Fallas Video!!!

Just a few random moments/memories I wanted to share about Las Fallas:

Almost everyone in the group lost their voices, starting on day one. The second morning of Fallas, Marina, Cristina(not my host mom, but her friend), Maria and Josep slept over at the apartment we stayed at (it was an extra empty apartment owned by Cristina's parents). When I woke up, Marina was on the mattress across the room in her sleeping bag. She whispered loudly in a gruff voice (like I said, she lost her voice), "MELISSA. MELISSA. DO YOU HAVE A KLEENEX?" Maria was laughing because I didn't hear her, and Marina said "Guys, will you please help me over here?" referring to how they needed to gang up and shout to me because Marina couldn't do it alone. Then, about 15 minutes later (we were all still laying down), she said "I'm really hot." Cristina told her to take off her sleeping bag, and Marina replied, "I can't. I am not wearing any pants."

One of the nights over dinner, the conversation turned to the USA and cultural differences. Laura and her husband got married last fall and took their honeymoon on a road trip to the southwestern US. She was telling me about things she encountered, such as:

• "They had ice machines in hotels! They have these little tubs with lids in your room, specifically for ice! You go to the machine (there is one on every floor), and you fill it up with ice to keep in your room! We had one of our hotel rooms near one of those machines, but we didn't know how noisy it would be in the middle of the night! It was a learning experience!"
• "They like ice...almost every restaurant gave you ice in your water. I always had to ask for an extra cup because I like my water room temperature, so I always took out the ice."
• "What are those bags called for extra food from restaurants? Doggy bags? I love that phrase!"

Everyone at the table was as amused as she was by these American wonders. I asked her what the weirdest thing she ate was, and she said Beef Tartar. I have heard of it, but I didn't know what it is. She told me there was raw meat in it, so that is probably why I've never had it.

Then the conversation drifted to my American experience aka: my life, and more specifically, high school. Some of the questions asked:

• "Did you have cheerleaders at your school!?"
• "Did you have Prom? Who'd you go with? Did you get one of those wrist flower things? (corsage) Did they have PUNCH to drink at the prom?! Did people really pour alcohol in the punch bowl!?"
• "Did you have LOCKERS!?"
• "Do people really get rejection letters from universities when they apply? Is it really that big of a deal?"

They were so amused by these things and the responses. Everything they were referring to, of course, was something they had seen in a movie. So some were accurate, and some were not (like spiking the punch...since our school just had pop cans). 

One of the nights was costume night, and Marina left right after dinner to meet with a friend, then came back for the dance part (after dinner, the casal turned into a private night club--fallas people only!). So she had to take off her costume, which she was wearing over street clothes. However, she decided to "change" right next to the table, so one of her friends made a comment that she was doing a strip tease (again, she was fully clothed underneath) next to us. In response, Marina took off her costume's belt and started swinging it around her head in this jokingly-sexy way, and almost hit three people at the table behind her. It was hilarious.

That night, during costume night, all of the men at one of the tables dressed up as the Village People. Then, later during dance time, the DJ played "YMCA" and "In The Navy." I thought it was great that people gestured the wrong letters during the YMCA, just waving their hands in a general upwards direction if they weren't sure (the letters are obviously said in English, which many don't know). 

Mayte had a fairly new boyfriend, who wasn't in the casal, so she was constantly calling him on her cell, then sneaking off to chat for an hour. One of those times, she came back downstairs where we were eating after being gone for nearly an hour, and our whole table (my host family's friends) start singing the Spanish equivalent of "K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Mayte with the baby carriage..." She was a little embarrassed. 

Anyways, the moment you've all been waiting for: The video for Las Fallas.



