It makes you shiver with antici-

*does happy dance* I'm on spring brea-ak. I'm on spring brea-ak. Yes, family, this is indeed my first full day of Spring break, and it is wonderful. In fact, this whole week has been pretty awesome.

So Sunday night I went out to dinner with Elena and Dakota and we got crepes and fresh juice, both of which were excellent. And that pretty much wrapped up my weekend, which, as you know, was pretty chill.

This week things got a little more exciting.

Not Monday, of course, that was a Monday. I went to class. We talked about the different schools of Renaissance painters in Spain, and then in film class we continued discussing types of films and specifically the different genres of film, and we watched some cool clips.

And then I went to my English class. I really love that class. It is just so much fun. On Monday the main exercise was for the students to make up sentences for a list of words. Once sentence per word. My job was to explain what in the world the words meant. What follows is a selection from that list: "yank, harangue, seethe, crave, flout, scrounge."   Which are insanely difficult both do define and to use. It was hilarious, but a little insane. I wound up doing squats and tearing pieces of paper and jumping up and down in order to explain what it was. I looked like a total idiot, but I had a great time. And at the end the women who were in my group told me that I had done an excellent job and that they understood the way I explained the words. And that class really made me feel good about what I want to do with my life. Because I did have such a great time trying to explain these concepts. It was a fun mental exercise to think about how to communicate, and I enjoyed the interaction. And in addition to enjoying it, apparently I was good at it, and hearing that really meant a lot to me.

But in addition to helping me be confident in my career goals, that class has a very interesting effect on my self-perception. As much as I try to be international and European and adaptable, when I am in that class I am immensely aware of my own inherent American-ness. It's a very interesting atmosphere in that way. Because when I'm just walking around in Spain I'm either with my friends from the group (who are American and therefore my Americanisms don't stand out) or I'm with Spaniards, where my defining trait is not my Americanness, but my foreignness. The general perception of my label is not "American" it is "not Spanish." But in this class it's different, because the teacher and all the TAs are British and Irish, and I'm not the only foreigner or the only English-speaker in a group of Spaniards, I am the American. I'm the one that gets asked when American and British English diverge. I'm the one with the really strange accent. I am defined there, more than anywhere I've ever been as American, and especially as someone who tries to escape that identity, it is very interesting. I'm getting used to it, and it's not a bad thing, it just makes me aware of something about who I am that most of the time I do not notice.

SO then I went to lunch and Elena's class. And there we talked about Spanish festivals.

I honestly think it would be great to take a gap year and work some sort of mediocre job somewhere in Europe and then just go around and go to Spanish festivals on my days off. Because there are some cool festivals. (also some weird ones, but we didn't talk about that until Wednesday). The most well-known is Los San Fermines (which may not sound familiar, but you all know them) that happen every year in Pamplona and go on for like a week, and everybody runs around in white outfits with red sashes and carrying newspapers, and then they let a bunch of bulls go in the streets and people start running much faster. Yup. San Fermines, running of the bulls. Except, it actually isn't QUITE as dangerous as it sounds. I mean, it's still really dangerous, but it could be worse. Only like 15 people have died in the last 100 years. And also, it's not like a marathon with bulls behind you, the run is less than a kilometer and it is from the bull pens to the plaza de toros and the whole thing happens in about 5 minutes. They do it every day, though.

And then we learned about the Batalla de Vino (Wine Battle) that happens in a town in Northern Spain every Summer, and basically everybody dresses in white and walks to this mountain with water guns or bottles or other contraptions full of red wine, and when you get to the mountain, you start throwing it at everybody. And what started as a bunch of white clothing is pretty purple by the end. In the pictures everybody seemed to be having such a good time.

We also talked about la Tomatina, of course, which happens REALLY CLOSE to Valencia, BUT I HAVE TO BE BACK AND IN SCHOOL. Because it happens in August, which is just so sad, because really I think this is my type of festival. Again, this is a sort of deceptively short festival. They dump the tomatoes in the street, everybody has the world's biggest food fight and then it's over in like an hour.

SO that class was fun! Afterwards I went back to my room and chilled and did homework and stuff.

Tuesday we had Lit class and talked about censorship under Franco, which was kind of terrifying, especially when you remember that this guy had US support for most of his dictatorship. We also read an advice column for women under the dictatorship, and the amount of subservient crap that it was feeding women made most of the girls in class either want to puke or punch something. Or both. It was awful. I sometimes forget just how far feminism has come.

So then after class I went back to the mascletà, which just keeps getting better. The closer we get to Fallas, the bigger the explosions are and the more smoke and noise and people, and it's incredible.
Just look at the smoke.

