A moment to Relax

I just finished a highly recommendable karoke session:


Dont be afraid to take seven minutes and enjoy the tune. I just did and so did my neighbors. Go ahead and sing along with Ray, Bob, Bruce, Cyndi and Tina- The lyrics are there for that reason.



Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, produced by Quincy Jones, recorded by popular musicians to raise funds to help famine-relief efforts in Ethiopia which experienced unusual drought in 1985.

And here is the new version for Haiti. Double the fun. Sing Along.

FALLLLLLAAAAAS

First things first, have I mentioned that Spanish people are crazy?!! Well, they are.

Where to start..... Well if i have to pick one word to summarize the whole event i would say "PETER" (yep, as in my brother) I thought of him all weekend long. I think it was a huge festival that he organized and invented in his previous life and it is still around today.
(take a look at the name of this store....)

Fireworks, firecrackers, loud noise, huge beautiful works of art burning, more fireworks and more firecrackers.

My first major event was the mascletas....... Take the grand finale of any typical fourth of the july firework show and put it in a little cage inside a little square. Then let all the people gather in until it is packed and enjoy the sound: The coolest thing about the mascletas was that it was basically a loud sound show in which the pyrotechnic achieved an awesome beat with the sounds of the fireworks. Do I need to remind you of the sounds? The screamers, the ones that go up and go "pop, pop, pop" and ones that are just plain loud bangs. AMAZING and worth the whole trip. I did not want it end. Little did i know what was to come.........

This was the typical scene all day long.

They teach thier children very young. Seconds later this father was teaching his daughter to put her foot over it once it was lit. What a beautiful family event.See all these people. Well, during the fallas everyone walks up and down the streets like this all the while lighting firecrackers. There is not really any moment of silence, someone somewhere is always lighting something.
These are all the Fallas. They are all satires about one thing or another. How many? I have no clue, they seem to be on every other street corner. And in the end they are all burned to the ground......

Javi and his "cherokee"

This was the best falla...... Imagine that huge thing burning down. (by the way i think they dose them in gas and put all these ropes all over them so they burn down in a matter of minutes)This is Fernando Alonso (it says kiss my butt on his shirt)Hmmm I dont understand this one.

this is NOT a falla. it is a giant statue of mary. Her entire gown is made of roses. It smelled wonderful. (its just another part of the whole celebration)

This is the traditional costume that they wear for the event. Yep, princess liea style hair and all. This boy was not happy about his grandmother forcing him to dress up.

Churros. Around here they are a dime a dozen. (If you come visit me i will treat you to churros. eh hem. yes, i am advertising spain and people visiting me)This the best i can explain this moment: Burning........Heat..... Fireworks.... huge red ashes falling all over us. Hotness. Dont look up. More fireworks. more noise. Firefighters. water. shouting. bang. bang. More fireworks. What the heck kind of celebration is this. We are all going to die!

In conclusion the fallas were awesome and I highly recommend anyone who has the opportunity to check it out.... I know i left a lot of things without explanation, but I am blogged out. totes

One last thing. we saw a wedding coming out of a church. these are all the people throwing rice on the bride and groom. they still do that here.

I saw a great Michael Jackson impersonation in the Metro today.

And this led me to think of Katie Pryor..... lets see if i can find that video:

Here we go.... Farmapalooza 2009 and a friendly game of charades. Her first major character is Michael Jackson, followed by Elvis. I love Katie Pryor.

Anyways, anyone who knows me should know who Katie Pryor is. She is a very important character in my life and probably my only remaining babyfriend besides my siblings. Actually, I dont know if i had many friends as a baby, but thats not the point. The deal is that Katie I go waaaaaaay back. I miss her and if she doesnt hate me after seeing this video posted on my blog, I would like to take opportunity to beg her to come to freaking Spain someday. (freaking is not intended to be derrogatory towards spain, but rather adds strength and emphasis to the plea as a whole)

And don't worry I didnt forget, the river in Chicago is green, that means happy saint Patricks day to Everyone. :)

When is daylight savings time in Spain?