Some explanations of on-screen stuff...
0:00-0:31 La Mascleta--The noisy firecracker show they did every day at 2pm March 1st until the end of Las Fallas. Marina, Maria Carmen, Maria, Lucia and Pichon are all there with me.
0:31-0:37 Fallas monuments and lights throughout the
0:38-0:43 Nachete (Maria's nephew), Lucas, and Dani running around the casal when they were bored.
0:43-0:45 Dani, Maria and Lucia staring at our giant falla monument.
0:46-0:56 The DaVinci fall monument. It was huge.
0:57-1:02 Hospital-themed falla (the large falla of the casal that Marina made her falla for)
1:02-1:19 Various fallas monuments from throughout the city, including the AWESOME lights for the France-themed falla.
1:20-1:33 Photos. See my other post for descriptions.
1:34-1:41 Pasacalles with our casal faller.
1:42-1:48 Marina's carousel falla monument that she designed, painted and constructed. You can see the awards it won, also (3rd place in special section, 2nd place for cleverness and humor).
1:49-1:50 More pasacalles of our casal faller, this time in the morning.
1:51-2:00 Lucia, Lucas and Maria throwing firecrackers and poppers.
2:01-2:17 Various fallas monuments
2:18-2:21 Pichon made paella one night, and that's Jose Enrique trying it out.
2:22-2:27 A casal faller heading to the ofrenda in the morning, view from our apartment's balcony. Notice the bobbing dresses dancing to the music...
2:28-2:51 Laura, Maria Carmen, Mayte, Marina, Jose Enrique and Pichon, everyone dancing. Jose Enrique and Pichon reenacted the dance scene from Dirty Dancing when the DJ played "I've Had the Time of My Life." To be honest, they knew more about the dance than I did (I only remembered the jump-into-his-arms part)
2:51-2:58 Some other costumes in the casal on costume night. Yes, that is a man dressed as Snow White.
2:59-3:00 You can see some of the "Village People" dancing in the background...
3:01-3:02 Every night, before dinner, the fallera mayor descended down the stairs as everyone stood up and applauded. Then we all took our seats when she took hers.
3:03-3:14 The kids' costume night: Sherlock Holmes, cute kitty cats, Dani as a fireman, Maria as Minnie Mouse, and Nachete as a pirate. It was really cutely organized: The kids got to the stairs, were asked their name and costume on the microphone, then they walked down the "runway" to the front, where they got a pair of spring-loaded googly eye glasses.
3:15-3:17 Marina getting her prize with the little falleras from the casal that she designed her falla monument for. They go up on a stage in the town square, pose for a picture, and pic up a flag/banner to carry around town in pride.
3:18-3:19 Dani with Lucas's and his school mascots, Peca y Lino. Lucas had them over the weekend to take pictures of to put in Peca and Lino's journal, like the traveling gnome.
3:20-3:25 More pasacalles with our casal faller. Like our very own marching band that followed us.
3:26-3:33 Monday night there was a random Christians and Moors parade.
3:33-3:37 The giant virgin Mary statue, whose dress is made of flowers from the Ofrenda. It is huge, as you can see.
3:38-3:42 More of our pasacalle
3:42-3:49 Skirt fluffing, bandana tying, dancing, flower grabbing, veil arranging...all steps for the big Ofrenda! Marina is the one getting her veil arranged by Cristina's mom. To be honest, her dress was my favorite of the whole group.
3:50-4:02 The Ofrenda.
4:03-4:39 Monica lighting the wick (for the kids to go off and light firecrackers), Lucia's school's falla monument, kids from the casal setting off fire fountains, fireworks from the falla monument burning, our fallera prepping to set our falla monument on fire, Dani looking on in his fireman's costume, our mini falla monument burning all the way to the ground, as the music from our marching band plays on.

The falla from Lucia's school took three minutes to burn. The kids made it, and it was mostly paper and cardboard. The professional falla infantil from our casal took over 15 minutes to burn (it was the same size). The latter was made with styrofoam and wood.

Yes, it smelled bad.
Yes, I probably took 3 years off my life from being in attendance.
Yes, ash flew into my hair.

Yes, it was amazing to watch.

Grease is popular here, too!

First off, I want to say that YES I finished editing the Fallas video and YES it will be on here soon. I am uploading it to my Youtube AS I TYPE THIS.

While you wait for that, I wanted to share this raw clip of a night during Fallas, where the DJ played a remix of Grease songs, and everyone (kinda) knew the words!





PS: We are wearing costumes because it was costume night, and we are dressed up as Peter Pan/Robin Hood. (The men dressed up as sumo wrestlers)

Cinco de Mayo, American night!

I told my host mom I wanted to have an "American Night" to cook American food for her and her friends from the Casal Faller.

My host mom finally confirmed a date for American night: Cinco de Mayo (May 5th).

 She told me her friends are planning on wearing costumes. "Typical American things." I immediately imagined a cowboy. She told me "Cheerleaders, hotdogs..." Oh. Those "typical American things."

Fallas Photos!

Remember when I said I'd post Fallas pictures? Well, that time has come, finally. 

As with my previous photo post, please click the photos to enlarge them. I made them super small to load faster. 

First, we start a few days before Las Fallas weekend, when Lucas and Lucia each had their own fallas monuments at school. Lucas' school didn't burn them (the kids are too little) but they did put them out on display. Lucas' class's theme was spiders. Each kid made a spider in class, and if they wanted to, they could make one at home. His is the giant one on top (the one he made at home) with the purple Play-Dough eyes...

The other classes' monuments.

You'll notice from now on a lot of these artist-looking shirts. These are typical fallas shirts, and basically what I wore all weekend long (the kids did, too, along with all of Cristina's friends). They have a few buttons on top, then just flow down. Obviously you need to wear a shirt underneath. Sometimes people wear it with a handkerchief around the neck.

