Crema

We decided to stay out of the central city for the crema. We went to our neighborhood crema. At 10 pm they lit up the infantil falla. They set off fireworks before they set off the actual falla with more fireworks of course. They really burn fast.
We walked around different neighborhoods and looked at their fallas and then returned to see the large falla burned at midnight. Again we watched fireworks before they set off the falla. As we were watching the fireworks Dayna got ash in her eye and was hurting a lot. A firefighter came over and told us to take her to a clinic. So as we were busy dealing with that they were letting off the large falla. Brent went ahead and took her with the help of a very nice man who drove Brent to the clinic. We watched the burning which only took about 5 minutes.
Dayna had her eye scraped and she was just fine. We are glad that fallas is over. Ready for some quiet!

Offering of the Flowers

Part of the fallas festival is the offering of the flowers. The different districts and neighborhoods come to the city center in their traditional spanish dress and offer flowers to the virgin Mary. The virgin statue is made of wood and they weave the flowers to make up her dress. Over two days thousands of people parade into the plaza with their flowers lasting well into the night.
Here is the finished product. It's beautiful to see in person.

Nit de Foc

"The Night of Fire" I think that is what it means in Valenciana. The biggest night of fireworks was last night. It didn't start until 1:30am. I was with the youth in the ward wandering around the city and people were letting off firecrackers all over the place. I really am getting sick of firecrackers. The spaniards are really not responsible at all. They throw firecrackers anywhere and don't have any concept of safety. A couple of the boys in our group threw fireworks at Mckenzie and it blew up on here foot. It wasn't a small firecracker either. By the end of the night I was soooo done with firecrackers. I'm glad they are illegal in the states. When we headed to the river park for the fireworks it was so crowded. I tried meeting up with Brent and the little kids but there was no way. We decided to just meet back at the car which was parked at the church. After the fireworks, which were wonderful, especially after getting high off the number of people around us smoking marajuana around us. Brent and I decided that it was not family friendly. By the time I was able to walk out of the mess and meet Brent it was 3:30am. We got to bed at 4 and were awakened at 8am by more fireworks. A huge mascleta that was somewhere in the streets around our house. The fireworks were non stop explosions that I know lasted over 30 minutes. I was finally able to drift off to sleep by the lullaby of bombs bursting in air.
The garbage left by the crowds.

Pics

Some things we've seen over the last couple of days. Gotta go! Off to more festivities.

crema de fallas

As I mentioned before Dayna and Cade's school made their own fallas. Yesterday we went to the school to watch them burn it. The kids all paraded out some of the girls wearing their traditional dresses. Most of the other kids wore their bluson y panuelo (no accents because I don't know how type them on my computer but they are a smock and neckerchief). Dayna's teacher loaned her one but Cade needed one. I didn't want to spend the money for him to wear it once. Luckily, I have a shirt that looked similar to a bluson so he wore that. He was hesitant at first, afraid others would notice it wasn't the same but he soon realized that no one noticed he was any different.

So the teachers wrapped the falla with firecrackers and we had our own small mascleta. As they lit off the falla everyone was cheering. The falla was quickly roaring to a huge bonfire and they had to move the smallest children inside because the wind was going in their direction. Once it died down some, the kids were back outside chanting "Bob Esponja es muerto" Sponge Bob is dead. We then had chocolate and cake. I think Dayna was a just little bothered that they had spent about 3 weeks working on Sponge Bob and then they burned it.

Mascleta

We went into centro yesterday to see the fallas under construction and to watch the days mascleta. We went with some friends in the ward. Virginia is a local spanish woman who married Reed from Colorado. She explained many things to us about fallas and the city of Valencia.


This is what the firecrackers look like before they are lit up. The are hung in rows. The mascleta is very rhythmic and musical.
I filmed a part of the mascleta. I cut out about 3 minutes because the awe doesn't transfer well on film. It is just one of those things you have to be there to witness yourself.

Fallas

Tomorrow they will have a tribute to the falleros (the women and girls that represent the fallas) I think it's much like a beauty pagent. They all wear the traditional spanish dresses. They are beautiful. All fallas (sculptures) need to be completely set up by Tuesday in order to be judged in the competition. My kids have school on Monday and Tuesday and they are very upset about that. I think we are the only school in Valencia that has school these two days. Dayna and Cade are excited though because their school has built their own fallas at school. Dayna's class made a spongebob and Cades class made a horn with stickers all over it. They will put it together tomorrow and torching it on tuesday. Crazy! The things they can do here in Spain.

Exhibition of Ninots

Yesterday afternoon we went to see the ninots. If I understand it correctly the ninots are a part of the large fallas that will be built next week. The ninots are judged by the people and the winning ninot will be saved from burning next week. There is a museum here that has all of the winning ninots that were saved from fire over the years. We plan to go but haven't made it there yet. Here are a few pics.

Look what we have!

We went to the local "pyrotecniia tienda" yesterday. We bought a bag full of firecrackers. Poppers, sparklers and of course the big illegal kind in the states. Riley asked which firecracker was the loudest and that is what he bought. They were cheap, we spent 27 euros in total.The sign on the box says don't sell to anyone younger than 18.

My dishes that I bought in Poland arrived a week ago. Here is what they look like.

It was insured and now I need to figure out how to file a claim.

Birthdays

Three birthdays in 5 weeks. All the boys in the family have had their birthdays. Cade turned 6 today. I can't believe it's been that long. We told him that six year olds can tie their shoes and ride bicycles. He is very interested in that. He asked for a bike for his birthday and yesterday Brent worked with him learning to tie his shoes. Riley is now a teenager and Brent, well he's just getting old.

Fallas

The big celebration of the year has begun in Valencia. Las Fallas is the big celebration to celebrate the end of the winter and welcome in the spring. What better way to do that than a big two week celebration of fireworks, parades, and fire.

Fallas are giant works of art made out of combustable materials. They are placed in the middle of streets and plazas all over the city. These fallas are beautiful and they spend up to thousands for one falla. As soon as the fallas is over the comittee starts planning for next years fallas.

The last couple of weeks the city has been setting up camp. There are lights and tiny flags hung all over the city. The actual fallas have not been built yet but you can see them being delivered and ready to set up within the next week.

The mascleta which are the fireworks begin everyday at 2pm. Each day there is a different pyrotechnic company all competing against each other. Brent and I went to the city center today to witness for ourselves. They were loud. Very loud! The earth was shaking.

Tomorrow besides the daily mascleta there will be fireworks on the beach at 6 and some parade in the city center at 10:30 pm

It's very interesting to read about. If your interested there are pics and good info on wikipedia.

From the 17th thru 19th the fallas will be displayed all over the city. On the last night the fallas are all burned. Very large bonfires that require the firemen to douse the neighborhood as they burn.

I just made a house call to a doctor

I've heard of doctors making house calls but today I went to the doctors--at his house. That was weird. I needed to see the doctor because my ears are plugged and we went to an apartment complex that happened to be his home/office. He was a very nice old man but I kept wondering of he was legit.

Afterwards Brent and I went out to lunch at a Japanese restaurant and I had yakisoba noodles with some fish food sprinkled on the top. I couldn't eat it. It literally looked and smelled like the food you sprinkle in the bowl for your pet fish.