Everything's better with food!

For the past three weeks, I have been working with my 1° ESO students in their English class on everyone’s favorite topic: food! I have to say, Elihan and I have come up with some pretty fun and successful lessons for the students. (Elihan is a “student teacher” who has been working with me in just my English classes at Alba Longa for the past four weeks. She has another two weeks to go on her “student-teaching” period and then she’ll be done and back to focusing solely on finishing up her Masters. She’s just a few years older than me, 25, and she’s extremely nice- I’ll be really sad to see her go as I’ve really enjoyed working with her!) We’ve had the students answer questionnaires about food (the usual “what’s your favorite food?” and “what do you eat every morning for breakfast”), play games of “picture” BINGO, take pretend “trips to the supermarket” to find ingredients for certain meals, etc. All of the students have really participated and had fun in the classes, whether it be by shouting out answers to let us know that they understand, competing against one another to win our in-class games or laughing as I attempt to explain that yes, we Americans do eat a much more varied diet than just “hamburgers and French fries.” (I’ve also had to debunk this myth to quite a few of my friends here this year… America’s “fast-food” reputation is everywhere!) While all of these in-class lessons have been really fun, hands-down, our best class took place last Monday when we had an “international breakfast” with the students on the school’s main outdoor patio. Working in pairs, the students had to find and prepare a recipe for this breakfast and then create a poster board containing both the ingredients and directions translated from Spanish to English. Before class last Monday morning, Elihan, Lourdes (my boss and English teacher) and I went to the local Mercadona in Armilla to buy milk, juice, napkins and plastic cutlery, etc. and spent a half an hour or so preparing the tables outside on the patio. When the students arrived at the start of the class, their “breakfast” pastries in hand, I was “hard at work” at another table, preparing banana, strawberry and chocolate chip “tortitas” (pancakes) for my “American contribution” to our early-morning feast. All the food was delicious, the students did a great job with their recipes, and when the class was over, not a single pancake was left of the 50 or so that I had made. It was a really fun way to make our lesson about food as hands-on as possibly for the students as well as practical as they had to learn and explain cooking steps and “verbs” in English. I hope that I’ll be able to make whatever English units come up in the next two months just as fun and practical for the students!

Below you’ll see—finally!—a picture of me with my 1° ESO students, all thirty-two of them, in their classroom. As I’ve mentioned before, 1° ESO is the Spanish equivalent of our 6th and 7th grades, as they are all either 12 or 13 years old. I really love working with this group of students!

Me and my 32 "7th graders"!

Speaking of food, last week I had one particularly fun night with my friends here in Granada. At the beginning of February, I met a wonderful group of university students. These students are all studying here in Granada this year, either as UGR full-time students or as “Erasmus” students (“Erasmus” is the European equivalent of “study abroad.”) We’re quite the little international group, as we all come from many different countries, including the United States, Spain, France, Germany, Finland, Italy, etc. Well, last Tuesday night, instead of going out for tapas together like we usually do a few times a week, we decided to have our own “international” dinner in my friend Jose’s apartment. Well, staying true to our goal of having an “international” dinner, we were all responsible for bringing a dish typical of our native countries to share with the rest. At first I was really unsure as to what I would bring to the dinner (what’s typical American food? It seems like we’re always eating “Chinese food,” “Italian food,” etc. And despite our reputation, I was NOT about to show up with hamburgers and French fries for everyone!) but drawing some inspiration from my English lessons, I decided to bring dessert—pancakes! A few hours before our dinner, I headed to the supermarket to buy the ingredients. I was able to buy everything easily and relatively cheaply—the fruit, the whipped cream, the chocolate chips—except for one thing: the pancake mix! I searched high and low (I went to five different grocery stores within the city, to be exact) and after an hour and a half of searching, I decided to “wing it” and bought a cake mix which basically contained the same ingredients as any standard pancake mix. So, I went to my friend Claudia’s apartment to prepare our food together. (As I mentioned in my last entry, Claudi is a friend from Germany who’s here for the year.) As Claudi was preparing Käsespäetzle, a delectable German dish consisting of noodles, cheese and fried onions, I discovered that unfortunately, cake mix doesn’t yield pancakes. So, I threw all the ingredients into a pan and made a nice chocolate-chip cake with a whipped cream, strawberry and banana topping to bring to the dinner. After finishing our food, we headed to Jose’s apartment to meet with the rest of the group. Everyone brought delicious food—and there was TONS of it!—and we spent the night stuffing ourselves and enjoying each other’s company. From Spain we had croquetas, tortilla española and queso frito con tomate. Pauline and Pauline, the two girls from France, each brought a different type of quiche. From Italy we had homemade pizza and Clark, the other American in our group, made a wonderful pot of chili that everyone was raving about, complete with tortilla chips on the side! As I stated earlier, Claudi made Käsespäetzle and Joni and Sussu, two Erasmus students from Finland, brought Finnish meatballs and Finnish licorice. It was such a good night that we’re going to try and repeat it within the upcoming month. (And next time, I’ll come up with an even better recipe!) Have a look at some photos from “nuestra cena internacional” for yourselves!