Dani and Lucas, playing with the little cars after school in the play area.

Lucia's class's falla monument. The theme was a garden. You may remember she goes to an English school, hence the obvious signage.

Lucia, after the falla burned. It kind of looks like it's her fault.

Our falla monument was just a block away from the casal. On Thursday night we "moved in" to the apartment in the city to be close to all of the activities downtown and with the casal. That is the best night to go out and see the other falla monuments throughout the city, since there are very few tourists. We went out from 1am-4am to check out the monuments. And surprisingly, there were many people doing the same (although not nearly as many as I would imagine on Fri or Sat night).

Some of the makeup setups from the falla. Gothic, warpaint and cubist paintings/makeup.

The main "doll."

See more photos after the page break!

Anything with the word storm sounds cool.

STORM CHASERS! STORMIN' NORMAN! STORMTROOPERS!

Everything sounds cool when it is associated with storms.

And that is why our casal faller's theme for the pre-fallas parade was communication in the future...with storms! And satellites! And planets!

This was a giant parade in the first weekend in March, which we began planning for back in February. The theme was communication in the future: the planets communicated with satellites, who fought with storms to send their messages around the universe. 

The parade was kids only. The older girls were the planets, the boys were the storms, the younger girls (early school age) were satellites, and the little tots (ages 3 and 4, therefore no Dani or Lucas) were stars. What the stars' roles were, I don't know. Look cute, I guess, as you will see below.

The parade went all through the city, and it was huge, because almost every casal faller participated. If you still have no idea what a casal faller is, look up my other posts with the "las fallas" tag to learn more.

Here are some photos from the day-long preparations. I made them super small to load quickly, but if you click on each one, they'll expand to full size.

Here is the group of kids practicing. The building for our casal is a bit small, so we finally got to go outside and practice the formations in a large plaza.

That's me and one of the planets. I volunteered to do makeup since I love it so much. It was a lot of fun getting creative with the girls' faces. I also helped with the satellites' makeup, as well as chasing down the boys to put on their silver lipstick. 

I feel like these girls look ready to attend a KISS concert. Especially Maria, on the left, who has her hair sprayed with water and seems extra goth. The girls were in the group of satellites. After getting their makeup done (I did Lucia's!), they got their hair done.

One of the older girls dressed as a "Fallera of the future." She stood on an elevated platform on wheels which was pushed from the inside by an adult. She had her hair sprayed gold, with a super tan and "futuristic" makeup look. Her sleeves featured gold foil doilies, and she also had satellites all over her skirt.

I just had to capture her frozen look of terror. She was quite nervous, and it showed. I wouldn't wanna stand on a rickety moving stage 20 feet off the ground, either.

Lucia, Dani and Maria. Dani brought a Spiderman costume because his parents knew he'd feel left out when he saw everyone else get to dress up and not him. So he dressed up. And the mask he wore meant he was constantly bumping into people, chairs, and walls.  

This is "Earth" with a moon headband.  The dresses had these huge metal hoops in them that were very Lady Gaga-ish.

The storms. Very super hero-y. I don't know if you can see any of them, but they are wearing these boot sleeves to look like they have giant cartoon shoes. It's great.

In case you missed this adorable little munchkin in the corner of the previous photo...I snapped a close up for you.

I just love these little satellite hats they have. Like a cross between a Baptist church attendee from the south and a 1960s flight attendant.

All the satellites, ready for the parade. We arrived on site an hour early. The kids began like this, but were pretty antsy 45 minutes later.

TOO MUCH CUTE!

This is Mercury, the girl I did makeup for in the previous photo of me with a paintbrush. 

The poster says "Communication in the future," the theme of our group. The "sun" is in the front. That girl also starred as Mary in the living nativity back in December. The "planets" held their skirts high while walking to the square, but I am sure by the end of the city-long parade, these skirts got quite dirty. 

And I have tons of footage from the parade. I am "editing" it. And when I put that in quotes, I mean it is on my to-do list and nowhere near started. Like my Fallas video. Sorry. But at least you got pictures here! From early March!

Preview of Fallas?

I know, I know, Fallas was last weekend and I have yet to post anything.

This week has been really busy with working long hours (as Spain's work schedule normally is...) and getting stuff together for a mini weekend trip to Barcelona with my parents.

But I thought I'd share this with you, since it's like a little taste of the many things I will talk about in another, more extensive post (or maybe more than one post...there's a lot to discuss).

Lucia's school sold these little ribbon bracelets for a fundraiser, and I went to the website because I wanted to see what else they offered. They look like they are all Valencian-themed (since Fallas only takes place here), so I would assume their HQ is here as well.

