Coddiwompling

When I was on my flight over to Europe, I dreamed of all the things I would do, all the things I would experience, and all the possibilities that could end up changing everything. I hoped I would grow in ways I couldn't imagine and begin living a life unlike the one I had known for the past four years at the University of Houston and the eighteen years in Boerne before that.  And I did. I found a life different from Boerne and from Houston. I found another place that feels like home. When is a place considered home? I'm sure it differs for everyone, but for me it is when I feel comfortable wandering alone, when I have people in that place I care about, when I can get around (for the most part) without google maps, and when I truly feel happiness in the place. Not the kind of happiness that tags along with visiting a new place on travel, but the happiness that fills you up when you are doing nothing, nothing special, just living your everyday life with the people around yo...

FALLAS. FALLAS. F A L L A S.  Finally got an explanation of the Fallas celebration, it is the burning of an old age and the start of a new one. It’s like a phoenix rising from the ashes. It also creates many jobs for the people in Valencia and brings in a lot of money for the city. Every year groups of people create their ideas in these giant statues. Then they celebrate for a consecutive five days and burn them. The best one is burned last, "the best for last", am I right? The statues have many different themes, I went to the Ninot Exhibit (the Ninots are a small part of the overall Fallas piece) and was blown away by the details and the effort put into them. A lot were political, many were films or tv based, and some I had no idea what was happening. There were rows and rows of them. On March 1st, they had the opening fireworks to start the beginning of this celebration. Amazing fireworks over the harbour. Everyday s ince then , there have been fire...