¡Nuestra cena internacional! Standing (L-R) are Pauline (France), Lorenzo (Italy), Pauline (France), Claudi (Germany), Joni (Finland), me and Clark (USA). Sitting (L-R) are Jose (Spain), David (Spain) and Sussu (Finland).

Just look at all that good food!

It may not have been "pancakes" but my dessert was still pretty tasty!

Las Fallas: la gran fiesta de Valencia

Last Friday, March 18^th, I had the opportunity to see something that I’ve always wanted to see here in Spain—the high-spirited and loud celebration of “Las Fallas.” Las Fallas takes place in Valencia, a city located northeastern Spain in the region of Valencia. Las Fallas means “the fires” in Valencià, a dialect of the Catalán language spoken throughout all of Catalonia, the region just to the north of Valencia, and it’s undoubtedly one of the most famous and unique of all Spain’s many festivals. 

While the “festival period” of Las Fallas officially begins on March 1^st with a fireworks display in the plaza outside Valencia’s city hall, the more important events don’t occur until March 15^th, making the celebration more of a five-day celebration spanning from March 15^th to March 19^th. Las Fallas, according to many historians, originally began as a feast day for Saint Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. However, the exact origins of Las Fallas are a little murky, as are the roots of most major holidays and festivals celebrated today. Most agree that the origins can be traced back to the 16^th and 17^th centuries to the time when the city of Valencia used streetlamps only in the winter months, when it was too dark to see outside in the evening. The streetlamps were hung on tall wooden structures throughout the city’s streets. As the days became longer and daylight lasted into the evenings, the streetlamps were no longer needed and they were ceremoniously burned right around St. Joseph’s Day as a symbol of the upcoming spring and longer days to come. Around this same time of year, Valencia’s carpenters cleaned out their workshops, throwing away their old scraps of wood and other materials and often burning them along with the now-unnecessary streetlamps. Some say that the lamps were burned in the upright position and that many times people added old rags and hats to them, giving them a “human form” and thus creating the roots of today’s Las Fallas celebrations.

The focus of Las Fallas is the creation and destruction of giant “ninots” (puppets, dolls). The ninots are large cardboard, wood, paper machè and plaster structures that can be anywhere from five to thirty feet tall. Not only impressive for their sheer size, the ninots are also incredibly lifelike and typically depict satirical and vulgar scenes revolving around current events, Spanish social and political life and Spanish celebrities and public figures. Almost all of the ninots are sarcastic critiques of events and people unique to Spain and its current affairs. The ninots are extremely labor intensive, too. Valencia’s nearly 350 neighborhood organizations, called “fallas,” responsible for creating them spend almost the entire year and upwards of $50,000 creating the giant ninots. Come the middle of March, there are more than 800 ninots scattered in almost every plaza, street and intersection in Valencia! It’s truly an incredible sight to see!

