Fallas!!

Every year, the Community of Valencia has a crazy, insane and super fun festival called Fallas. Fallas is really all about noise and fire. This past week I spent my spring break getting to know Valencia and experiencing Fallas. Here are some important terms that you should know about Fallas (everything else you may want to know can be found on the internet):

La Mascleta: Everyday at 2:00, large fire crackers and every form of noise makers are set off. REALLY loud!!

Los Ninots: Small, wooden dolls that are judged in the previous weeks and then burned the last night. Only the winner is not burned.

Las Fallas: The BIG ninots that are set up in the street. Again, all but one are burned.

La Nit del Foc: 18th of March. Huge fireworks show - very pretty.

La Crema: The last night of Fallas. The Fallas are doused with gasoline and firecrackers and fireworks set the structures aflame. Super fun!

Churros!: The most delicious sort of dessert sprinkled in sugar and dipped in chocolate.

FALLAS!!!!

The Land of the Portuguese

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel with some friends to Porto, Portugal. The home of Bacalao (Codfish) and Port wine. The capital of Portugal is Lisbon but due to the cheapness of flights, we went to Porto. Here's an idea of what you can see....

Porto is really beautiful. The old city is on one side of the river while all the wineries are on the other. We had the opportunity to take a boat tour, visit the beach, visit old buildings/churches, visit a winery, and see a very fun cool museum. All in a day's work here in Europe.

One of the exciting things to see when you're traveling is all the nifty hostels. Look at how cute they can be!


Serralves Museum - An old house and estate that's been turned into a museum. We didn't have a chance to go in the house but the museum and the grounds were really fun to visit.


Food - it's one of the reasons we travel right? Sometimes we eat cheap food - like the large bread role for $.80 - and sometimes we try the local cuisine - Bacalao!


But most important of all, have a good time...

What We Do

So what do I do when I have free time? During the week I go from my room to the classroom to the cafeteria and then back to my room. But on the weekends we get a little more creative and we enjoy ourselves (even though sometimes all we do is watch movies). Here is what we do....

We walk under the road (through the tunnel) and through the orange groves to get to the local grocery store (Mercadona).


Sometimes we play on the swings....


Or sometimes we play dress-up at the market


We climb to the tops of mountains....


Where we can see Everything!


Most importantly of all, we learn not to touch prickly plants.