fair you could buy tickets for 1euro and sample different tapas. What ended up happening is that we went to a completely different town, asked a woman on the street where the gastronomic fair was, and she pointed us down the street. When we got there, we were in a large parking lot with 20+ large groups of people, each cooking their own paella! Still thinking that we were at the fair, we asked around about where we could buy tickets, and a very nice man told us there were no tickets but that he would give us paella for free. Very very kind.
Here's the paella being cooked with leña, firewood (we definitely smelled like leña afterwards!):
There were about 25 fallas, which are groups of friends that have kind of a clubhouse and hold different events (including paella competitions, I guess!). The most famous is Las Fallas in March, in which each falla makes a huge float that ridicules politics or some current event. Here's a falla:
Oh, he also gave us wine, "agua fuerte," and dessert! (The dessert would have been tastier if it weren't soaked in the "agua fuerte.")
That night Brianna and I went to a concert with her flatmates. The concert was called "Concert del BLOC JOVE en benefici de CA REVOLTA" and saw La Gossa Sorda, Orxata Sound System, and Aspencat. The best way I can describe the music, and the crowd, was ska (reminiscent of Sublime). Obviously, everything was in Valenciano so I didn't understand much, but no language was necessary to feel the Valencian pride. From what Brianna's friend explained, there is a movement to unite the languages of Catalan and Valenciano, which are basically the same. Yesterday my classmate's version of the story was that in the language of Catalan, there are 2 main dialects: Catalan Occidental (spoken in Valencia) and Catalan Oriente (spoken in Catalunya). He actually compared them to Texan English and Californian English. Anyways, now changing the name of the language is a matter of politics, history, and pride. What I can say is that in the city of Valencia, Valenciano isn't spoken that much but you hear much more often in the pueblos outside of the city. They definitely have a lot of pride in their language.
Sunday, the 9th of October, I went to the Barrio del Carmen (the old city in Valencia) with Brianna and her friend Maria and we saw a parade representing various groups of Cristianos y Moros (Christians and Moors). We stayed for 2 hours but didn't stay until the end... I imagine that the parade lasted about 3 hours!
loooks yummy!!!!
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