Las Fallas

March 13-16th Emily and I headed east to the Mediterranean to see Las Fallas of Valencia. Las Fallas (which means fires/flames) is a celebration/carnival that started as a pagan ritual celebrating the coming of warm weather. The Catholic Church then adopted the festival as a tribute to the city’s patron saint, Our Lady of the Forsaken. So, the city hire specialized artists to work year round to design and build giant caricatured papier-mache sculptures called ninots. The ninots depict anything from pop-culture icons to political figures to important events of the past year.



Originally the ninots were simple, faceless wooden structures dressed in old clothes that were fed to the springtime fires in celebration of warm weather. This tradition has turned into something much more artistic, political, and expensive- the artist’s budget often reaches and exceeds 1 million euros and artists are chosen a year in advance!! Then during Fallas week the ninots, which can be 30ft tall or more, are burned to the ground as a special thank you to spring.

So to sum up, this pretty much is a celebration that gives Valencianos a reason to celebrate and party for a week (actually, the celebrations begin in January…choosing a Fallas princess, fireworks here and there, etc.), to set off about a million firecrackers and bottle rockets every day at 2pm, and to allow children to throw fire crackers anywhere and everywhere all day and all night long. There were also parades, which started at 11pm and lasted about 3 hours, and special night time pretty firework displays. And to top it all off, Emily and I were in a 10 bed hostel room in which 8 of the beds were occupied by late 20 something Italians who would get back at 5 or 6am and thought it would be a good idea to start taking pictures of us, asking us to take pictures of them, yelling, and pretty much just running amuck and causing a ruckus while 1 friend said shhhhhhhh every 2 minutes to try to quite them down. Haha, then in the morning they asked us if we heard them the night before.
Also great was our lunch time ritual of going to the market and buying fresh cheese, bread, and strawberries and a bottle of wine. Then we’d go to the plaza sit in the street and eat and drink, listen to the booming and watch the smoke of the fireworks, then walk back to the hostel for siesta. And perhaps after siesta we would go to one of the many bunuelo stands to buy some fried dough with sugar and go sit in the part and eat and rest.
The city of Valenciana, even apart from Las Fallas, is one of my favorites in Spain. In 1938 the river that ran through the city was diverted after a flood devastated the area. In the old river bed they have created a beautiful park with soccer and rugby fields, bike lanes, paved walkways, grassy areas (uncommon in much of Spain), and various gardens.

I think the thing Emily and I liked the most was this jungle gym climbing thing for kids. It was awesome, you have to crawl across it like a spider, and avoid the 15 year olds jumping up and down and trying to knock their friends off. Man, it was great.


Valencia is the city of paella...here Jose Maria and company are making paella on a wood fire in the middle of the street. The paella we ate was complete with snails that we had to pull out the shell as well as a rabbit heart/lung set. Yum yum.


Trying to climb the tree but it got in my eye.

Spring!

Spring has definitely come to southern Spain. We haven’t had rain in a few weeks (knock on wood), the temperature is in the 20s, and it stays light until about 8pm. It is absolutely wonderful. It is also strawberry season. So we had fresh Andalusian strawberries for Valentine’s day. And candy hearts that were sent with love from Emily’s friends at home.



Last week I went on a school field trip with a history class to Cadiz. Cadiz is a tiny peninsula on the southwest side coast of Spain and thought to be the oldest city in Europe. The city has two castles, a huge cathedral, beaches all around, an ancient wall completely surrounding it which protects the people from enemy cannon fire and invasion. Pretty much, this city has it all.

More impressive than the actual history of the city, was the fact that a group of high school students could take a 1 hour train ride to see centuries of history ‘in person’.


Castle Santa Catalina and fishing boats along the shore


The Cathedral in the old city center


The beach where a recent James Bond movie was filmed, the one with Halle Barry. The movie was set in Havanna, Cuba but parts were filmed in Cadiz. They say the two cities are very similar with the beach and the white building.


Old home of a trader in Cadiz. The traders always lived in the top apartments to be able to see the boats coming in on the bay.

Hiking

Spring!!! It may not seem like it at home, but spring is definitely on its way to Spain. We have been enjoying 20 degree weather, in the 70s F, for the past few days and more sun than we have had in a while. It is wonderful. Emily and I are outside on our patio everyday for lunch and siesta trying to get as much sun as we can.

