Jessica

¡Hola!

My third weekend here has been the best so far.  On Saturday, I went to the beach and spent all day marinating.  At night, Andy and I relaxed on the beach and watch the most spectacular fire works show I have ever seen.  They were set off on the beach just a hundred yards from where we were.  One type looked like jellyfish swimming through the ocean.  My favorite type went up in the air, landed in the ocean, and exploded off the water.  These fire works were so loud that the noise hurt my ears, but it was cool feeling the vibrations of the explosions.  These fire works would definitely be outlawed in Georgia ! 

    
On Sunday, we went to the L'Oceanografic.  Each building had fish, sharks, and other marine life from a different ocean.  It was fun watching the sea lions play; I even got a cute picture of one sleeping.  The dolphin show was amazing.  There where about 12 well trained dolphins.  For one trick, they jump at least 20 feet to touch the hand of their trainer.  Overall, the atmosphere was good; the crowd was excited, the dolphins were very excited because it was feeding time, and the trainers set up an entertaining performance.  There was a bird area with several types of birds.  The interesting part was that you could see their nests and the little baby birds.  This oceanographic is bigger than the Atlanta aquarium and has several more attractions.  I would compare it to being a mini Sea World.

  
On Monday, we went to the bullfight of novilleros versus torros.  Novilladas are toreadors in training.  It wasn´t as gory as I thought it was going to be.  When the crowd enjoyed what the fighters were doing, they clapped, and when they disapproved, they whistled.  Two nice ladies were sitting next to us and were more than happy to explain parts of the fight that we did not understand.  They even shared their mini empanadas with us.  We found out that when the crowd waves their seat cushions it is because they want the novillero to cut off the ear of the bull and give it to someone in the crowd.  Most of the crowd did not like the picadors, men on armored horses with a spear called a vara, and to show their dislike, the crowd whistled.  I myself did not like the picadors; maybe it's because they involved the horses in the fight.  The bandilleros were the novillada's assistances with magenta capes.  They tier the bull before the novillada comes out with his red cape, and they help when the novillada drops his cape.  I took several pictures and videos of the fights because there were six fights, two for each bull fighter.  I didn't take pictures of the final attack though.  It was hard for me to take.  One second the bull was tired and bloody but standing and alive, and the next second he falls over and is dead and stiff.  It wasn't how I thought they would die.  Overall, this was an important cultural event for me to see, but I did not care to go back to a bullfight.

1. Vicente Blasco Ibáñez is an author who was born is Valencia in 1867. Blasco Ibáñez was a member of the Republican party and the editor of El Pueblo , which spoke against monarchy. He was arrested for speaking against the government and was exiled from Spain . He wrote books such as Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1916), Mare Nostrum (1918), and Los enemigos de la mujer (1919). Many of the books took place in Valencia and had his political and social views. Any book store in Valencia has his works. The picture below a couple of his books that we found at the book store.

2. Joaquín Sorolla is a painter that studied painting in Valencia , where he was born. He then studied in Madrid and copied paintings from a museum. In Rome , he developed the ability to paint with light effects. When Sorolla returned to Madrid , his paintings were in great demand. The Hispanic Society of America commissioned him to paint decorative scenes for its library in New York City . The collection is now in a museum, the Museo Sorolla, in the artist's house in Madrid (Saint-André.) The picture below is called "The Horse Bath."

3. A barraca is a traditional house in the Valencia country side. It is basically a hut, square or circle, made of mud plaster, brick, and straw. We saw many of these structures on our regional six hour train ride from Madrid to Vaencia.

4. Chufas are not nuts, but edible tubers with a slightly sweet, nutty flavour. They are hard and are generally soaked in water before they can be eaten according to the lady at the horchata stand. I went to a small horchateria and the vendor gave me a chufa to try. By itself, the chufa did not taste good and was extremely dry, but as a drink, it is quite refreshing.

5. The oldest horchateria is Horchateria de Santa Catalina is the oldest horchateria. The workers said that the tiles are orginal. We went there and got fartons, type of bread with powered sugar, and an ice horchata. This is truly that way to have it. As a drink, it is good, but as an icy, it is so much better. Andy took a couple of pictures of me outside the horchateria and sipping the drink.

6. The song below is about Valencia . A translation wouldn´t do this song justice, but it basically is about the important things in Valencia : the oranges, barracas, flowers (there´s several sunflower crops out in the country side). The song is also about the people of Valencia . Below is a picture of sunflower in Valencia because I thought of the sunflower patches we passed riding on the train.

Valencia¨ - Helmut Lotti

" Valencia es la tierra de las flores

De la luz y del amor

Valencia tus mujeres todas tienende la rosas el color

Valencia la sentir como perfume

En tus huertos el azaharquisiera en la tierra

Valencianamis amores encontrar

La blanca barraca la flor de naranjo

La huerta pulida de almendros en flor

La turia de plata y el cielo turguesa

Y el sol Valenciana van diciendo amor

Amores en Valencia son floridos

Como ramos de azahar

Quereres en Valencia sus mujeres

Con en alma suelen dar

Pasionens en la huerta Valenciana

Si le dan el corazon

Sus hembras ponen alma y ponen vida

En un beso de pasion

Valencia es la tierra de las flores

De la luz y del amor

Valencia tus mujeres todas tienende la rosas el color

Valencia la sentir como perfume

En tus huertos el azaharquisiera en la tierra

Valenciana mis amores encontrar"

7. Most famous Valencian Acrhitect is Santiago Calatrava. This is kind of obvious; he's the one who designed La Ciudad de Los Artes y Ciencias or The City of Arts and Sciences. No expense was spared on this place. What is cool is that I can see the buildings from several locations in the city. The observatory is shaped like an eye and opens when people are gazing at the stars. To me, the opera house looks like a space ship. The oceanographic reminds me of the Sydney opera house. Everything is this area is a piece of art. They take an ordinary vent and put a mosaic design and shape it to look like a huge star. Below are several pictures of the architecture.