As I said at the beginning of this post, I went to Valencia on Friday, March 18^th, the second to last day of the festival. I went with two friends, a German girl named Claudia and a French girl named Pauline. Claudia is 24 and she is studying in Granada for the year whereas Pauline is 22 and like me, she’s teaching French for the year at a local school. At 5:45am, the three of us met up outside the shopping center just a few minutes’ walk from my house to catch our 6:00am bus to Valencia. (Valencia, by bus, is about seven hours away from Granada so we had to leave very early to make it to the city in time to see all of the day’s festivities!) We arrived in Valencia around 1:00pm and we couldn’t have had a better day. When we stepped off the bus, it was sunny and 27°C (80°F)! We immediately began walking through the city, stopping for a quick soda/bathroom break at an outdoor café. Looking over our map, we figured out where we were and more or less mapped out a general plan for the day. We must have seen hundreds of ninots on our way- they really were at nearly every street intersection and in every plaza! In December, I visited el Museo de las Fallas and saw many replications of previous years’ ninots but seeing them in real-life (a.k.a. real size!) was simply amazing… I’ve never seen anything like it! Below you can see some of the (many!!!) ninots that we saw all day long.

(Mrs. White- this one's for you!) It's Jupiter!

One of the ninots created by the "Children's" division.

I'm assuming that this ninot criticizes Spain's bullfighting tradition.

Claudi, Pauline and a wizard!

Voldemort!

As I mentioned earlier, just about all of the hundreds of ninots are meant to poke fun and criticize Spanish social and political life. Therefore, Claudi, Pauline and I had a hard time understanding the “meaning” behind all the ninots seeing as they contained many figures, politicians and issues that we were unfamiliar with. (Also, the fact that the ninots’ “explanations”—if there even were any to begin with—were written in Valencià and not in Spanish, didn’t help us, either!) However, when we stumbled upon the following ninot, we all knew immediately what it was about. It’s a very lifelike image of Zapatero, the current President of the Spanish government, and it’s criticizing him for all of the “paro” (unemployment) in the country and the current economical state of the nation.  I’m just happy that we understood the message behind one ninot!

President Zapatero "controlling the strings" of Spain's paro (unemployment).

It was such a nice day out that we thought, why not head to the beach for a bit? So we mapped out a route from the city center (where we were) to “la playa de las arenas,” one of Valencia’s Mediterranean beaches. Walking, it took us about two hours to get to the beach but we didn’t mind. We were able to see so much of the city on foot, including “la Ciudad de las Ciencias y las Artes,” which I had seen once before in December. We stumbled upon many open-air markets, marching band performances, street bars, etc. Here are some photos from our long walk to the beach:

Here comes a marching band!

I'd have to say that Valencia has the prettiest apartment buildings that I've seen thus far in Spain.

Valencia's "City of Science and Art"- so much prettier on a sunny March day than a rainy December day!

Claudia and Pauline.

Of course we played with the sculptures we found! Hear Claudi roar...

All I was missing was the apple on my head.

Pauline gives her sculpture a "besito."

I was thoroughly enjoying the 80 degree March weather!

Did we finally make it to the beach?!

Yes we did! One of Valencia's Mediterranean beaches- la playa de las arenas.

