Mis padres están parte 1

Happy Easter! I hope you all didn't eat as much candy as I did! My mother brought some Easter candy from the states, and now I feel gross, but it was great! The rents have been here for a while now. We bummed two days in Madrid (well there was really very little 'bumming' going on) spent one day in Segovia, one in Toledo, today in Madrid, and we are going to Salamanca (the city not the barrio) tomorrow. We went to a bull fight today. It was horrible. I know that I should have been fully aware of what I was getting myself into, but I wasn't ready for it. We were too close, and it was too painful to watch, but watch I did. And of course, I documented it. Photographing it was actually easier, b/c it removed me from watching it in real life. You could see the bull getting crazier by the minute, blood shining on it's back. The way it works is that a man on a horse stabs it to get the blood flowing. Then a few matadors stab it with decorative daggers and then the matador shoves a sword all the way in it's back. After if staggers to the ground another matador comes and cuts it's spinal cord to make it more "humane" so the bull doesn't feel it (granted this is at the END). Also, it consisted of 6 fights/kills, so I got to watch various bulls being killed and then dragged off the stadium by three horses. We did leave before the last one though. I understand this is a necessary cultural experience in Spain, but it is an experience I have no desire to have again. I spent most of it crying. It really was that bad. Just looking at the bull, in it's confusion and stress and fear. It's really awful to watch in real life.

Extremadura: WIPT trip

Hola! Our trip to Extremadura was a fortnight ago! I'm so bad at keeping these up to date. It's already Semana Santa (holy week/spring break), I am not traveling to far away lands though b/c the rents are coming--and I am really excited to see them! We will be doing a few trips around Madrid to places I haven't been yet either and that are very noteworthy, beautiful, etc.

Anyway, Extremadura is one of the 17 autonomies in Spain. The whole WIPT group went (minus a few lame-os, jk jk but really why would you not go! it was great!) which is about 100 of us. It contrasted greatly to the other trip we took with a huge group of Americans (to carnaval). They were all quite well behaved (but then again we weren't going to carnaval). We visited 3 cities in two days---yeah, it was a lot, but I wasn't in charge and just went where I was told, so it was super! We went to Mérida on to stay in Cáceres for the night and then to Trujillo en route to Madrid. Though these are less popular tourist destinations in Spain, they were amazing, especially Trujillo. It just so happened there was a medieval festival the day we were there, so we ate good food, saw silly people in costumes, and poor Ben was volunteered against his will to be dressed in armor (Paula was the culprit--not me!) but he was a good sport. Trujillo was also in the country-ish and it was absolutely breathtaking with the winds blowing through green rolling hills, and grassy ruins.

Also, Burt came along on the trip with his friends Clarence.

Extremadura is also filled with cranes, so you will see some very nice crane pics. BTW Ben took these photos (for the most part) He has been on camera withdrawal since his broke and I get bored sometimes taking pics...

Las Fallas: Valencia

I am really getting behind in posting! Las Fallas was already two-weeks ago I think... and I have already made another trip to Extremadura, that I will have to talk about later! Any way Las Fallas is a festival that takes place in Valencia. It lasts a week, but we went on the last day, which is also arguably the best day. What this festival consists of (besides the usual things that all festivals consist of: food and drink) is "muñecas" or "fallas" which are large to giant sculptures that artists spend the year making only to have it destroyed on the last day of the festival in a giant flaming ball of gasoline and fireworks. One falla is saved each year (I think it is a contest-so the 'best' one is saved) and sent to a 'falla museum'. The entire city is filled with these sculptures. We spent the whole day walking around trying to see them all before they burned and we didn't even scratch the surface of the total falla population. I will try to include as many pictures as I have patience to load, because they are all so cool! Most of the time the statues are satirical and make commentary on politics and political leaders. (so, a lot of that probably went over my head, and I just enjoyed them at face value).

Going to Valencia for a day was hectic. We left at 8am, got there at noon and then left at 5am the next morning to get back at 9am. It was a LONG day, but I think it was one of the best days I've had since being in Spain. There were so many moments that were utterly stunning, shocking, scary, beautiful, confusing, disorienting, etc, etc, etc that it ended up being purely enjoyable. The first falla we saw ignited was, in my opinion, the best, only because we didn't really know what to expect. What they do is tie cord (with fireworks/exploding things on it) around the entire sculpture and then douse it in gasoline. The cord is tied to a nearby building and then the cord is lit and you watch the fire approach the falla, and then you watch the falla burn. This is accompanied by the sounds of the loudest exploding fireworks ever, so it is visually and audibly overwhelming. We were much to close on the first one, and therefore it was also physically painful because we were getting pelleted with the exploding fireworks. Please enjoy the photos. there are going to be too many. (I included one of a broken falla so you can see what it is made of).