That's what it's like when they're done with the mascletà.
But what struck me most was the atmosphere at the mascletà. It was this absolutely beautiful day and people were all standing around waiting, and there was this incredible sense of excitement and anticipation in the air, and that's what it's been like all this week. It keeps getting closer and closer to Fallas, and we are starting to see the Fallas go up,

 and more and more people in the streets, and more and more streets closed off for pedestrians. We're not quite officially there yet, but everybody knows we are so close, and you can just feel the excitement in the city.

So then after the mascletà and lunch, I went on a final, desperate hunt for jeans. And miraculously found success. So crisis averted there. Whew. I was so worried. I found some in a nice vintage store around the corner. I was so happy when I found them. It was a very very exciting moment for me when I tried on a pair and they fit. And they aren't even skinny jeans.

So I basically chilled the rest of the afternoon and wrote and watched TV and did homework and all that jazz. Then, after dinner at 9:30, we went to see the Street Lights. And let me tell you, it was incredible. They put up all these basically Christmas lights all over these streets, and it is breath-taking. They had like a show of lights or something, and it was just so elaborate and beautiful, and I swear, it was like going to a Cathedral made of lights.

 The detail was just incredible.

 There were even color-changing chandeliers

 IN these incredible grand halls

It was so amazing, and like the mascletà, there was this great atmosphere, with everybody walking around at like 10:30pm and talking and laughing and eating really unhealthy food. We also saw some fallas that were under construction

which is always impressive, and we chilled and walked around and marveled, and ate buñuelos, and then we headed back to the dorms, and I went to bed.

The next day it was raining for most of the day, which I didn't mind, but generally sort of dampened the mood. We had our final Monday/Wednesday classes before Spring break. In Civilization we talked more about art, and in cine we watched this really beautiful, sad movie called "la lengua de las mariposas" (the tongue of butterflies) set right before the Spanish Civil War about this kid and his teacher and it was really good.

After lunch we went to the Exposition de Ninots, which I mentioned a couple of posts ago. (Recap: they're the dolls that are models of the Fallas (except now I think that is wrong, just know that they are dolls and one corresponds to every Falla) and they're slightly larger than a human and all but one of them gets burned with their respective Falla, except for one, chosen by popular vote to be the pardoned Ninot, and that one goes in the museum we visited last week) So Tuesday we went to see all of this year's Ninots, and vote for our favorite, in the hopes that it won't get burned. It was really cool. The ninots are about anything and everything, and while some of them made me realize why the ones in the museum were the best, there were a lot of really impressive ones.

 And that's a pretty good height comparison. Though there were some much taller.

 This was in my top 4 I voted for. I just thought it was really well done and beautiful.

 And that just made me laugh.

 This is a list of the 10 Commandments of Fallas, which are pretty funny, but also in Spanish. Sorry bout that.

 This one is kind of different, it's wooden, while the rest are.. not, but I was really impressed by it nonetheless.

 So I selfied.

 I just thought this witch was adorable.

 This was also in my top 4. It's hard to see in the picture, but the mountain is extremely detailed and well-made and there is a tiny dragon on top of it, and it was just beautiful.

 And some of the ninots are even really classy.

 And then there's just the artistry of that one.

 This one was really cute. A little Fallera and a fountain.

 This one was so sad. The raggedy old man playing the fiddle, and the dogs howling, and it was really well done. It was also in my top 4.

And this one would have been #5. It is so beautiful. It makes me want to romanticize the past. I just like looking at it.

But the one I ultimately voted for

 was Miguel de Cervantes

writing Don Quijote. It was just beautiful and brilliant, and poignant, and it was great.

There were also ninots for children, some of which were mediocre, and some of which were really cool.

 A lot of them were pop culture references

 but some were really elaborate too

 some made me nearly cry. (Up is so sad. I don't need reminding)

 Honestly, I just loved this juxtaposition

 *sings* IT'S A HUNDRED AND FOUR DAYS OF SUMMER VACATION AND SCHOOL COMES ALONG JUST TO END IT! sorry, for those of you unaware, those are Phineas and Ferb, main characters of the only animated kids TV show that I still watch occasionally. And that's the first line of their theme song.

 And this is C3PO and R2D2 made to look like Falleras, which I found hilarious

 The craftsmanship of some of them was, also excellent, and the detail very impressive.

But this one was my favorite. Because we got to vote for the children's ninots too.

So then we walked back home, and I wrote an essay for my lit class about the symbolism of a staircase as the representation of the passage of time in a play we read. It was interesting.

So then Thursday it was raining too and I had a really nice walk in the rain with my umbrella on my way to class. In lit class we talked about the play we had read and the literature of the Franco regime and of the exiles from the Spain during the Franco regime. We also did some review for the final exam, which was... interesting.

