eurotrip! valencia style

This Sunday is the official beginning of Las Fallas! http://www.lovevalencia.com/crida-2012.html 
(Although as a fallera told me yesterday- Fallas is really all year long- for her).  She's on the Official Court of Valencia.  Of which there are 11 other girls, and one head fallera.  To make it to this level, they have to be good-looking, do well in school, and participate in fallas activities all year long.

The protests have calmed down a bit.  Some of my professors admitted that they attended, and that the violence was from the policía, not from the students (minors).  That was one of the controversies that was going on, on top of the protests.  There are some pretty intense youtube videos of the police hitting and dragging kids, as they tried to block off one of the main streets of Valencia (Calle Xátiva, right in front of the main train station).  This was done to protest the act of the Valencian government that shut off the heat in los colegios (almost the equivalent of middle school).  Students in the affected schools had to wear huge jackets and sit under blankets to keep warm in their classrooms.


watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hf2MhNx-Q0&NR=1&feature=endscreen
& this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9WDG2EwES4&feature=related
you can see how young the students are.

For me, it is another reminder that I am not in the US.  The students have a right to protest and express themselves but the violence against them was completely unjustified.

Following the initial protest in Valencia, students in Barcelona and Madrid also crowded the streets of their cities to support the Valencians.  They held up their textbooks as their weapons.

I thankfully did not come into contact with any of the protests or the violence.

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On a much happier note:
It is finally the weekend for me! Valencia is currently playing against Stoke City in the Mestalla stadium right down the street.

& I went to my second spinning class today with my friends.  Really wish I could say it was easier the second time around, but it wasn't... 3rd time's a charm

Also- apparently I have distant family in London.  What does this mean?  Well that my cousin & I should take this opportunity to meet up and visit them of course! (Thanks Aunt Steph for letting us know!!).

Hasta luego