Anyways, here is a bracelet design (one that I didn't buy) that explains the essence of all of Fallas in one simple picture....

Check out the Fallas bracelets at www.muchascintas.com

How cute is this? So let me explain, since all of this is in Castellano (Spanish) or Valenciano.

Plantà: This is the act of "planting" the fallas in their place. Each Casal Faller sets up their falla in a designated spot, with help from the artist and sometimes cranes. Then, a few nights before the burning, they put down sod to cover up the ugly wooden feet or foam glue they use to keep it into place.

Chocolate con buñuelos: Hot chocolate so thick it's like pudding, and buñuelos are little fried dough blobs covered in sugar. They are sold all over the place in carnival-like pop-up stands sprinkled throughout the city.

Mascletà: Every day during Fallas season (beginning March 1st), at 2pm they set off a huge fireworks/firecracker show called the mascletà. They goal: make it as loud as possible. We watched one on TV during last weekend and there was a decibel meter on the side of the screen. Towards the end of the 10-minute show of smoke and pops, the decibels reached 125. Yes, that is super loud. Doctors recommend you exposed yourself to less than 15 min a day of 125dB to avoid permanent hearing damage.

La ofrenda: The falleras get dressed up and march towards the Plaza de la Virgen with flowers in tow. They bring them to the plaza, and they are arranged into beautiful bouquets that are several stories high. More pictures to come.

Nit del Foc: A giant fireworks show during fallas festival on the final night. Other firework shows take place prior to this, but this one is the biggest. Literally translated "Night of fire."

La cremà: The burning of the fallas monuments.

Verbena: Outdoor street parties. None in particular, just the entire ambiance. This is a noisy holiday.

Paella: It's Valencia. Paella is a given.

Pasacalles: Informal parades throughout the city. Kind of like each casal faller saying "We're loud and we're proud to be a Casal!" They have a marching band follow them and carry their flag in front of the group. They sing, dance, and march.

Despertà: Each morning during fallas festival, at 8am, people start doing those pasacalles, playing marching band music as loud as they can. Falleros and falleras follow them, throwing firecrackers and those little popping fire snaps. With the music alone, I felt like I was living on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras.

An Idiot's Guide to Fallas Monuments

I hate to call my readers idiots. However, I can't write "FAQs" since there technically aren't any questions involved. So pardon the insult and just take it as "A person who doesn't know much about Fallas's guide to Fallas Monuments"

Let me briefly explain Fallas (not the festival, but the actual Fallas monuments themselves):

Casal Faller

Each Casal Faller has two fallas. They have a large one, for the adults, and a smaller one, for the kids. The small one is called the "falla infantil." 

Both are made out of wood and styrofoam, as I mentioned in one of my previous posts (about going to the warehouse where they are stored).

There are many many Casal Falleres throughout the city. Since there are two fallas for each casal, you can imagine how many are sprinkled throughout the city...how many, to be exact? 764. There are 382 casal falleres. 

The two types of Fallas monuments

The large one usually is three or four stories high. They require a crane to set up. They are usually satirical or humorous, because this is all about fun times, remember? They can be crude (as you will see in photos I post of our falla that include, ahem, hair styles for below the belt), rude, vulgar (swearing in fallas caption cards is welcome!), and uncensored (lots of naked bodies. I am a bit desensitized).

The fallas infantiles, on the other hand, are for the kids. They are smaller, only about 10 feet high at most. They are cute and kid-themed. Some themes I saw this year were carousels (like Marina's), babies, Las Fallas festival itself, storybook characters (like ours), the circus, pirates, puppets, etc.

How they are categorized

There is a contest run every year for the fallas, therefore encouraging beautiful, unique and creative designs for the monuments. However, to have a bunch of judges judge over 700 monuments throughout the entire city would probably be exhausting.

First of all, they judge the large fallas separately from the fallas infantiles. They are each in their own field of judging, like how basketball teams don't play against football teams. They are two completely different things.
The fallas are divided into levels, based on cost. Obviously the ones in the highest cost tier are the coolest because they have lots of money to design the best thing ever. Those are the ones with the most visitors, too, since even the locals make an effort to see these higher-tier fallas. It also makes sense to split them by cost, because then you don't have this magnificent one competing against some dinky cheap one, because the winner would be obvious.

The best of the best, or the highest tier of fallas for the infantiles is called "sección especial" and below that is "sección 1," "sección 2" etc. The special section this year contained 13 fallas in the 20,000 to 78,000 euros price bracket. Our casal faller was in the 9th section, which had a cost between 3,500 to 3,515 euros. And guess what? We got first place in our section!

