Then there was March.

Pretend that this was posted in the beginning of March... ;)

Las Fallas has begun! Every day at 2:00 PM until March 19th there was a fireworks show called the Mascletás. This word along with pretty much any Las Fallas term is in Valencian, the language we do not speak! The whole city is buzzing with Fallas fever. Without warning, children are popping poppers and setting things on fire around every corner. If we didn't come to Spain with an anxiety disorder, we will definitely leave with one! Honestly though, we are getting more and more excited about this festival every day. We were definitely lucky to be in Spain during this time of the year to see something purely Valencian. The school even offered us a special class on Las Fallas and let me just say that the pictures will be worth the wait! As our mother says, it is the best festival in the world.. we'll see!

In other news, the Longwood girls have officially been to a bull fight!! We were lucky enough to be sitting next to a man born and raised in Valencia who explained the athletic aspects of the bull fight that one looks for in a good bullfighter. He explained the different roles that each of the men on the field contributed. We were also explained that bulls are raised their whole lives for this twenty minutes of suffering.
From my own personal perspective, you just don't know how sad it is to see a stadium full of people cheering at the death of an animal until you go to a bull fight. One bull was really smart in melting my previously hard heart by putting his cute little face over the wall. Ironically, I was assigned to write a paper on bull fighting the week before we went, my paper was in favor of continuing the tradition. After seeing the bull fight I won't be grabbing my picket sign anytime soon however I definitely won't be so quick to open my mouth in support of the massacre.

Word of the day; Matar-- To kill They audience was filled with screaming bullfighter fans "¡Mátalo!" "Kill it!!"

;) Janice

Tutoring.

It is my pleasure to finally introduce to you; Juan Luis also known as Juan Lu! Last week I went to tutor and Juan Luis' mother told me that we only had about 30 minutes to study as he was chosen to play on his select team that night. This was the best 30 minutes of studying Juan Lu and I have ever had. He was buzzing through his workbook to really maximize the time we had. He read it and slid the book to me as he repeated the information that he just memorized and repeated the process for the full thirty minutes. We're learning a lot about the Egyptian times!! After we studied for our full time, it was a hurricane to get his futbol stuff together and rush out of the door with him. He walked with me to the corner of the street where he had to leave to meet his dad in the parking garage. People in Spain park their cars in parking garages. The best way I have heard this city described is in comparison with downtown Richmond. Not too packed like New York but nevertheless it is a busy city where everyone lives in flats. What a wonderful day of tutoring!

30 Minutes to shred

I have officially come to LOVE our host mom. Around her daughter, she can get quite overwhelming. There is something about their relationship that we can't figure out but everything gets a little bit more intense when Maria Jesus -the daughter- is in the room.

The other day I got dressed for a run just to go outside to find it raining. When I came back inside momma Española said "It's raining outside! Come in, there's a health program on!" I entered to living room to see our mother standing in front of the TV where some women doing arm workouts. She tells me how to stand with one foot in front of the other; I did as I was told. Then as she notices the weight in the women's hands, she looks around the room and reaches for the candle and radio sitting next to her TV. With a 1970s radio in my hand and a vanilla candle in my mother's, we continue to swing our arms. Stretched out first to be even with the back leg and then with the front. Next, with our arms extended straight down, we lift our shoulders tightly and release. These were the only two exercises the women did, however we continued to work out through the first half of the program. When she released me from my workout I finished watching the program with her. Eventually she went upstairs to be with a friend at which point I switched the channel to watch scrubs in Spanish. Needless to say, I woke up sore the next day!

Ya está,
Janice

Febrero loco

In summation, February was just as the Spaniards say, crazy.. Febrero loco. We haven't written in a while because this week was midterm CRUNCH! We both had five exams the fifth of which we will take on Tuesday so we're still not exactly finished but this weekend we will act like we're finished! We're going out for Sangria and tapas tonight with some friends!
In February we learned a lot about our own culture. A teacher was appalled that we weren't familiar with the works of Elizabeth Taylor. She took us downstairs to the computer lab to pull her up online. One of us also learned that there every four years there is something that we call leap year in which there are only 28 days in February. We should be learning a lot about our own politics because I'm pretty sure these Spaniards know a ton more than we do about Obama than we do.
For the midterms, we began our study cram with some chocolate, snacks, and coke. To get out of the house we told our mom that we were meeting a friend downstairs to return a book. Then we got our snacks and coke put them in Katie's purse and snuck back in the house. One might ask, "Why all of the effort? Why not just tell her?" She would definitely lecture us for like 45 minutes on nutrition.
So February down, it's hard to believe that we've been here for so long already! Hasta Luego
Janice