Exploring the City: Once again this week we were blessed with several more visitors who made the trek from the USA to see us in Spain. Rachael and Wade Crossman arrived last Saturday, and on Sunday we all took a bus to the beach port city of Valencia. A few weeks ago, Joni had a student recommend Valencia as a great spot to visit - particularly during the Fallas festival, which just happened to coincide with our visit from the Crossmans. Fallas is a celebration of Saint Joseph, wherein massive animated statues are erected all around the city...before all being set on fire on the last day of the festival. This is an opportunity to artistically satire various political or social grievances and then join in the cathartic experience of demolishing the targets of said criticism. Some of the critiques were straightforward, though it was even more difficult than usual to decipher signage - a regional variety of Catalan is the co-official language in Valencia. The main source of pleasure was simply to take in the expert craftsmanship that surely went into constructing each piece. We heard that there was a Donald Trump falla at this year's festival, but we didn't manage to find it.
In addition to the artwork, a more crude form of expression littered the airwaves as people young and old set off fireworks and pelted the sidewalks with noisemakers. This created an aural environment that very closely mirrored that of many war zones we had seen on TV. Before the fallas were set on fire, a "fire parade" marched through the city. This consisted of various floats and marchers carrying multicolored sparklers, sometimes accompanied by musicians and/or beautiful ornately costumed women wearing dresses that maybe would have been at home in the 1800's. This culminated with possibly the best fireworks display I have ever seen. I can't recall a spectacle that managed to surprise me with a finale the way the booming semi-automatic assault peppered the sky and left my eardrums ringing. Despite the noise (and the large amount of people flooding the city) it was a very safe environment and, while we may never have gotten totally used to it, the experience was wonderful.
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| We also stumbled upon these really cool trees. Can you find us in this picture? |
After waking and questioning our shared experiences from the previous night (Were there really giant art pieces set aflame in the middle of the street all across the city last night?!), our crew ventured out to take in the rest of the city. From the scenic expanses of the beach to the futuristic "City of Arts and Sciences" and the awesome confines of the Valencia Cathedral, this city seemingly has it all.
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| That is supposedly THE Holy Grail inside that glass case. |
Joni's highlight of the weekend was getting to roll around in a ball on the surface of the water in the City of Arts and Sciences.
There was also much fun to be had at Park Gulliver, which is solely comprised of a giant jungle gym in the shape of a man lying on his back (Gulliver as in "Gulliver's Travels"). The majority of the patrons were fairly young, but that didn't stop us from climbing around and zipping down the various slides.
Lost in Translation: After the parade, we were in search of a snack to tide ourselves over as we endeavored to tarry on in exploration of the festival. We found a churro stand, and Wade bravely attempted to order the deep fried delicacy. He was hoping to sample two churros, but ended up with twelve! To be fair, "dos" and "doce" sound very similar. Luckily we were all game to aid in the vanquishing of the over-sized order. This is quite possibly the tastiest lost in translation story we've had to date.
Memorable Meal: The night Rachael and Wade arrived, we went to dinner at Bodegas Rosella, a restaurant near our house we hadn't yet sampled. Upon arrival, we found that there were two restaurants with the same name located side by side. After entering the far emptier building and being told we needed to go next door, a somewhat frazzled man told us we needed to go back to the first building. After getting everything straightened out, we had a delicious meal of Spanish food. Or, as Joni and Rachael and Wade might describe it, Spanish food. The croquettes were some of the best I've had, featuring stuffings of queso de cabra (goat cheese), jamón and bacalao (cod). Joni ordered a Spanish tortilla (something between an omelet and a frittata), and it was the perfect mixture of light and hearty - typically in my experience this dish is either too thin or too dense to be enjoyed fully. Wade was not all that impressed by his jamón tosta (just bread topped with jamón ibérico) and I can't really blame him. Rachael ordered fried mushrooms, and we were all perplexed as the dish that was delivered looked and tasted a good deal like fried chicken. I took a liking to the strange food, although Rachael (a vegetarian) found the similarity a little too off-putting. Everyone agreed that the bread served with the meal was delicious!
En la clase: This week Joni started YET ANOTHER JOB, this time one that can be done from the comfort of home. After being tipped off to the company VIPKID by our friend Alex, Joni successfully completed the semi-rigorous training process and had her first ever computer class - teaching English to children in China via an online platform. VIPKID utilizes the Total Physical Response methodology (TPR), which means that our apartment is now filled with involved introductions ("My name is teacher Joni. What's YOUR name?), exclamations of praise ("Very good!"), and occasional moments of technical difficulty ("What? Hello? Should I call the firemen?"). It is a pretty relaxed gig thus far, requiring zero travel and resulting in pay that equals or eclipses all her other jobs.
Final Notes:
We recently had our debut with Coro Xenakis, the chamber choir we joined back in January at Teresa's behest. The concert was held at Ateneo de Madrid, which is sort of a mix between a commmunity center and a performance space. At any rate, it was beautiful and clearly steeped in untold tradition. Typically the choir performs alone, but this concert featured two high school choirs - one of which was directed by a former member of Coro Xenakis. The repertoire of these choirs skewed decidedly more toward pop, which provided a nice contrast with our more classically influenced program. We really enjoyed both performing and listening to the other groups sing, and look forward to future concerts.
Here are a couple excerpts from the concert:
Chris Breckenridge arrived at the tail end of Wade and Rachael's visit on Tuesday. Tune in next week to hear daring tales of the roaming bachelor as his unique brand of humor and fact finding hits Madrid.
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