The larger fallas are a little more complicated in their section labelings. Like the infantiles, there is a "sección especial." But below that, there is section 1A, section 1B, section1C, then section 2A, 2B,2C...etc with ABC in each all the way through 7. We were in section 1A and won 7th place  (out of 19). The price bracket we were in was 30,000 to 84,000 euros. The special section's price bracket was between 100,000 and 400,000 euros. Yes, they spent a US graduate's typical student debt on a styrofoam sculpture. Doesn't that make you feel good.

The judging is done based on overall design, and those are the prizes I mentioned. However, there are also creativity or humor awards, but those are just icing on the cake. You want the meaty, overall prize before any of those additional ones, since they don't mean as much.

Where the money comes from

These monuments cost a lot of money. Artists spend several months working on them: sketching, collecting materials, designing, forming the shapes, painting, assembling...and those artists have to be paid. And those materials cost money too.

As I have said, a Casal Faller is like a club in the way that you pay fees and dues. You pay a monthly membership to be in the casal. And your kids pay memberships to be in it, too. And there are many people in each falla. Not all of them participate in the various activities year round (like the little parade we did in February, or Valentine's Day dinners or whatnot). Some people join a Casal just to participate in the 4 days of Fallas, where they join up to eat, walk around in their Fallera dresses, and offer flowers to the Virgin Mary during the Ofrenda (more on this in another post). Why? It's tradition and it's fun. Why do people join knitting circles? Or soccer teams? Because they like it, and they like to meet people and it's something to do. But fallas also has a bit of tradition behind it, which gives it a "I'm a proud Valencian" vibe.

Larger casals obviously have more money, since more people are in them. You can really join any one you like. Cristina and her family changed casals only a few years ago because they wanted a change.

Each casal faller has a place to meet up. They are places specifically for meeting up with the others in the casal. Ours, many years ago, used to be a nightclub. Upstairs there are a couple bathrooms and a kitchen and bar area with dining tables. Downstairs looks like a nightclub with low ceilings (it's a basement) and not much else. There are folding tables that we occasionally use when we are eating there.

So where do the membership costs go? Ours goes to the upkeep of the casal faller, like electricity, water, heat, etc. It also goes to the flower bouquets the falleras carry in the Ofrenda, the food/drinks we consume throughout the year and during fallas weekend, as well as paying the Falla artist and paying for the falla monuments themselves.

What happens to the fallas monuments after Las Fallas

The artist gets an opportunity to pick a ninot, or a doll, from their falla to keep before it burns. Marina, since she makes jewelry with her very distinct style of whimsy, wanted to keep a ninot to put in one of the stores where she sells jewelry. I am not sure which one she chose, but I believe she can pick any she wants. Before she picks hers, however, the fallera infantil (a girl from the casal who decides to be that casal's fallera, kind of like a pageant queen for the casal who dresses up all the time for any casal event) gets first dibs on picking a ninot to keep.

The same occurs for the large falla monument. The artist picks a ninot to keep, and I believe the fallera  mayor (a woman in her 20s, usually, who is also a "pageant queen" of sorts for the casal) picks one to keep as well. I am sure about the infantil one, but this one I am not so sure about.

And then what happens? On March 19th, they burn them.

As I mentioned before, the large ones are aimed at the adults, and the small ones at the kids. Therefore the small ones are burned early around 10pm (yes, for Spain that's early), so the kids don't stay up super late to get to see theirs burn. The fallera infantil lights a string of firecrackers that is attached to the monument and up it goes in flames (we didn't have a fallera infantil this year, so the fallera mayor did it). The large ones are burned around midnight or sometimes 2am.

Before burning them, they have firemen scope out the scene, checking that the barricades are at a proper distance for spectators and that other hazards are taken care of. Then someone sprinkles some kerosene around the monument, strings it with some firecracker-laced wicking, then rolls out a string long enough for the fallera to light it without setting her dress on fire.

The result is a fireworks show that is accompanied by marching band music as the crowd watches the monument burn.

For the larger ones, the firefighters start hosing down nearby buildings, bus stops, and other structures and continue the water flow until the falla monument is a pile of ashes and not emitting much heat, so that stuff doesn't catch on fire.

The fallas monuments are all designed and structured in a way so they will collapse inward, so that 3 story sculpture doesn't just fall plop into the crowd. And the firefighters are there early setting up, checking for weather conditions and stuff. If it's windy, they won't burn it until it calms down.

I know what you're thinking. They burn these things that COST MONEY? Yes. Yes they do. 400,000 euros, spent on something that takes several months to create all to be set on fire. Kind of cathartic, right?

YA ESTAMOS EN FALLAS!