 All day long there were various events taking place throughout the city. After returning to the city center after a nice “lunch-break” on the beach around 5:00pm, we made our way to some of the principal plazas in the city to see the various parades of people marching in the “Ofrenda de flores a la Virgen de los Desamparados.” The members of the neighborhood organizations, the “falleros” and “falleras,” dress up in traditional Valencian dresses and suits and parade with their respective marching bands through the streets, bringing flowers to a large image (made out of flowers, itself) of Our Lady of the Forsaken located in Valencia’s Plaza de la Virgen. Thousands of men, women and children took place in this grand parade and we saw them in their incredible costumes walking with their floral offerings throughout the entire day and into the night. Around 10:00pm, Claudi, Pauline and I headed back to the Plaza de la Virgen to watch the various falleros and falleras actually bring their flowers to the Virgen and take part in the ceremony of the Ofrenda. As they were offering their flowers, dozens of other people were finishing adding the last flowers to the image of the Virgen; she must have stood over 30 feet tall and her entire gown was made of flowers. Other men and women were hard at work creating other beautiful images and walls made of flowers. The whole plaza was stunning; full of fragrant, bright flowers and the glittering dresses and colorful suits of the member of the neighborhood organizations. We watched the Ofrenda, totally mesmerized, for about an hour, standing in the crowds of hundreds of people, taking picture after picture. What a beautiful sight!

By mid-afternoon, all the city's plazas and roads were full of people. This photo is the main plaza just opposite Valencia's city hall.

One of the many parades of "falleras" and "falleros" making their way to the Plaza de la Virgen to offer flowers.

Aren't their traditional dresses just beautiful? So elaborate!

We faced "people jams" like this all afternoon and evening... getting from place to place was quite the challenge!

Hard at work constructing "walls" of flowers in the Plaza de la Virgen.

The image of Our Lady of the Foresaken. The flowers were being offered to this image of the Virgin Mary all throughout the day during the "Ofrenda."

Here you can see that her entire gown is made of flowers.

"Falleras" during the "Ofrenda."

After watching the Ofrenda, around 11:00pm the three of us headed around the city again to see more of the ninots. The city was so full of people that many times we would be stopped at an intersection for minutes before finding a way to somehow get through. Now, there’s something I haven’t mentioned up until this point that’s a very important part of Las Fallas. The whole celebration is loud. Now, I’m not talking about “loud because there are lots of people around” loud, but LOUD. Many consider Las Fallas to be more of an audial celebration than a visual one, if that’s even possible. The entire festival, starting in the early morning and lasting into the wee hours of the night, is celebrated with “petardos” (firecrackers) and “fuegos artificiales” (fireworks). Every minute, fireworks and other noisemakers shoot off throughout the city and spectators never know where this will be going on. At first, we were very jumpy while walking around the city, always gasping as the giant “booms!” of smoke would go off, often just to our side. However, as the day wore on, the constant noise and explosions became expected and we were no longer shocked by all the noise and commotion. One thing is for certain, though: small children and “petardos” do not mix. All day we were almost victims to small children running throughout the streets, throwing firecrackers and other “poppers” into the streets and among pedestrians, both with and without parental supervision. At one point in the night, I saw a group of older kids, probably between the ages of twelve and thirteen, throw firecrackers and small fireworks into streets, landing among people and rolling under cars. If you ever go to Las Fallas, watch out for the children and you had better be ready for constant noise!

At 1:00am, Claudi, Pauline and I headed to the Paseo de la Alameda to watch the famous “Nit de Foc” (Valencian for “Night of Fire”). The Nit de Foc is an incredible fireworks display that contains over 4,000 kilograms of fireworks and other explosives that lasts for twenty minutes. I really enjoy fireworks displays back home every Fourth of July, but those shows are nothing compared to what we saw last Friday night- it was simply the best fireworks show that I have ever seen!

One last picture of us with a ninot before heading to the fireworks show!

The sky was lit up with explosions of red, gold, purple and green for an entire 20 minutes... incredible!

After seeing the firework display, it was time to make our way back to where we had been dropped off earlier that afternoon to catch the 3:00am bus back to Granada. Exhausted but very happy, we had to run to make it back to our bus as the streets were so utterly congested with (both sober and very intoxicated) tourists and Spaniards alike that it was impossible for us to make any sense of where we were. We made it back in time, however, and agreed that it had been well worth the seven-hour bus ride to take part in this incredible Spanish celebration.

