more Fallas

First of all, I must explain that I had such an amazing time during Fallas. Valencia was a city transformed... Ninots around every corner, verbenas throughout the night, churros & buñuelos & chocolate, daily mascletas and nightly Castillos. I realize what I said probably made no sense so I'll show you what I mean!

Mascletas are daytime fireworks that take place in the Ayuntamiento (for about 3 weeks). Apparently each mascleta burns up 100 kg of gunpowder! The best part is at the end when the explosions get louder and louder, and you really feel the force of the mascleta. And I love that at this point crowd gets very animado, and everyone cheers and applauds like crazy.


Castillos are nighttime fireworks that take place in the Rio Turia for the 4 nights of Fallas. I have to say that I've never been so close to where the fireworks are, but it's an event to stand on the bridge with your friends and watch the Castillo.




The Ofrenda involves processions by the Fallas to Plaza de la Virgen in the city center, where they offer flower bouquets that are placed in the huge structure that becomes her dress. Here is the Virgen "half-dressed" and "fully dressed."






The processions went on for two days, and the Falleros were all in their traditional clothing. We came across the "pre-parade" area where the little girls were eating galletas and getting ready for the Ofrenda.


Babies are welcome to participate too!


I think bouquets are really an understatement for the offerings. Check out this flower-bike, celebrating Valencia's bike culture!


The Calbalgata del Fuego was another procession/parade which celebrated fire. Mystical creatures came around to scare the spectators and we were all impressed by the flames and sparks.




Buñuelos de calabaza are basically fried pastries made with a pumpkin dough (although there wasn't much pumpkin flavor at all). The best ones were the buñuelos de higo, which had a dried fig inside the pumpkin dough.


And of course, the biggest event was the Crema, which took place Monday night. First the Infantil is burned and about 2 hours later, the Ninot. Firefighters must be present at each burning, so even though the actual burning may not take that long, the setup and waiting for the firefighters does. The two kids were the main "Falleros" of the previous year and the Crema also symbolizes an end to their "reign." Although I didn't see that much crying, I did the boy cry.




The two lit the fuse, which set up off some fireworks and then the burning. This particular infantil did not burn that fast, after about 10 minutes one of the dolphins was still completely undamaged.


Surprisingly, the bigger structures burned much faster! Here you can see the bomberos hosting down the fire to make sure that the houses nearby didn't get burnt. It's actually amazing that there isn't much property damage during the Crema because some of those streets are extremely narrow.


And here are the ashes.


Something I should mention is that many local Valencianos escape during Fallas. There's too many people, streets get shut down and it's difficult to get around by car, there's loud music from the verbenas and partiers at night, despiertas in the morning (the bands of the Fallas go around at 8am playing obnoxiously and setting off firecrackers to wake up their neighborhood), and kids everywhere tirando petardos (throwing firecrackers on the sidewalks).

Anyways, another great part of Fallas is that it really unites people, whether through the humor of a Ninot, or the power of the mascleta. Until next year!

political, satirical, and just plain silly

The Ninots of Las Fallas are the giant paper-mache figures that are displayed all throughout the city. All of them will be burned in the Crema on Monday, except the 1 or 2 that are deemed the best by a group of judges.

It's definitely impossible to go around town visiting every single Ninot out there, but that's the beauty of Fallas. It's everywhere... not just in the city center but in every neighborhood.

Here's some of the blatantly political Ninots, with of course Rajoy, Merkel, and Sarkozy making apperances:






Something to keep in mind is that each Ninot has a main figure or group of figures in the center, and various scenes or smaller figures around it. The tough part is that all of the text is in Valenciano, so for many Ninots I didn't understand the point at all. For some, it's quite obvious what the point is and for others they tell a story that isn't blatantly political or critical.

I also enjoyed this Ninot quite much, which offered a criticism of Valencia:
the ubiquitous pertardos (firecrackers) that children play with, creating loud explosions and lots of smoke


the botellón which is where people bring their own alcohol and drink on the streets (happens all the time but especially during Fallas)


the street market (although I'm not quite sure what the criticism here is)


the dog poo that is found EVERYWHERE in the streets (definitely my biggest pet peeve about the city)


the construction projects that have been paused because of the crisis


There were a few Ninots related to China which caught my attention. This one somehow had some story about the marriage of China and Valencia... there's a Chinese girl with castanets and a flamenco panda. Rice, silk, and gunpower (aka firecrackers), which are very important in Valencian culture, all came from China! Silk and gunpowder are especially important during Fallas, since all of the Falleras wear huge elaborate dresses made of silk, and each day and night we see fireworks. There was also a Ninot about the Silk Road, and another about the Chinese in Valencia complete with 5 euro signs and Chinese restaurants.




This Ninot was called "Invasio oreintal a la placa del mercat"... which is basically Asian Invasion!


Here's one of the tallest Ninots I saw, in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. Higher than 5-story buildings! There was a storyline of the process of creating a winning Ninot, from contracting the artist to the judges to the burning.



This Ninot, all about Leonardo Da Vinci, was so intense that they charged 2 euro for visitors to visit all parts of the Ninot and go up a ladder and see it up close. Very very impressive.



Here's the award-winning Infantil (mini-Ninot)


And here are some of the sillier Ninots.








It's really incredible how much detail and work goes into a Ninot. It's the combination of art, humor, and sometimes sheer size that makes each one unique. For example, in the last photo, there's a list of suggestions and one says "If your mom asks, tell her you're growing exotic plants."

Rotary Valencia

Yesterday I visited my host club, Rotary Valencia, to make my presentation there. It seems they've been keeping quite busy- they recently sponsored community awards (Premios Servicio a la Comunidad), granting 4 awards to local community members who made a contribution in Economics, Science, Painting, and Sculpture. The award presentation was featured on local TV as well as an interview with a Rotarian. Last weekend Rotary Valencia also organized an info session, in which university students were invited to ask questions to business and industry professionals about entering the workforce.

After the meeting, I was invited to stay for dinner and I performed the flag exchange with the President.

The Rotary Valencia flag is very nice- the Rotarians told me that it's made of real silk (the same material used in the Falleras' dressed)


And here I am with Celia, a Rotarian who happens to be the founder and owner of Café Valiente! (It's very well-known in Spain)

Olé tú, olé sevilla

I had an awesome weekend (2 weeks ago) visiting my friend Begoña in Andalucia. Although there were some very close calls related to Ryanair, I made it there and back safely. On the way to Sevilla, the flight was delayed 2 hours because of some missing documentation. When we were called back to board the plane, I got in line... but it turns out that I somehow got in the line going to Italy and I almost missed the flight! The Ryanair reps were telling me that the boarding was closed already and that I'd have to try to get another flight, and I was getting very stressed out. In the end, the passengers had been sent to the wrong gate so they were able to take me to the plane with plenty of time to spare.

On the way back, I missed a bus by 5 minutes and had to wait 25 minutes for the next one. I arrived at the airport, sprinted to get my boarding pass stamped, waited awhile in security, then sprinted to my gate (which, of course, was the furthest one). I really hadn't run like that in ages! Luckily I arrived, extremely stressed and out of breath, just as the last passengers were having their boarding passes checked, and made it back to Valencia!

Some photos from Conil & Sevilla:





Plaza de España




Sevilla by night




With Kirstie, Begoña, and Manolo (Begoña's cousin)