Fallas are here! Fallas are here! Fallas are here! Fallas are here! Fallas are here! Fallas are here!

If you are somewhat familiar with Las Fallas, you are probably like "Um, no, they aren't...it takes place on March 19th, always the day before Father's Day in Spain."

Well, yes, you are right in the fact that the main burnings happen that day.

But today commenced the Fallas season, with several fun happenings.

And if I don't tell you them right now in quick fashion, I will probably never get around to writing this blog and you will forever be in the dark about this wondrous occasion.

Onward!

First, a little background. I have mentioned this Fallas thing for you several times before, even providing links describing Las Fallas. But some of you aren't listening (Read: Eric, my brother).

So, to really really simplify it for you, this is what it is: Las Fallas is a celebration in Valencia (the city, not the province) and ONLY Valencia, where they build giant expensive Fallas (made out of wood and styrofoam and paper mache...that somehow manage to cost several thousand dollars each) just to burn them in various locations around the city. Why? Because. They like spending months making things to burn them, I guess. I don't ask why the Spanish do some of the things they do, like hang cured ham legs in stores. They just do things to be special!

But Las Fallas takes a lot of preparation, and there are a bunch of other things associated with this festival that don't include burning stuff.

If you followed my other study abroad blog, you would know that I visited Valencia during Las Fallas in 2010. It was a frenzy.

But I didn't get to experience what I am experiencing right now, from the POV of a family that is part of a Casal Faller, which is much like a rotary club that you pay membership fees to participate in things throughout the year.

Anywho, today our Casal Faller went to the warehouse where the Falla is being constructed. Marina, Cristina's friend, is constructing a falla infantil that is a carousel, painted with cute little animals that totally resemble the jewelry she makes. Each Casal Faller has a different Falla. There are big ones and small ones (infantiles). And because there are so many Casal Falleres, there are about 300 or MORE of these paper mache structures throughout the city.

We went to the warehouse storing our Falla and Marina's falla.

And you are thinking "paper mache" and "big structures" and most likely thinking of ruffly little parade floats.

No, these are smooth and beautiful and perfect and look like they are made out of clay and sanded down to shiny perfection. NOT what you'd expect people would make just to set on fire.

Anyways, on to the pictures!!! (Click pictures to view full size)



Marina's small falla is a carousel with cute little kids and animals...

A view of some parts of our Falla, including a giant head that is temporarily covered in a tarp.



The theme of our falla is "makeup" and you will see a few women primping in outlines of mirrors, with empty hands (the lipstick and small props will be added later).

I took a pic of the inside/underside of that giant head. Inside you will see stacks and stacks of styrofoam, with a wooden frame and Great Stuff. As you can imagine, I was thinking about the impact on the ozone from burning 300 of these over the course of a week. I don't think anyone else was thinking about that, though.

A lot of Fallas have political jests or vulgar jokes. Our Falla has a naked woman with her butt cheeks being spread by a man standing behind her. What "props" will be inserted in that man's hands? Only time will tell.

Oh, look, a naked nurse (with accurate upper body anatomy!).

Homer Simpson? Now I am really confused about this so-called "theme."

Marionettes and schoolchildren?

I got a close-up shot of this Falla face of a soldier (or American revolution era man?) so you can see that it is way more than paper mache and foam.

After we visited the warehouse, we went to the ayuntamiento, or city hall/main plaza, where it was jam-packed with people. There was the mascleta (If you haven't looked this up on wikipedia yet, get on it! All the info you need is there!). The pretty, colorful background on my blog here isn't for nothing. It is the mascleta, in all its glory. It looks like flags and whatnot, but what it really is is little firecrackers that are set on fire from one end, setting the whole string on fire and coordinating a wonderful, noisy, fiery show to kick off Las Fallas. You can really only see the prettiness from high above if you are in a balcony of the post office or other buildings in the plaza. If you are on the ground, like us, you get to see the smoke and hear the noise that accompanies it. The whole town it seemed gathered on foot to the plaza, for this 5-minute procession. It was a sunny gorgeous day, so much so that it was hard for me to film since there was a glare. I filmed it nonetheless, but I will upload the video sometime this week. We were lucky that the heavy smoke from the firecrackers wafted over to the sun and shaded the city momentarily. No joke, the sunglasses came off after the first minute.

Then, tonight Cristina had her friends from the Casal Faller over (just a group of 10 or 12 of us), including some of the people I met earlier when we went to dinner one night. Laura, Marina, Maria Carmen, Maite, etc were all there. We had pizza bagels (or something very similar) and a bunch of other tapas. I wasn't too hungry from the McDonalds we had at lunch (can I just make a side note about how expensive it is here? I don't eat it ever in the US, but it seems like 4 happy meals, 3 chicken sandwiches and 2 big macs with 4 pops and 4 fries should not cost FIFTY EUROS). Although I saved room for Marina's homemade strawberry ice cream. Oh my, so good.