Also due to the wonderful weather I have gone to the Sierra de Grazalema, the mountain range that is about 1 hour from Jerez, for the past two weekends. Last weekend I was invited by a teacher at my school to one of the small towns where she has a house. Saturday morning we did a hike through a plain in the mountains. We followed a river to a cave in the rock where all the water collects and makes a crevice in the rock. We climbed through the rocks and played in the mud and turned over stones to see what bugs we could find…it was very enjoyable. And true to Spanish style, we stopped along the way back to eat some sausage and bread and drink a bottle of wine. I think this is what we need in the Boundary Waters : ) We stayed at her house all weekend and ate some great cheese, world famous apparently, drank wine, and visited the other towns in the mountains.



This past Friday I went back with Emily and our new French roommate Lisa and three Spanish friends. We ate a traditional Spanish breakfast, toast with lard (there is also a variation…toast with lard that has pieces of pig intestine mixed in) and then made our way to the start of the trail. We had noooooo idea what we were in for. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and we had our lunch sandwiches, but it would have been nice to know that we were going to be hiking for about 6 hours. We went up one side of a ridge to view the pine forest on the other side that only grows in the shaded slopes. In this region of Spain there is a very rare type of Spanish Fur tree that is apparently no where else in the world (I have my doubts…it looked like our Christmas from the tree land). So we walked allllll the way down the other side of the ridge to a small stream at the bottom where we finally stopped and ate our lunch and had a mini siesta in the sun. Then 2.5 hours back, all uphill. We think that our Parisian roommate thinks we tried to kill her.




Part of the charm of this region of Spain and Andalucia in general is the pueblos blancos. They are white towns that you find throughout the mountains and along the coast. All the streets are made of stone and are about the width of a car and according to rule all the houses are white with black iron trimmings. They are very charming and historic because they have old Muslim neighborhoods and ruins from the 14 and 1500s.

La Culture Española

This is a song that I have ‘translated’ from Spanish to English. It is sung by a Spanish group called Jarabe de Palo and I love it. The song is called Bonito, Beautiful. The picture is from a billboard that I saw in Sevilla. “Enjoy the journey and don’t worry about the things that have solutions” Both of these things tell a lot about the Spanish and their culture. I have found that things here are more relaxed and less hurried than at home. This culture gives you time to enjoy what you are doing without worrying about the things that are coming next. That is why I love it here.

Beautiful, everything to me seems beautiful
Beautiful morning
Beautiful place
Beautiful bed
From which you can see the sea
Beautiful is the day
And it has just begun, beautiful this life
Breathe, breathe, breathe

The telephone rings, my corduroy complains
Things go bad, life is heavy
To live like this shouldn’t\ interest you
To continue like this isn’t worth it
Lost has been lost, the party has just ended
And the motor that pushes the earth has stopped
Life is a joke with a sad ending
The future doesn’t exist but I tell you…

Beautiful, everything to me seems beautiful

Beautiful peace, beautiful life
Beautiful to be born again each day
Beautiful truth that doesn’t sound like a lie
Beautiful friendship, beautiful laugh
Beautiful are the people
Beautiful are the people that don’t complain
Who win and who lose, that speak and don’t lie
Beautiful are the people, and for that I say…

Beautiful, everything to me seems beautiful

How beautiful is everything when everything is beautiful,
How beautiful everything is going for you

Beautiful, everything to me seems beautiful
The sea, the morning, the house, the shadow,
The earth, peace and life that passes.
Beautiful, everything to me seems beautiful.
Your calm, your salsa, the spot on your back,
Your face, your energy on the weekend

Beautiful are the people who come and who go
Beautiful are the people that don’t stop themselves
Beautiful are the people who don’t have an age
Who listen, who understand, who have and who give

Beautiful Portet, beautiful Peret
Beautiful la rumba, beautiful José
Beautiful the breeze that isn’t in a hurry
Beautiful this day, breathe, breathe
Beautiful are the people who are real
Beautiful are the people who are different
That tremble, that feel
That live in the present
Beautiful are the people who were here but no longer are

Beautiful, everything to me seems beautiful

Holiday in Spain

When we think of “The Holidays” we usually think of traditions, times spent with family and friends, snow and cold, shopping stress, and eating way too much for way too many days. But when you are somewhere where the traditions are different, where your friends and family are thousands of miles away, where there is no snow and little cold, you are forced to embrace the traditions that surround you and to start your own. You must find cheer and love in the ordinary, in the things that are new and different, and you must laugh

So here is a list of holiday goodies, memories, new traditions, laughs, uncomfortable situations, etc. that have kept me smiling even through times when I missed everything that usually makes the holidays “The Holidays”.

