Fallas Time Again!!

So, yes, I know I promised more posts about our trip, but the last week has kept me too busy to fulfill my promises.  I did get some other things I needed to do out of the way to leave me freer to do what I want/need to do, but there have been a lot of other things going on keeping me busy.  It didn't help matters that Eric seemed to react to the spring pollen outside with a swollen face and goopy eyes.  One morning it was so bad that I ended up bringing Eric into the doctor's office to see if there was something I could do for him.  The ER doctor gave me a prescription for a medication to help with "allergies," and it seemed to help him.  After talking with the doctor for awhile about my other doctor, I decided that I will likely change Eric's doctor after his next checkup next week.  I'll write more about that then.  This week, I should have had a lot more free time to get caught up, but with it being falls week/weekend, we have a lot of activities planned that will probably keep us a bit too busy.

Poor Eric woke up with a swollen face and goopy eyes!!!

Those who have been to the Valencian community, or who have been following this blog and saw our fallas post last year, will know what I am talking about.  For those who don't, though, I will just say that it is a crazy Valencian holiday in which they fill the streets with expensive paper-mache and wood (and more modernly often styrofoam) statues that criticize many un-liked aspects of life, and then burn them at the end of the week, symbolically purifying and destroying the bad.  The town is divided into many different fallas districts each with their own fallas statues.  The people of each falla are called falleros (and falleras), and they dress up in elaborate traditional outfits.  On the more casual days, or for night clubbing, they usually wear a blusón.  Eric still has the same blusón that he wore last year, and I tried it on him, and it seems to fit perfectly.  So, he will be wearing his blusón many of the days, like the day that he goes on the chiquí-tren of the escoleta to go see some of the fallas with the other kids.

Eric and I on the Chiquí tren of the Escoleta

We also have borrowed the same saragüell that he wore last year; that is one of the traditional fallero outfits.  His mother in law also bought him a new pair of traditional shoes called espardeñas.  I'm looking forward to dressing him up as a fallero because I know he will be very cute.  Sadly, he no longer lets us put anything on his head, so he won't be wearing the little cap that goes with the outfit.

Eric and I with his crocodile ninot for the Escoleta's falla

To begin the week, we had to bring in a ninot for the kids' falla at the Escoleta.  Each kid was to make a ninot out of recycled things.  A ninot is one of the smaller statues/characters that comprise the bigger falla statue.  Most years the ninots are pretty simple.  I was impressed by the level of work/creativity displayed this year.  A lot of parents had taken the time to make paper mache forms, which they had later painted.
We, though, made a simpler ninot out of empty egg cartons, rubber bands and twisty ties.  Despite being simple, quick and easy, I think he looked just as good as some of the more elaborate ninots.

In front of the Escoleta's falla

On Tuesday, we had Maite's buñuelo-making class.  Buñuelos are basically pumpkin doughnuts that are very typical to this area, especially during fiestas like the fallas.  Eric was tired and hadn't wanted to eat any breakfast, but once he tried Maite's buñuelos, he was hooked.  He ended up eating a lot of them.

Eric likes buñuelos

On Wednesday we had a goodbye brunch for one of the girls from the Escoleta who is moving to Germany.  It was also the day they set up of falla; the day of the plantá.

We stopped to see the falla Centro

On Thursday we went on the chiqui-tren excursion.  It was a lot of fun.  Eric behaved really well on the train itself, but when we stopped to get out and see the falla Centro, Eric didn't want to sit still and stay with the rest of the group.  I was watching one of the other kids whose parents didn't come along on the trip, and I ended up having to give him to Maite to watch so that I could chase after Eric.  They hadn't finished putting up their falla, so there was a construction crane there, and I was busy making sure that Eric wasn't going up to/underneath it.  He kept running around, and when I would try to get him to go back to the group, he would throw himself down on the ground and scream!  I ended up letting him run around and tire himself out.   

It must have worked because on Thursday night, Eric went to sleep at his usual time, and didn't wake up until 7AM the next morning.  That is the first time that Eric has slept through the whole night- that many hours, at least.  On Friday, they didn't burn their falla because they can't.  They planned on doing some sort of "purifying" ritual to destroy the falla like they have other years, but the ninots were so impressive this year that they couldn't decide on any winners, and decided that they all deserved to be saved.  So, everyone was allowed to pick their ninot up to bring back home.

