Saturday, May 26, 2012

Wisconsin!

This past weekend was my younger brother's graduation from the University of Madison in Wisconsin. I had visited Jonney twice before, but every time I go to Wisco I like it a little more. Madison is a cute, small, college town filled with bars, restaurants, and people ready to have a good time. With it being graduation, the city was packed with people ready to celebrate the graduates! The whole weekend was great. We celebrated all weekend long with the family, going to nice dinners, going out to the bars, sitting in the sun at the lake, having a graduation celebration with all Jonney's close friends, and on Sunday we watched Jonney walk in his cap and gown to recieve his diploma. The weekend was filled with amazing food, lots of sun and humid heat, and spotted cow beer.  All of this made me nostalgic of my college days (I graduated just two years ago) and brought back good memories. We also went to the farmers market on Sunday at the Capitol of Madison, where we bought the famous spicy cheese bread--delicious. The food was incredible (good beer and cheese, who can complain right?). I'm so glad events like these bring everyone back together...such a great time.











Sunday, May 13, 2012

Valencia para Las Fallas

One of the many great things about Spain is their fiestas. I have been lucky enough to get to experience some of these famous traditional celebrations that occur every year like Carnaval, San Juan, Sant Jordi, San Fermin, etc. This year I went to Valencia to experience one day and night of Las Fallas. 


Las fallas is a festival that creates more than 500 huge displays (also called fallas) for the public. The fallas contain cartoon looking images called ninots, which are huge dolls made of cork and cardboard. They represent well-known people in a sarcastic tone (usually politicians). The city works very hard to make these all year. Once Las fallas begin there is a juror who chooses the best fallas and announce the winners during the week, before la crema (where all the fallas are burned) at the end. During the week there are various firework shows like "las mascletás" y "la pólvora". Throughout the streets there are food stands and restaurants, with the authentic paella (side note: The original paella comes from Valencia), tapas, churros, etc. It is a big party throughout the whole city with fireworks constantly going off in the streets. It was such an incredible fiesta, I loved seeing the fallas and picking my favorites, seeing pretty firework shows, as well as getting to eat paella and churros. Valencia was great to visit too. I had been there before, but this time I liked it a lot more. The weather was sunny and the city looked beautiful. We walked around the center most of the day and went to La Cuidad de las Artes y Ciencias.






La Cuidad de las Artes y Ciencias
                                                                       La Cuidad de las Artes y Ciencias