The celebration of Las Fallas doesn’t end on March 18^th. The celebration continues for one more day and night and ends with “la Cremá.” La Cremá (“the burning”) is the culmination of Las Fallas and while many consider it to be the best part of the entire festival, others consider it to be the saddest moment. During the day, the ninots are stuffed with fireworks and kindle and at midnight, the city goes dark as the streetlights are all turned off and the ninots are lit on fire. All of the ninots are burned, setting the entire city ablaze (but don’t worry, this has been going on for years and Valencian firemen have the situation controlled) with the glow of the burning ninots. We didn’t get to see la Cremá, unfortunately, but we saw plenty else! Las Fallas was an amazing festival that I won’t ever forget; I’m so happy that I got to spend an amazing day in Valencia during this celebration with two good friends!

A long weekend in Éire (part II)

Okay, so here it is, the second entry in my two-part entry about my long weekend in Ireland with Ashton! I left off on Saturday, February 26th. After going out for a bit in Galway that night, we headed back to our hostel to (try to) get in a good night's sleep before our day-long bus tour of Cong and Connemara the following day.

Day Three: Cong and Connemara

At 10:00am Sunday morning, Ashton and I arrived at the bus station, happily full after a good breakfast and strong cup of coffee and eager to begin our day-long bus tour of Cong and Connemara. Connemara is the name given to the western portion of County Galway, which lies between Lough Corrib and the Atlantic. It's a really beautiful area with lots to see. Our first stop was at the ruins of Ross Errilly Friary. Built in the 14th century, this Franciscan friary is the most extensive and best preserved of all the Franciscan friaries in Ireland, despite having been burned down and subsequently rebuilt a few times throughout its history. While it appeared small from outside, the friary was actually very large with lots of hidden passages, stairways and crevices to discover. After seeing the friary, we boarded the bus again and drove to Cong, a very small village about 45 minutes northwest of Galway. The village is famous for having been the location where the movie "The Quiet man" starring John Wayne and Maureen O'hara was filmed in 1952. For this reason, just about everything in Cong (and there's really not much) is named "The Quiet Man This" and "The Quiet Man That". In Cong we were able to see traditional Irish thatched-roof cottages, the ruins of the Cong Abbey, dating back to the 7th century, and the Market Cross, a cross located in the middle of Cong's main street that was erected sometime between the 12th and 14th centuries. After Cong, we drove through some of the more scenic, quiet areas in Western Ireland. We stopped at both Lough Corrib and Lough Nafooey, two beautiful, large lakes, to take in the breathtaking scenery. We passed through small villages, like Leenane, where there were hardly any houses, just large expanses of valleys and hills that went on for miles and miles as well hoards of Irish sheep and Connemara ponies. Here are some photos from the first portion of our bus tour:

Ashton and me outside of Ross Errilly Friary.

One of the many rivers in the small village of Cong.

A traditional Irish thatched-roof cottage.

Some of the ruins of Cong Abbey.

The Market Cross.

Sheep grazing and Lough Corrib.

A Connemara pony and Lough Corrib.

This Connemara pony, Joey, and Ashton became friends. Note the similar facial expressions :)

Lough Nafooey.

Peaceful country life Leenane, Ireland.

The next place we visited was the main stop of our day-tour: Kylemore Abbey. This castle was built by Mitchell Henry for his wife Margaret and their nine children in the late 19th century after the two fell in love with the area on their honeymoon. The stunning castle was started in 1867 and completed four years later in 1871. Today, Kylemore Abbey is home to a community of nuns pertaining to the Benedictine Order. Only a few rooms of the castle are open for public viewing as the nuns use most of the Abbey for prayer and the like, but we were able to see the inner and outer halls, the drawing room, the community room, the dining room and the rear hall. The following photos are all of Kylemore Abbey.

The very majestic-looking Kylemore Abbey.

A black-and-white shot.

I'm sitting in front of Lough Pollacappul, one of the lakes on Kylemore Abbey's property.

The drawing room.

The dining room.

Kylemore Abbey's Neo-Gothic church, completed in 1881.