1. Watching the Spanish lottery on Christmas Day as children sing the numbers that are drawn and the whole spectacle is broadcast on all television channels for 5 hours. And wathing it again when it repeats for the second big lottery on the 6th of January, Reyes Magos.
2. Being invited to a Christmas Day family barbeque in the ‘country’, sitting outside the entire day in 60 degree weather while eating a variety of Spanish meats and cheeses, and drinking rioja.
3. Listening to people directly translate Spanish colloquial phrases into English, the result of which is phrases like these:
- I broke myself on the skin of the apple (meaning: I laughed so hard I cried)
- What such a bad boy! (yelled at the tv during a soccer game when a player missed a shot)
- Let’s go to the Tit-ery. (In Spanish, a tea house is called a tetería…)
4. Going to countless Zambombas (parties where you sing Christmas songs) and learning to play the pandareta (tambourine). The best was when one woman decided it would be even more effective to bang to pandaretas together, like clapping.
5. Receiving packages in the mail from loving friends and family…even if it was lost in Spanish Correos for over a month
6. Joining in the Spanish tradition of having a nativity scene (they are literally everywhere- public schools, banks, laundromats, cell phone stores, etc.) and making a it out of things we found around the house…The three kings are made of toilet paper rolls with Kleenex head dresses, Joseph is made of paper and looks like he has a broken neck, and Mary loses one of her cardboard legs if she is moved. The camel (a plastic dinosaur) is carrying a stick of incense and a gold chocolate coin. Also, to follow the Spanish tradition of having a ‘viejo cagon’ (the old shitter- represents the simplicity of daily life) we have added some brown chunks of paper and a piece of chocolate in a moon shape to the scene.
7. Leaving the house at 1am to go to a New Year’s party and getting home at 8am.

8. Sharing the New Year with Caitlyn and enjoying her friendship here for more than a week : )

9. Being on vacation from the 17th of December to the 7th of Janurary, then going back to work for one day which is then followed by a three day weekend
10. Getting my nose pierced : ) just in time for New Years. And this time it actually worked.

11. Going to the Reyes Magos parade, being in the front row, and ordering Emily to get down on her hands and knees to collect candy off the street while I held up our bag to catch the ones being chucked through the air.
12. Receiving a pair of Turkish Eye earrings (for good luck) and purchasing a pair of Hand of Fatima earrings (to repel the evil eye)
13. Using Spanish grammar/sentence structure to describe things in English, and thinking it sounds right. For example: I will go put myself in line (Voy a ponerme en la fila). Have you put together your suitcase? (Has hecho la maleta?). That would be a casuality ( Sería una casualidad…meaning a coincidence.) I have accostumated…(from the verb acostumbrar…and this while I was writing one of my grad school application essays).
14. Keeping as pets two little caracoles, snails, in a nutella jar in the window.
15. Having friends, with all the kindness in their hearts, make hamburgers with cheddar cheese for dinner because they think we eat one everyday at home.
16. Saying hello and goodbye with besos, one on each cheek
17. Seeing the Christmas light in Madrid! (Puerta del Sol)

18. Being able to reminisce with new friends after only three months of experiences together (remember when…the four of us went out for tapas and ended up with an 83 euro bill which we now call ‘ la gran follada’ …when I asked for a medio kilo (over 1 pound) of churros…when the goat climbed the ladder and pranced around in the street on Christmas Eve and Emily though they were going to kill it…when we had a kitty and the kitty had bugs…when everyone ate a wonderful Thanksgiving meal together for the first time…)

So although it was different, although it lacked most of the things I associate with the holidays, it was a wonderful experience to spend this season in another country. Even though it was at times uncomfortable and with many language and cultural barriers, Emily and I (and Caitlyn while she was here) had an incredible vacation that had nothing to do with presents or commercialism. It was all about experiencing new things, finding joy where some would find sadness, and laughing laughing laughing with thankfulness in our hearts at everything that Spain gave us the opportunity to experience.