8. La fideuá is similar to paella except that instead of rice, it has hollow noodles and the meat is all seafood. Unfortunately, I did not have a good experience because the place where I tried it burnt the noodles and there were tiny pieces of shell that I bit on several times. Hopefully other people had better luck than me with it.

9. Acequias are irrigation channels to provide water for farming. The Moors constructed several of the acequias that are still standing today. Water is extremely important to the people of Valencia especially after the water was routed out of the city because of flooding problems. There is a water court by the church to settle disputes over rights to water; this is the oldest legal system still intact in Spain . Below is a picture of an acequias, and a picture of the area where the water court is held.

10. Dama de Elche, the famous but controversial Lady of Elx is a polychrome stone bust that was revealed as found by chance in 1897 at L'Alcúdia, an archaeological site that was on a private estate about 2 km, south of Elx in Alicante. The Lady of Elx is generally believed to be Iberian art of the 4th century B.C., or of the Hellenistic or the Roman periods. The bust is usually thought to represent a woman wearing a very complex headdress and big coils on each side of the face. A minority interpretation sees it representing a man. The aperture in the rear of the sculpture indicates it may have been used as a funerary urn ( Sanchez Cascales .)

Web Cites Used

Sanchez Cascales , Ezequiel. The Lady of Elche . http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/esanchez/dama.htm

Saint-André, Peter. Joaquín Sorolla, Painter . http://www.saint-andre.com/thoughts/sorolla.html

Rice

Rice was introduced to Spain by the Moors. Since then, Valencia has been one of the primary production areas for rice of Spain . The rice is short, round, and sticky when cooked because it has a lot of starch. It becomes yellow rice when saffron seasoning is added; this is used for paella. The world's largest paella was cooked here in Valencia ; I know because the post card I bought says so. The pictures below depict traditional paella valenciana and arroz y blanco.

Silk

La Lonjna, or The Silk Exchange, is a monument of the city. It was built between 1482 and 1492 by Pere Compte. La Lonja is a beautiful set of buildings with a court yard that has orange trees. Everything is so ornate, especially the ceiling. Parts of it look like a castle because of the tops on the roofs. There is the Tower, the Consulado del Mar room, Patio de los Naranjos ( Orange tree courtyard), and the Column Room. The pictures below are of the Lonja including one of Andy being enlightened. This is one place that you have to see in person to truly see its beauty.

Ceramics

When the Moors conquered Spain during the early middle ages, they introduced technology such as advanced pottery techniques. Glazes and lusters were a major improvement to make beautiful lasting finishes. These ceramics were valued all over Europe . There is a museum that has old ceramics that survived the time; the style is very Moorish with the geometric patterns. Below are a couple of ceramics from the middle ages.

Yachts

The other day, we went to the America´s Cup port and checked out the free setup paid by Louis Vuitton. The building had several screens playing the history of America´s Cup. We also got to see some of the racing yachts and models of various winners throughout the years. Unfortunately, not everything was open because the actual race is not until next year; there was much construction going on when we visited.  One picture is of the building for America´s Cup and the other is a picture of the racing yatch.

Citrus Products

Valencia´s fruit is the orange. Everywhere we walk, there are orange trees growing in the parks and in avenues in the street. These trees are just for decoration and a symbol of Valencia , but I wish I could reach out and grab one of the ripe oranges. I´ve enjoyed getting oranges from the market. They are so much better here because they are ripened on the tree much longer.

San Jose

Las Fallas de San Jose is Valencia 's most international festival. In the week of 19 March, the city fills with gigantic cardboard monuments, called ninots for a competition that is marked by art, ingenuity and good taste. The origin of the celebration goes back to the carpenter's parot: these were wooden lamps used to light their workshops in winter, which they would burn out in the street on the night before the feast of San José . At first they would make them look like human forms by decorating them with old clothes and fabric. In the mid-19th century, however, they began to increase in size and height and to improve their forms, becoming huge decorative statues. We went to the fallas museum, but we were not allowed to take pictures inside. I learned the history in a video that the museum showed our group. The fallas were very detailed dating all the way back to the early 1930s. The only picture we could take was a group shot outside the museum. I did however get a book and some post cards because the fallas looked so interesting.

Fireworks

The fireworks here are amazing. For the month of July, every Saturday at 10pm there is a fireworks show at Las Arenas beach. While relaxing on the beach, we had the best view I have ever had for a fireworks show. They are very popular in Spain ; whenever there is a celebration going on, you can be sure there will be fireworks. We took some cool photos of the fireworks.

Water- Beach at Altea

Altea is a beautiful pueblo on a hill. We walked from the top of the hill down to the beach where there were huge rock formations. The water was so clear and light blue. I enjoyed just looking around the Pueblo , but getting to swim in the water made the trip even better. Below are pictures of the beautiful beach.

El Idioma Valenciano

Spain has a national language, Castillian (Spanish), and several regional languages. In Valencia , the regional language is Valenciano. In the center of the city, I do not here much of it spoken, but when I go out to the beach, I here it a lot more. It is different enough that I can not understand the language. Several signs are written both in Spanish and Valenciano. The pictures below show examples of signs in both languages.