I know that it has happened in the United States, but I have no clue as to when it will happen here in Spain. Why does it happen at different times ?....... (secretly i want an excuse to accidently miss a class. I think i am better off not looking it up)

Last week my favorite class was in the Prado Museum. I have not been there for a long time. I think my student and I looked at a total of 7 paintings in 1.5 hours. AWESOME. I always forget how much better it is to see paintings 'live' instead of seeing them in a book. Its like going to a concert or listening to a CD......We saw Raphael, Patinir, Valazquez, and Goya. I was not familiar with Patinir works before; He is a german artist known for distinct use of blues (from what i have seen in his horizons). One of the paintings we saw is below. Well, and we looked at a few other paintings. My student is very intelligent and has a conservative educational background. He has strong and unique opinions about topics that I find very interesting and sometimes quite abstract. I really enjoy my classes with him.

For those of you who dont really care about art or daylight savings time, you might be interested in my climbing life. Yesterday we went to Cuenca. I climbed about five routes in an area called... well i dont remember, but thats not important. I enjoyed myself in good company. I did not do much lead climbing, but I am happy that Javi and I are getting back into the whole going outside and climbing thing. The weather was beautiful and sunny. FINALLLYYYYYY spring.

Next week I am gonna go to what is probably one of the biggest and craziest pyromaniac parties in the world to celebrate saint Joseph's Day, aka father's Day. The party is called: Las Fallas and it is in Valencia. My understanding of the whole thing.... The people spend months making epic size satirical paper mache statutes, then they burn them down with mass quantities of fireworks or something like that? I am about 80% positive I will see a giant grinning O'bama burning down. HMMMM. Yes, it sounds crazy. I dont really know what to expect and I am not sure if all the rumors I hear are glorified or there truely will be little 5 year olds running around with firecrackers........

Well, I just wanted to say happy monday morning to the world. Now it's time to start the week. AHHH this week is a short week. :) Saint Joseph's day is a national holiday in Spain. YAY for dads. I love you poppy.

All coming at once.

YES. thats right its time to go baby harness shopping.

She can climb...... from Peter Collins on Vimeo.

Something somewhat exciting happened yesterday.

It was my first encounter with real live pick-pocketers. (So scratch that stereotype off your list of things that we associate with Europe. It is not as full of thieves as you may think) Anyways, I was riding along on the metro reading my book about learning to drive in Spain, when a young lad shouted out "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen. That man right there, no that one, Yes You. He is up to no good. I saw him get off the subway and change and get into a different car."

Of course the man rebuttled to which the valient and honorable young passenger replied "We ALL know what you are up to. Don't even try it." The crowds parted like the red sea and everyone just stared at the villian. He stood in the middle, dumbfounded and foolish. One elderly woman shouted "thank-you" in a shaky old voice. Then everyone started spitting at him and shouting bible verses. The train stopped and he quickly ran off with his head down in shame. Everyone cheered.

Okay that was a glorified version. There was actually what i counted as three of them working in a group and take out the spitting and the cheering as well as him leaving with his head down in shame. He just left the train like it was any other day. But I know he probably felt really dumb. at least i hope so.

Waiting for winter to end.

I am tired, especially of this weather! Im sure that everyone agrees with me. What better way to fight the winter blues fabias and a little octupus?! great. here we go......yummmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

If life had a pause button I would definately press it often.

Here is my blog entry from over a week ago: We went climbing in San Martin, one of Javi and my favorites specifically because of a very special pizzeria in the town. The pizzeria was closed, but we still enjoyed the climbing and I, of course, had a good supply of candy to tide me over.
The weather was a bit cool, but there was enough sun that I wasn't freezing. I belayed in my down jacket, but climbed with only a thin fleece. Anyways, its been a while since I have been climbing outside, but the weather is starting to get warmer and climbing season is about to begin. The only problem now is that it seems to be raining raining raining raining and the forecasts are always wrong.

We climbed with three other people from my new climbing group. Guille, which I dont know if i spelled it correctly, Maria, and Arturo.
That is the end of the time out. Now i need to get back to doing productive things with my life. For example, sleeping.

I can't believe its Monday already!

What happened to the weekend?!

It's March. A new month. A new beginning. Ah, so beautiful. Throughout the day I think of tons of things that I want to share with everyone. As you can tell I can remember any of them......