While eating, the TV was on the Valencian channel (that speaks in Valenciano, not Castellano or Spanish), showing live footage of the big event downtown. They had the main Fallera (seriously, Fallas, Fallera and Casal Faller? We need to find new words to make this less confusing) announcing to the city some stuff in Valencian about Las Fallas, including "Hey guess what chicos, WE'RE GONNA BURN THIS CITY DOWN!" Except not really. But kind of.
Then there was a song, in Valencian. Cristina and all her friends stood up to sing it, like it was some kind of national anthem minus the hand on the heart. Dani danced. He dances to anything that has a tune.


So now, my friends and family, begins the madness of Fallas. And seriously, if you haven't read up on my previous experience at Las Fallas, get on that. If hosing down buildings is a typical behavior to prevent giant burning sculptures from catching nearby apartments on fire doesn't seem like motivation to keep reading, I don't know what does.

All of my dreams!

Last weekend we also had the chance to go to Jose Enrique's parents' house, where the Fallas dresses are stored.

We went so Lucia and Maria could try on their dresses to be sure they fit before Las Fallas (only 5 weeks away!) and make any changes if necessary. 

I have seen pictures of the dresses and know what they look like but OH MY GOD I was so jealous of the little ones. I mean, when I was little and I played with my American Girl doll, I always wanted to wear a dress like Felicity or Samantha. Those pretty old-fashioned gowns. I mean, it is my dream to get dressed up in all that old fashioned stuff. 

When we went to Williamsburg, I wanted to buy my prom dress there. I didn't. 

Then I saw these Fallas dresses, in person. I was like "Oh my...all of my dreams!"

The dresses are two parts. A skirt with a lightweight cotton tank attached to the top, then a woven bodice that ties in the front. 

The dresses weigh a LOT, probably 15 lbs or so. I don't actually have any idea and I am really bad at guessing, but that seems right (?). 

The white tank that's attached to the skirt even has padding in the shoulders just so the straps don't dig in from the weight. 

Here is Maria in the background, cutting the foam on the straps to adjust it, and the back of Lucia's dress.

If you were one of those girls who liked dress up, please tell me you are so jealous right now. THEY GET TO WEAR THESE ALL DAY LONG.

As you can see, Lucia's has a blue bow in the back, and since you can't see Maria's, I will tell you hers is purple.

Another thing you can't see is that the dress doesn't drag on the ground but instead is about four or five inches from the ground. Revealing the feet. What do they wear on the feet?

GORGEOUS MATCHING BROCADE SLIPPERS, THAT IS WHAT.

So. Jealous.

Once Maria put on her slippers, she was trotting around the room with such excitement. I later asked Cristina how the girls deal with wearing those shoes all day long (imagine 9am to midnight walking around downtown!). She was like "Oh, they are SO happy to just be wearing heels and being pretty that they completely ignore any pain, if they have any."

I don't know. Those look pretty blister-inducing.

What do the boys where on this occasion? They were pretty simple clothes compared to the girls. It kind of reminds me of a gypsy costume, actually. They wear white socks (or tights?) and baggy black shorts, and a black vest over a puffy pirate-y shirt. Dani is getting ready to try on his espadrilles (you know those women's shoes that have a platform and tie up the ankle? Those are Spanish, and they are called espadrilles). You can even see a bit of Monica's baby bump.

There was a point where Cristina and Monica said I could dress up with them for Fallas. But lately I haven't heard much about it. They have loads of extra dresses, but they say I am too tall so that too much of my feet will be showing, noticeably so. I don't think so, since they hang high off the ground. But the next worry is shoes. As you could tell, they are pretty matchy, and I have size ten feet. Monica has size 5 or something, and Cristina has size 7. None of their extra shoes would fit me. But again, when this was talked about as an actual this-really-might-happen idea way back a couple months ago, they said I could try extra dresses/shoes of their friend Maria Carmen, who is tall like me. But they haven't mentioned it since.


All I know is that all of my dreams would come true if I could dress up like that for a day. Well, at least one.

Grillin' in the park

This past Saturday was the "Valentine's Day" dance for the kids at their Falla. The theme was 50s dress up, like the movie Grease. They also had an American-style lunch/snack, with cheeseburgers and shoestring potato chips. There were extras on the table and I was practically drooling I wanted one so badly. But I resisted.

Here is a group photo of all the kids in the falla. Lucia, Dani, Maria and Lucas are front and center.

The kids didn't have very "50s"-ish clothes, but we tried our best to dress them up.

