Las Fallas

So this past weekend, we all went to Valencia with Erasmus for the Fallas festival. If you don't know what it is, look in my last blog post..there's a website that explains what the festival is for. But anyways, it was a very long trip. We left Alicante around 12 (noon) and it took about 2 hours to get there. Once we arrived, we went to this little bar where we were supposed to get free paella. It wasn't great but it held me over until later when I got my favorite: Tortilla patata :) mmmm....Anyways, we had a couple beers at the bar and then walked over to the city center to see what was going on. By this time, we had missed most of the cool fireworks but oh well...

We walked around and looked at all the statues that they were going to burn later that night. These things were huge!! I posted pictures on facebook but that still doesn't do them any justice. They were enormous. You could walk in the big plaza we were at and see it from all over. Anyways, we just kinda toured the city and looked at all the statues until around 7 when a parade started in Plaza de Toros. We couldn't see much because there were soooo many people but I saw a few things. There were people dressed up in strange costumes, torches with sparkling fire, and lots of unique floats. It was kinda stressful being around that many people because there was lots of pushing and shoving but I'm still glad I went over there. Then, we met back up with the group and went to this bar to drink for a little while we waited for the time when they would burn all the statues. It was a pretty fun bar. Lots of people we knew met up with us there and the music was good.

Finally, it was time to burn the statues. We walked over to where one of the smaller statues was (I don't know why we didnt go to the big one--it might have been burning later) and watched as they lit something that sparked. Then the whole thing caught on fire and slowly stuff fell to the ground or melted. The whole time, for safety reasons I'm assuming, they were hosing it down with water which in turn, made us a little damp. haha The heat from the fire was tremendous as well. We were somewhat close but still not close enough that I would have thought it would be so hot. I guess I've never been around that big of a fire! But it was a sight to see....There were also fireworks everywhere you went or those things that make really loud noises: Firecrackers maybe? Those were kinda scary because you'd be walking down the street and all of a sudden it would sound like a gunshot right next to you! Made me jump everytime.

Later, we went to the SuperClub95, where we had "free entrance" (aka what we paid for before we left). It was a lot of fun for a while and then my friend Selin and I got tired so we tried to catch the "early bus" at 4 am. Unfortunately they wouldn't let us on for security reasons because we technically went with Erasmus and not the University. Therefore, we were stuck with no where to go. We tried getting back into the club but the bouncer wouldn't let us without paying so we decided it would be a good idea to go to the train station where it was heated. Interesting place at 4 in the morning...Everyone was laying on the floor waiting for their train...Most were drunk. We waited until around 6 am when the bus finally came to pick us up. That was also an interesting experience. Half the bus was wide awake for an hour and half were asleep. Selin and I were some of the people trying to sleep as we had been wanting to leave 3 hours ago. By the way, charter buses are not a good place to sleep. I remember at some point, I was leaning forward with my head on the seat in front of me...Real attractive. We finally arrived back in Alicante around 9:30 in the morning and I went straight to bed. Slept until 7 pm and realized I had to skype my mom and celebrate Kira's birthday. Only reasons I woke up. Otherwise I would have slept until tomorrow morning. Hahah WHAT an adventure..At least I will only have to celebrate that festival once in my life.. :)

St. Patrick's Day and other random updates

Hey guys, sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Just been really busy with school and being sick!! (AGAIN).

So last week was kinda rough. Since a lot of classes are split up into two parts and two teachers, we basically had like a midterm week here. I had all projects/quizzes/powerpoints/homework all due at once! Very stressful. But I made it through! All I have left this week is a presentation in my Entrepreneurship class tomorrow (St. Patrick's Day!) Speaking of which, I'm not really sure if they even celebrate St. Patty's Day here. I know we have lots of celebrations in the States but I think that's just our excuse to drink and the Spanish seem to be drinking all the time (plus I doubt a lot of them have Irish heritages).

However, Caitlin, Kira and whoever else wants to go may go over to Mulligan's and have a green beer or two just to be festive! I wish I had brought the St. Patty's Day stickers I stole from Katie two years ago so I could prove I'm truly Irish haha. Oh well.. I guess people will know from my name! It's all about the drinking anyways. I would've loved to actually go to Ireland for the holiday but for some reason flights to Dublin are always around 200€ and it's too much. Maybe when I'm married and on my honeymoon that will happen. Anyways, this weekend a bunch of us are going to Valencia for a day/night trip! There's a huge celebration going on Saturday called Las Fallas. It's a huge celebration/carnival down in Valencia that takes place every year and basically, they take scraps which after reading about this, I found out are usually made of styrofoam and not paper machet, and they burn it all. There are also fireworks and music and from what I've heard, they close down all the streets so if you don't get into Valencia before the festival begins, you're screwed :) I'm really excited. This is what I most love about Spain is all the festivals and crazy traditions they have here. You can read more about Las Fallas if you want: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallas_de_Valencia

Anyway, things have been going great here besides my diseases that keep coming back. I swear I must have mono or something because I haven't been 100% healthy since I got here. I don't know if its what I'm eating, the fact that my room is a closet and is probably covered in mold, we are packed onto the bus to campus everyday like sardines, or that I've been going out too much (but I refuse to believe the last one). I may go see the doctor today but I'm really nervous about asking them because I don't wanna tell them the wrong thing and end up with x-rays and a colonoscopy..So we'll see. Usually these things just go away on their own.

Good news for you guys is: I'm 94 days away from coming back home. I'm not as excited yet because I want to see more things/places while I'm here and get better at my Spanish. I have also made a lot of really good friends here that I know for a fact I'm going to be sad to leave behind. But who wants to think about that right now when I have so much ahead of me!! I'll update you guys after this weekend and let know how the festival goes! Besos!