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)

polemic discussions

Last weekend, Valencia saw some violent clashes between demonstrators and police. Teachers and students were protesting the education budget cuts, and I guess the protests turned into demonstrations against all the extreme spending cuts. The heating was shut off in schools, during the out of the ordinary cold temperatures we had in February. There are some very disturbing videos that show the police pushing and becoming violent with students (and these not adult-students! they're middle school and high school students). Later in the week, there were other demonstrations (peaceful, thank goodness) for both cuts and the violence.

So something else that I should mention- the other day in class, a classmate (we'll call them R) started ranting about the Valencian system, which is ostentatious and wasteful. Millions of euros are spent on the famous Fallas, on events, organization, mascletas, falleros, and the elaborate dress. Apparently when the annual Fallera is selected, which is a kind of a princess of the Fallas, it's not her talent, beauty, intelligence, or community service that matter but solely the amount of money paid by her parents. And here I was thinking that there would be some kind of pageant with talent competitions. Furthermore, the actual falleros, which are huge elaborate sculptures that ridicule political figures or provide some caustic social commentary, are burnt at the end of the Fallas in a huge bonfire, and the most expensive one cost more than 1 million euros last year. These are sponsored by companies I believe and not the government, but hundreds of thousands of euros is quite a bit of money that could be used in many different ways. So ironically, the kids sitting in class don't have heating yet so much money is "burned" in Fallas. Needless to say, like all institutions there's a very wide variety of opinions and complaints. Within a few weeks, I'll see and decide for myself!

trusses, xocolate y xurros: valencia in 48 hours

I was ecstatic to receive my friend from UCLA, Dennis in Valencia earlier this week! It was a completely spontaneous trip (Dennis went to France to go skiing with his family in the Alps, and bought his ticket to Valencia from France about 10 days before arriving) but everything worked out smoothly and we both had a great time. It felt reeeeally nice to be able to talk about UCLA, Westwood, Engineers Without Borders, our Nicaragua project, and of course gossip. I've been so deprived, not of the English language but just of that part of my life which one year ago took up the majority of my time.

So Dennis arrived on Sunday afternoon, and after picking him up from the airport we headed to Colón and Barrio del Carmen. We climbed the Micalet (Cathedral's watchtower), saw two Sunday masses, and also went to a flamenco bar. Climbing the 200+ steps of the Micalet is one of those must-do's of Valencia but it was my first time. Also it was my first time going to Valor Chocolate, an extremely popular and famous brand of Spanish chocolate. This was obviously the place to be on Sunday afternoon, because there was a line outside, but we waited for about 10 minutes and it was absolutely worth it. We shared a classic chocolate con churros, and also a sampler of 4 types of chocolate that came in tiny espresso glasses (there was 53% dark chocolate, white chocolate, iced chocolate, and the classic). Also, I should clarify- in Spain, "chocolate en taza" means literally liquid chocolate in a cup and has nothing to do with American hot chocolate (milk with chocolate powder). After our indulgent snack, Dennis and I vowed to have more chocolate.





Monday morning, Dennis and I started the day off at the beach. Luckily the weather was amazing and Dennis even stuck his toes into the Mediterranean.

Then we walked around the port, and the City of Arts and Sciences, had an extremely huge lunch, and I headed off to class. This was Dennis' opportunity to explore and get lost by himself.

Tuesday, Dennis and I were practically running around trying to fit all of the things I wanted to show him into the few hours left of his time in Valencia. We rode bikes in Turia, and then benefited from the "Day of the Touristic Guide" and attended a free 2-hr tour of Valencia. It was really nice to have a guide, actually, and I learned so much! Just like many other cities in Spain, Valencia was built by the Romans, then taken over by German barbarians for a few centuries, then was Moorish for several centuries, and later taken "back" by the Catholics. Valencia developed into a huge trade port, but then its importance diminished in the 15th and 16th centuries ships sailed for America and Sevilla became more important. La Lonja (the beautiful silk exchange, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site) still has records of the trips and funding for the New World, including some loans that Christopher Columbus took out in Valencia. However, Valencia was actually built around the river by the Romans and was not a port city until hundreds of years later. In the Plaza de la Virgen, there is a very famous fountain that represents Turia, the river, and his 8 tributaries. Even today there's a Water Tribunal, an institution recognized by UNESCO, that still functions; representatives from 8 zones meet every Thursday at noon to discuss and solve problems. Another amazing fact- I haven't seen it yet but the Holy Grail is claimed to be located in Valencia's cathedral. (Really! Even check with wikipedia.) Apparently the king of Aragon gave the cup to the cathedral as collateral but failed to repay his debt and therefore the cup has remained in Valencia ever since. The tour also lead us to the other historical highlights: Calle de Caballeros, the Roman ruins of the city and the central market.

For Dennis' last meal in Valencia (this trip, at least!) I decided that he had to have the most typical and famous local dish: Paella Valenciana. A delicious way to end a whirlwind 48 hours in Valencia with a great friend.

and it starts again

After a 4-day break, second semester of the master has started. Here's my class schedule:

Distributed Energy Resources
Analysis and Optimization of Installations
Environmental Impact of Energy Systems
Biomass
Design of Renewable Energy Installations
Geothermic and Other Renewable Resources
Hydrogen

So far it looks like we have less exams than last semester but more projects. And again, some are very theoretical and research-based, like Hydrogen and Geothermic and Other Renewable Resources, while others are more practical (Analysis and Optimization of Installations and Design of Renewable Energy Installations). The point, supposedly, was to put less of a workload on this semester so we could focus on writing the master's thesis. I'm not sure how much progress anybody will make on their master's thesis but a couple of my classmates seem pretty determined to go back to their respective countries and jobs in July, and September at the latest.

On a related note, ¡yay!- I passed all my first semester classes