Dinner, Parade, Fireworks, and BBQ

Sorry for the long wait since my last blog... I was going to write this on Monday, and here I am Friday. My only excuse is pure laziness... oops.

I will just talk about last weekend, as I want to talk about this week (Fallas) all at once in my next blog. Friday night I got together with a bunch of people that I met on the trip to Granada. We met for dinner, and then went to two clubs (Studio and Zenith). Dinner was fun, especially getting to talk to some of the people again. We ate at a place that served plate after plate of food... like the tapas I ate in Granada. It is always good to get a nice variety of food, but I rarely am full after that type of meal.

Maybe I should have taken the picture before we ate everything...

After dinner, we went to the clubs. Studio is free entrance, so we went there first before it got too crowded. I randomly met 3 Californian girls there who were just passing through on a trip through Spain. When I first got here, I didn't care too much if I saw another American. Now, it is fun because there aren't many of us here! Then we went to Zenith, which isn't the best but we had free entrance tickets. There weren't many people there at first, but more started showing up as the night got on. I ended up at home at 7 am... yes, another late night, but I am starting to get used to them.

I love stealing group photos... they never knew...

So, Saturday night Jessica Potter invited me to tag along to a colorful Mascletá and Ninot Parade in the center. We met up with Mike, a guy from Missouri, and a Peruvian-Irish girl and a Columbian girl. Before the fireworks, they had the parade in the streets... and I have never seen anything like it before in my life! Most of the floats were very political in nature (complaints about lack of water, water prices, lack of parking, etc.). I didn't understand a lot of the floats because of their political nature, and because most signs were written in Valencian, instead of Spanish. There were also a lot of cross dressers... both of the male and female variety. Really scary drag queens. Also, there were bands and choreographed dances to music. There were so many not Politically Correct floats and costumes that such a parade could never occur in the US... lawsuits would be filed faster than one of those drag queens could put on lipstick. After the parade, they lit of the "Castillos", or fireworks that go up in the sky. Not as varied and interesting as US firework displays, but much louder (as is the style here in Valencia). Here are some pictures and a video of the night:

Falleras and Drag Queens!

The Pope and Superheroes?

Cowboys (Americans) and Indians!

Buñuelos and Chocolate! Yum! Chocolate bad though.

Sorry for the bad quality...

I ended up getting home around 2:30 or 3 am that night... not as late as Friday, but later than I had expected. Then, Sunday afternoon Jessica invited me to a BBQ at her place! There were about 10 or so of us, and it was a lot of fun. One of the people is another Montanan, Kelsey, who just started studying here this semester. She was Ellen Story's roommate in Bozeman (and Ellen was the roommate of Chandra Shaw, whom a lot of my family should know). I had a pork chop and a hamburger with no bun :). I had my camera with me, but once everyone arrived I just forgot about taking pictures. After that, I went home... did some homework, procrastinated a lot... you know the drill.

  BBQ for me and you! And some other people I guess...

Now here I am in Fallas! Things are getting crazy... I saw a kid get taken in an ambulance after getting hurt by a firework. There are definitely a million or more people tightly packed in the streets of Valencia at all hours of the day and night, and people are launching fireworks into the crowds! Everyone just has to be careful for the next few nights... hopefully after Fallas things will calm down a little.

Ok, that is all for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend, and see you next week with information of what I did during Fallas!!!!