30·3·2010

This fallas were absolutely great!
Fallas are a Valencian traditional celebration (celebrated in March) in honor of Saint Joseph. In this celebration the artista fallero designs the falla of one neighborhood (a falla is also the monument created by the artista fallero). A falla is a kind of monument made by paper, wood, cork… and in this monument the artista fallero criticizes something about the politics, sports, music… of the Comunitat Valenciana or the country. These monuments are fitted in some neighborhoods and villages of Valencia the 15th of March; this act is called la plantà. After this day the Comissió fallera give a prize to all the fallas. There are a lot of seccions (they are categories) and only 3 fallas, of each category, win. The 17th and the 18th is the ofrenda a la verge dels desamparats. The falleros go to La plaza de la Virgen an offer flowers to the Cheperudeta (Valencia’s Virgin). The 18th night is La nit del foc. This night the pirotècnics (a person who makes fireworks) fill Valencia with a lot of fireworks; it’s a lovely night. After the fireworks there are a lot of parties. Finally the 19th is la cremà, the last day of Fallas. This day fallas are burned.
This year my falla, Falla Gilet (The falla of my village), won the first prize of the second and the third secció. The big falla was in the third category and the small falla was in the second. My falla compete with the fallas of Sagunto, Puerto de Sagunto and Faura (another village near of mine). In Valencia the falla Convento de Jerusalem won the first prize of the special category (the most beautiful and elaborate category). Honestly I think that this falla wasn’t the best, my favorite falla was the falla El Pilar. This year, in my opinion, the monuments were uglier than last year, well… because of the crisis, I think. I passed the most part of my time this fallas going to Valencia. I went to Valencia everyday because I like to listen to the mascletà, I like to see the monuments (specially the monuments that compete in the secció especial), I like to go to the parties at night and I love La nit del foc, so this year I didn’t pass so much time in my falla, but I went to have lunch in my casal everyday.
I enjoyed the fallas a lot this year and I want to enjoy this celebration next year as well.
Now I have already started my lessons at university. It’s hard to start again after fifteen days of holidays but now I have to make up all these hours that I have spent enjoying myself.
Now we have Easter holidays, but I think I won’t go anywhere, because I have spent a lot of money in my travel to Bristol and at Fallas, however I think I could enjoy my Easter (although I won’t go to a camping with my friends).

BRISTOL

Here I leave some photos of some places I went in England!:


BRIDGE (BRISTOL)

PIER (WESTON-S-MARE)

PIER(CLEVEDON)



I am in Spain again! I came back to Spain this Monday. I passed a really lovely time in Bristol, I feel like going to England again! I liked everything about this country, well, except some little things like the weather (It is always cold and raining), the hours for lunch and dinner (It is always very early for me), the people’s character (They are very quiet and they are not very friendly) and I hate the poor hygiene of this country; it is absolutely horrible! The British don’t use napkins neither tablecloth, they don’t pass the mop and they don’t clean very often (Their personal hygiene is also very poor, the 60% of the British men don’t clean their hands after going to the loo- I watched it in a TV program in Bristol)
I passed the rest of my days in Bristol going to small villages near Bristol like Clevedon, Weston-S-Mare etc. I love all these small villages. All these villages had a small beach. The water of them was very very dirty so they weren’t so beautiful. But I loved the centre of the villages with their small shops, cafés, cinemas and restaurants and I liked so much their piers (I think I have written the word correctly). A peer is a kind of jetty at the beach, they were lovely. Weston-S-Mare’s peer was burned down in 2008 and they were rebuilding it when I went to saw it; I think it will be more beautiful than before (I have seen the photos of the old peer and I have seen the plan of the new peer and it is lovely). Weston-S-Mare’s peer was quite famous in England, because it wasn’t only a jetty it was also a kind of amusement park with restaurants (I took some photos of it).
Now I am going to enjoy the fallas! I love fallas. I am fallera so I have a very busy agenda this week. Now I have to go to the casal fallero with all my friends and then we will have dinner in the carpa. Tonight we will go to Valencia, we need a big party! And tomorrow I think we will go to Valencia to see the fallas, which are better than in Sagunto (much much better) and then I think we will go to “La nit del foc”, I am really excited!!

BRISTOL.10.3.10

I’m passing the Magdalena in a village called Clevedon, the village is next to Bristol (England). I got to Bristol de 5^th March and I will leave the town the 15^th March. Bristol is great, I love it! I really love England, it’s nice and different, well… and a bit odd, you know, they drive different than us, they have pounds…

I’m living with Raquel and Pete, a young couple. She is Spanish and works as a teacher in Clevedon’s primary school, and he is an English man and works as an engineer. They live in a lovely house next to the coast of Clevedon (We can see Wales from Clevedon’s coast!).

These days we went to Bristol and we saw different beautiful places of the town, like the University, It was amazing!

Today I’ve gone to Clevedon’s Primary school and I’ve been a “helper” (a person who helps the teacher). The children in British schools are more polite than Spanish children; they always say “thank you”, “please” and “sorry” for everything. In the school teachers are constantly telling off the children for everything they do. I’ve been in penguins class. The children of this class were 6 or 7 years old. When the class started one child read for me and I have to help him while the others were learning maths and English language. At first was difficult to me to understand the children because they spoke very quickly to me, as if I were English and some of them were embarrassed to speak with me and they spoke to me very quietly and I couldn’t understand a word! Then I started to understand them so much better. In history class I was in charge of one group of children. They were writing a composition about the Caribbean Islands. One of the children, Tom, had problems with his redaction and was always asking to me his doubts. He was very very patient and I could explain to him how to write. Then we went to the playground. I think I’ve learnt so much with the children, they’ve taught to me a lot of things, they are very nice. After playing in the playground we went to have lunch at the dining hall. The dining halls in British schools are very different of Spanish’s. Each child brings his own dinner, well, his own sandwich and his our snacks, but in the school’s dining halls they didn’t serve food. After dinner we went to the midwife because Raquel is pregnant so she has to go every month, I think. Then we returned home and Raquel and Pete went to the College (Pete is studying Spanish and Raquel is still studying English) so I was alone in home. I went for a walk at 3 o’clock. I went to see Clevedon’s shops and big houses. I bought a hot chocolate and I drank it at the coast. Then I’ve returned home and I think we go to have dinner already.

I’ll take some photos of Clevedon, Bristol, the penguin class and Raquel and Pete’s house and I’ll put them in my blog when I return to Spain.