Eric kept running, and couldn't sit still!

On Saturday Eric got dressed up in his blusón again and we took a walk around town to see a few of the fallas.  Eric rode in his tricycle.  He doesn't seem to be bothered much by the noise of the constant firecrackers, except for, maybe, the big one that woke him from his afternoon nap.  He had fun running around the falla of the grupo of marineros, where his Spanish grandma and grandpa live.  They will likely have activities during the next couple of days; at the very least, we will eat outside in the street with the rest of the neighbors on Sunday and Monday.  Eric will also have opportunities to eat more buñuelos and some thick hot chocolate.

Monday is San José, which is fathers' day here in Spain.  It is also the day that you have to greet everybody whose namesake saint is Joseph/José, which means that you have to go around kissing 90% of all people around town (at least in the over 45 age group) for some reason or other.  I personally don't celebrate a Saint's day for my name, so it's not my favorite thing to have to try to figure out everybody else's saint day, hunt them down, and say "Happy whatever day" to them.  St. Joseph's day, though, is the most annoying because everybody here seems to have some form of Joseph in their name.  So, it's not just all of the José's and Josefa's, it's also all of the Pepe's and Pepita's, Maria José's, Jose Marías...

Our train for the chiquí-tren excursion

That said, San José can also be lots of fun after all of the greeting is done.  It's the day of the parade where the falleros bring flowers to the virgin patron saint of Valencia.  It's also the day (night) that they end up finally burning the fallas statues.

I'll try to keep you all posted with pictures and stories.
Once this week is done, I will get back to telling you about our trip again; I promise.

Before I leave you, though, I will leave you with some pictures of one of the projects I finished, Eric's little kitchen.  I patterned it to look like mine.  If I had known better how to hang hinges, I would have made it much, much quicker.  It was a learning process for me, though, and I ended up making and re-making the oven part over the last two weeks.  In the end, it was simple, and I used a picture frame from a "chino" (Spanish dollar store alternative- more expensive than a dollar store, though) covered with a metallic, sterling silver finish contact paper.

To make things more interesting, I cut a hole for a cheap, small alarm clock screen so that the oven would have its own clock.  I covered that panel with leftover acrylic used for the oven door and stovetop to protect the clock a bit more.  The sink is just a leftover dog dish that we no longer use, and I got the faucet at the flea market for 1 euro.  The stove was a lot of fun to make.  I just photoshopped an electric stovetop, which is just white concentric circles on a black background.  It looks like mine.  I printed it out on waterproof photo paper, and covered it with clear acrylic to look like a glass stovetop.

Eric is always so obsessed with opening and closing my cupboards and drawers in the kitchen, so I figured that he would love to have his own.  The only problem is that I added a magnetic latch to keep the cupboards closed, and the magnet is too strong for him to be able to open them by himself yet.  So, I guess I'll either have to take them off for now, or cover them somehow so that the magnet isn't quite so strong.  He does have fun open in and closing the oven, though, and taking out and putting in the various trays.  I actually made the oven to fit the trays that I already had.   I put in some square wooden dowels on the sides of the oven so that the trays could slide in and out.

I am not a big fan of plastic kids'  kitchens and food, so when Maite brought us back the cloth food from IKEA, along with some metal pots and pans, I was happy with how perfectly it looked in Eric's kitchen- which just happens to be patterned to look like my IKEA kitchen.  The counter is actually a piece of leftover counter from mine, making the match that much more perfect.  I found a few more small utensils and a cheap, small teapot after more shopping at "chinos," and Eric's kitchen was set to go.  He seems to have fun with it.

The only problem with the cloth food is that the dogs seem to want to play with it too.  This morning we found a cloth garlic head covered in doggy slobber, and it's now ready to wash!!!  Oh well; I guess I'll have to keep a better eye on them from now on.

Well, I'd better get to bed.  Tomorrow is the biggest falla day.  I'll tell you about it later!