The small mausoleum that Mitchell Henry built for his wife after she passed away in 1874 at age 45. His cremated remains were also laid to rest in the mausoleum after he passed away years later in 1910 at age 85.

After walking through Kylemore Abbey and seeing its church, Ashton and I waited for the short shuttle ride that would take us to the Abbey's Victorian walled garden. The garden is six acres it contained twenty-one greenhouses, most of which, unfortunately, are not there today. Two of the greenhouses have been restored to their original condition along with the small Head Gardener's House. We were able to walk through the garden grounds, strolling through the herb garden, the formal flower garden and the nature trails that span the hills to the left of the Abbey. The following are some pictures from the gardens.

Entering the formal flower garden.

The Head Gardener's House.

Overlooking the kitchen garden and the herb garden.

One last photo of the grounds!

After walking through Kylemore Abbey's gardens, it was time to head back to the bus and make our way back to Galway. As you can see from my photos, it's no surprise that Connemara is one of the most scenic regions in Ireland. For me, its hills, peaks, valleys and lakes perfectly exemplify the peaceful solitude and rugged beauty to be found in western Ireland! I absolutely loved everything that I was able to see on the tour and would love to travel back to Ireland to explore even more of its beautiful western coast!

Day Four: Dublin

Since we didn't go out the night before, Ashton and I woke up around 9:30am Monday morning well-rested and ready to spend the day walking around Dublin. We started the day by walking around O'Connell Street and exploring the area near the Spire, a large, stainless steel "monument" that's just under 400 ft. tall. The monument is located on O'Connell Street and it's quite strange... it looks like a giant pin sticking out of the ground. We walked around the area for a bit, doing some shopping on the streets off of O'Connell Street near the River Liffey. We strolled along Grafton Street, one of the two main (and most expensive) shopping streets in the whole city of Dublin. Afterward, as it was such a nice day, Ashton and I headed to St. Stephen's Green, the largest of all the public parks in Dublin's main Georgian squares. St. Stephen's Square is a decent-sized park, full of ponds, trees and patches of flowers. It was crowded that afternoon, full of people strolling and students taking a break from studying; it reminded me a lot of Boston Common. After walking through the park, we made our way to the Temple Bar District, an area famous for its nightlife, live music and fun pubs. It's really popular with tourists and the most famous of all the bars in the area is Temple Bar. We made plans to head back to the Temple Bar area later that night and then we proceeded to wander around the city a little more. We saw the campus of Trinity College, Dublin and stopped for a snack of Irish tea and mixed-berry scones; they were absolutely delicious! Here are some pictures from our day spent around Dublin:

Setting out to walk around Dublin on a beautiful, sunny day!

O'Connell Street.

The River Liffey.

Doing some window shopping on Grafton Street.

Entering St. Stephen's Green.

What a lovely little park!

Irish doors!

Outside the famous Temple Bar.

Snack break! Enjoying my berry scone with fresh butter, jam and cream.

Ashton and her tea.

Trinity College, Dublin.

So collegiate-looking!

We ate a simple dinner back in Ashton's apartment before I packed up my backpack and made sure that everything was ready for my return to Spain the following morning. Backpack ready and stomach full of pasta, Ashton and I got ready and headed out for one last night together in Ireland. We did head back to the Temple Bar District, stopping to have a pint in a pub called the Quays (pronounced "keys"). After listening to some live music at the Quays, we went to Coppers, a popular club about a half an hour away from Ashton's apartment. We spent a few hours dancing and left around 3:00am. Since my plane was set to leave Dublin at 7:10am the following morning, Ashton and I didn't go to sleep after getting back to her place from Copper's. Instead, we waited around for a bit, made some coffee and toast and at 4:00am, we headed out to the airport shuttle bus stop where I waited to be picked up. I spent a few hours waiting in the airport and was able to board my plane without any problems; I was back in Granada by 2:30pm.

Once again, here's Ashton's blog entry about days three and four of my trip to Ireland. What a great long weekend I had! I can't wait to get back to Ireland and see more of the country!