But with that said, I really did miss you all. It wasn’t the same without you.

snowboarding in sierra nevada

Fernandito, Mario, Carlos, Me


Here are some pictures from my snowboarding adventure in the Sierra Nevada in Granada. As you can see, it was incredibly gorgeous! The drive from the city of Granada, which sits in a valley surrounded by the mountains, up to the little mountain village is about 50km of windy mountain road. From there we rented equipment and took a telecabina, 15 person tram, to the ski lodge. The trip up took about 15 minutes, and from there we took the chair lift to the top of the hills. this was the first time I have ever been skiing/snowboarding in the mountains and it was completely different from the experience you get in flat Wisconsin. There was one run, El Rio (the river) that went from the top of the ski hill all the way down to the village. It took about 20 minutes to descend...a good way to work up an appetite before eating lunch.

Thanksgiving!

For me, this year Thanksgiving started on Monday…when I had to go to the carnicería (butcher’s shop) to ask if they had any turkeys. The man sent me to his friend who told me the smallest turkey he could get us would be 5kg (12lbs I think). He said he would go to his friend’s farm on Thursday, look for the smallest turkey, and kill it for us. I left worried not sure if he understood that I would need the turkey ready to be cooked…not a freshly killed turkey, feathers, innards and all.

On Thursday when I went to pick it up thankfully all the feathers were off, the innards were nicely contained in a plastic bag, and when I asked him to cut off the head for me (Emily and I didn’t think we would need the turkey head) he gladly did it. Also on Thursday at the market I searched the booths for pumpkin, found some sort of squash/pumpkin thing, and brought it home for Super Pumpkin Bars and Pumpkin Pie.


Friday Emily and I got picked up at 2:00pm and were taken to our friend’s house to cook the desserts. I am not sure if I have ever included that our kitchen does not have an oven, so all baking must be done somewhere else. Unfortunately, the 15 minute drive from our house to the oven resulted in a 15 minute drive back because we forgot the pumpkin. Friday was also when we prepped the turkey- plucked the remaining feathers and put garlic cloves and butter and rosemary under its skin. We also slathered it in olive oil.

Saturday we had to get up early to start cooking the turkey for our 3pm meal. We made the stuffing and popped it in the oven. In the end it was about 5.4kg, so it literally took up the entire oven (Spanish ovens are smaller than ones in the US). We also made mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and jello shots with mandarin oranges. The best part was relaxing in between the cooking, watching the movie Love Actually, and drinking good Rioja wine.

Right at 3:00pm, okay, maybe it was more like 3:30, we finished everything up, put the turkey on the table, and made our friends all say something they were thankful for. Haha, it was great. We told them they couldn’t eat until they each said something sincere; they were so embarrassed. I had the honor of cutting the turkey, for the first time, and although I may not have cut perfect breast slices I got the turkey on the plates and that is all that mattered.

Being in Spain and celebrating Thanksgiving was really interesting. It didn’t feel real, especially because it wasn’t cold, there was no snow, I had to work on Thanksgiving Day, and I wasn’t with my family. It was fun and enjoyable and a great experience, but I missed home and friends and family.


The Crisis

If you come to Spain, even for a day, there is no doubt you will hear about what they call the ‘crisis’. Everyday on the news and in the newspaper there is information about the failing economy, the staggering numbers of jobs being lost, and the number of people turning to the government for help. The situation is incredibly sad, getting worse everyday, and does not have an easy solution. It is very sobering and eye-opening.

An aside: One of my friends is a civil engineer and has never had trouble finding work (one of the reasons he graduated in this field was because it had always had job security, even during economic downturns). Their system is a little different than ours in that people get contracted for a certain period of time and when the job/project is completed they look for another person with whom to contract. In one week, he will finish his current job but has nothing to replace it. He has been looking for work and submitting resumes for 4 months, but there are literally no jobs available.

I cannot imagine having an education, wanting to work, actively looking for work, but in the end not being able to. This has shown me, more than I realized before, that people who are unemployed are not lazy, unwilling to work, hoping to live off of government aid. Most people in this situation want to work. They actively look for work. But there is just nothing available.

Is it this bad at home? People ask me what the crisis is like in the US, but I came here at the end of September, before things started to get really really bad.

Vacation

On a happier note, I have less than 1 week left until vacation starts. Next Tuesday I leave for Granada to go skiing/snowboarding in the Sierra Nevada. I get to miss a few days of school, and hopefully the crowds at the ski hill, and extend my vacation from the 18th to the 8th of January. : ) This weekend I will also be going to some zambombas. These holiday parties are unique to Jerez and consist of singing, dancing, playing instruments, flamenco, drinking, and eating.

I hope you all at home are enjoying the holidays! Sending everybody love and besos!!!!