Then, on Sunday, in the plaza near Pichon's parent's house, there was some kind of festival where we brought a grill and made a fire on the ground and cooked food. There were a bunch of other people around making little fires and grilling sausages and snacks. It was more of an "almuerzo" since it was around 10am that we were nibbling on chorizo and fried tomato bocadillos.

There were a bunch of little tents selling stuff, like the previous weekend with the paella. Of course, being a plaza in Spain, there was a giant clocktower that would chime a LOT. The kids were especially mesmerized.

Staring at the clock...

Maria and Lucia also enjoyed sticking their hands in these giant head masks (yes, people plop those on their heads...and see through the mouths). I took a picture, and Lucia made a silly face.

It was fun. And my coat didn't reek as much as it did from the paella festival, where it smelled like I sat inside of a barbecue overnight or something.

Paella, paella, and more paella

Today we went to Pichon's parents' house for lunch, but since they weren't home right away, we walked over to the big street festival they were having in the neighborhood.

They had tents selling various foods, crafts, souvenirs, and even a pop-up teteria. 


However, we only stopped by to visit with some of Cristina's friends (from the Falla, like Marina and Maite). Since Cristina and Pichon were busy chatting, I wandered off by myself to check out the stands.

I didn't buy anything, but they had a stand with various fresh quiche, a stand with jars of fresh honey (practically frozen in this weather), pastries, belts, jewelry, crafts, etc.

Oh, and did I mention the paella? There were small groups of people each cooking their own individual paellas over a wooden fire on the ground. The air smelled of woody smoke. The warmth of standing near the cooking paellas was much appreciated, since it was pretty cold outside today.

And when I said there were lots of paellas, I mean lots. Like four areas of 20 paellas EACH, lots.


Here are some photos Cristina took for me with her iPhone, since I didn't have my camera with me.
(click photos to enlarge)

You can see at least six paellas in this photo...

These proud paella makers saw Cristina taking pics and said they needed to be included. Then they asked where the photo was going. "Don't worry, all the way to the United States." "Oh, good."

*cue the girlfriends' giddy screams*

Last week I went to dinner with my host parents and their Fallas friends at one of their favorite dive bars, Los Serranos.

We were the second group to arrive after their friends Maria and her husband.

The third couple to arrive was Monica and Jose Enrique, Cristina's sister and her husband. The men migrated to one side of the table and the women to the other, where we stayed as the remaining couples arrived. But before they arrived, Cristina told me as Monica listened, that Monica was pregnant and she would tell the group that night.

Maybe five minutes after everyone (making us a table of 14 or so) arrived, the new arrivals were looking around at everyone's drinks, discussing what they would order.

Laura, who was sitting beside Monica, gave a sigh, saying she wasn't sure what she would order. She turned to Monica and grabbed Monica's drink and under her breath said "Monica, what do you have?" as she turned the bottle to view the label, revealing a non-alcoholic Amstel. Laura saw the label, looked at Monica, who was pleasantly smiling, looked back at the bottle with wide eyes, then back at Monica as she gasped "Wait, are you..."
and before she even finished the sentence, Monica quietly nodded, as Laura let out a squealing scream before shouting, "MONICA'S EXPECTING A BABY! MONICA'S PREGNANT!" to the rest of our table as she bounced up and down in her seat.
The girl's side of the table erupted in "Congratulations!" and happy applause and laughter as Monica rested her elbow on the table and covered her mouth with her hand, hiding a smile. The news traveled to the men's side of the table where the guys turned to Jose Enrique, shouting "Dude, another kid! Congratulations!" and "Epa!" as Jose Enrique just laughed.

As for the rest of the dinner, it was fun getting to know Cristina and Monica's girlfriends, who varied in what looks like ages 27 and 36.
Laura was very friendly and energetic, especially when talking about her recent trip to the United States where her and her newlywed spent a couple weeks driving from San Francisco down through California and over to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. I recently saw some pics of her on Marina's blog, modeling some of Marina's jewelry.
Marina was the quiet but whimsical artistic type who works with her dad designing and making fallas for the big festival in March. She makes jewelry, too, in a style that I can only describe as cute, light, and cheery.

This past Monday we went to Marina's gallery. While we were there, Monica filled up a large cookie tin with various wares to peddle to the other moms at her kids' schools, after which she gives all the earnings back to Marina. We also saw the sketch for this year's falla, titled Algodon de Azucar, or Cotton Candy. She also had a few paintings of people's faces, and I told her I was already somewhat familiar with her work because of the painting she did of Lucia that hangs at the foot of the ground floor staircase in my host family's home.

It was great to go out and meet/see more people, as I get to know my host family and their friends.