After Javier's class, I went to Dr. Pennock's class (because it meets on Thursdays too) and had a great time once again. This time instead of helping with words, I had to define a ton of expressions, which might be even more difficult, but again, was fun. This time I invented an imaginary friend to use as an example for things like "track record." I just have a great time in that class.

Then I went home and ate lunch, and chilled for a little bit, then went to my favorite cafe and wrote for a while. Then I came back and skyped with a couple people until far too late at night.

This morning I woke up and did the run-out-the-door-because-I-want-the-maid-to-clean-my-room thing and retreated to the Mercado Central, which is just one of my favorite places, especially on a Friday morning. There's so much that people are selling, and it's interesting to walk around and to shop, because there is good stuff in there (including a Greek restaurant I'm going to try one of these days) and it's full of people shopping and talking, and it's just a great place to be. So I bought some fresh strawberry pineapple juice from a store and walked around to find the rest of my breakfast. I wound up getting some really excellent chorizo sausage (but like the kind that's already cooked and you can put on bread) and then some really great bread, and had a nice brunch, which also had leftovers, which is even better.

Then I went up to the roof and read for a bit before going back to my room to chill and eat my chorizo and bread. Around 1 I went down to meet Alexz, Elena, and some of their friends to go to the mascletà. It was Elena's first mascletà since the first one, and she had been far away, so it was worth the wait to see her react when the mascletà went off and we were close. Because today's was excellent. Tomorrow is the first official day of Fallas (it may be today, actually, but it kind of doesn't feel like it) and so the anticipation is absolutely at its peak. The Fallas are going up left and right and this is absolutely everybody's last day of work before the insanity starts, so the mascletà was incredible. The whole plaza was shaking, and the smoke... well, I took a picture

That red dot is the sun. It was insane.

Then I chilled some more, ate lunch, and met the group to go on a tour to see some of the Fallas as they are going up. It was cool.

 I mean, the Fallas are just everywhere.

 This is just a cool picture. Because while the Fallas are sort of the biggest deal, the whole city is kind of decked out.

 But this is a children's Falla, and it's cute

And this is a regular Falla still under construction.

So then on the other side of this Falla, we found this monument thing

Which might be my favorite thing I've seen about Fallas. And that's impressive.

It's this wall thing with writing, and this is what's on top of it. It says "why do we burn the Fallas?" in Valenciano. And then the wall below it

 is dedicated to people's answers (in castellano and valenciano) as to WHY the city burns these big, beautiful monuments that they have worked so hard on, and the answers were really great, so I thought I'd translate some of them to share:

 "To leave the old behind and bring in the new."
"To follow a tradition and inspire our country."
"Because we're all pyromaniacs."
"To welcome the spring."
"To build them again the next year."
"Because dreams only come from fire, because without passion there are no eternal moments."
"We criticize and burn what we don't like."
and "Because we are happy, jovial, and creative."

And I thought those were great, and really showed how much this festival means to people, and what it says about Valencia and the Valencianos.

So then we wound up back in the Plaza de la Virgen, which is where they have a giant statue of the Virgin and they bring her flowers, and put them into her robe, and it looked like this a few days ago

But now...

The Valencians work fast.

So then I went out in search of more Fallas by myself.

 Which is not actually difficult, because I actually just kept stumbling across them.

 And they are really cool.

 And just really big.

 But I kind of like the smaller details

 Oh, this is a guy constructing a children's falla, so that's about how big those are.

 Oh, I really loved this one.

 Mostly because of that couple dancing on the woman's head.

 Also, for some size comparison, that man is standing well in front of that dog. And the dog is very small compared to the rest of the Falla.

 So yeah, there are some that are really complex

 Or have multiple big parts

 And they're very 3-D

 So basically I just wound up wandering through this neighborhood and it got to be almost every other block I would see a Falla

 Oh, and this is the one from the street with all the lights
remember?

that one, but more complete. Much more complete

 This one is right near it too.

 It's really fun to watch as they're constructing them.

 Oh, this was great. The above was one street, and the below was LITERALLY THE NEXT STREET.  

 I could see the devil statue behind this one.

This is the city's Falla, it's in the main plaza of the city. It's huge.

So yeah, then I came home and chilled and ate dinner and wrote a blog, and now I think I'm gonna go to bed. I heard there are buñuelos for breakfast, so I'm going to actually get up for it tomorrow. And then I think I may go to the beach. And maybe go see more Fallas. And then definitely fireworks tomorrow night.

Because tomorrow, Fallas really starts.

Happy Pi day y'all.