Well, yes, I know. It’s been a very LONG time since I’ve written. And unfortunately, this past semester has been so full of culture, new experiences, building relationships, goals achieved, and loads more. I know it will be difficult for me to go back and recall all of it now. However, I’m going to try, mostly for my sake so I have some sort of record of this monumental semester. So I’ll begin with this past week, and work back from there.
MAY
Thursday night was a huge day in my life. When I was 17 years old my dad suggested that I prepare a high school senior voice recital. I thought it was a great idea! But it was already late in the year, and we never seemed to get around to preparing it. But I figured, “No big deal. I’ll have to perform recitals in college anyway.” In the end, I never majored in music or voice, and I stopped training and pursuing voice at 18 years old. However, the thought of performing a recital never left me, nor did my deep-seeded desire for song. Well, 12 years later as a 30th birthday present to myself, I fulfilled this dream. I finally performed my “senior” recital. And I enjoyed myself more than I can express. Though I waited painfully long to do this, and that makes me sad, I do see how much I have matured. I can finally feel proud of my accomplishments because I no longer judge myself on a scale of “perfect” or “not perfect”. I can now listen for beauty and expression when I sing, not just inadequacy and mistakes. My self-worth is no longer teetering on the basis of others’ impression of me, or causing an obsessive concern for performing well. Without such a heavy burden attached to performing, I see why these desires for song, performance, and expression have never left me. These moments in front of an audience when I get to share what’s deep down in my soul are when I truly feel at my brightest.
The recital was quaint in a small performance hall with an audience of about 50. The audience consisted of a few Berklee students, church friends, a few of my English students and their families, some random people I didn’t know, and a few people I’m working with on a language course (I’ll explain about that later). I performed 11 classical songs that I’ve been preparing since November. Our neighbors have gotten a daily concert or sample vocal warm-up all these months, and I plan to drop off “thank you for your patience” gifts at all of their doors within the week. Considering I can often hear them talking as if they’re in the next room, I can’t imagine their annoyance by my full voice opera singing all this time. After the recital we went to had an impromptu after party at Jared and Gabi’s (our Berklee married couple neighbors) with a few other Berklee people who came.
Speaking of Berklee people… Jake returned from London this past Monday. Another huge accomplishment in our family. The film scoring students went to London to record their final pieces at Air Studios with a 55 piece professional orchestra. Jake had been dreaming of this day since he got accepted to Berklee. I was worried that he’d built it all up so much in his head that something would go wrong and he would be devastated. But no. Of course as usual, he soared above the fray under the pressure. I talked to him on the phone after the big recording, and I couldn’t have been more pleased by the tone of his voice. So exuberant and full of adrenaline still hours later. He said it couldn’t have gone more perfectly, and he loved every moment of working with these world class musicians. I can’t wait for him to post videos for you all to see. The week leading up to his departure was very stressful because of delays getting the finalized video clip for him to score to, along scheduling difficulties in connecting and communicating with his director. But in the end it all came together because of Jake’s persistence and creative problem-solving skills. (I know, it’s a vague thing to say if you weren’t privy to all the details of the circumstance.) James, the director of this short film has emphasized that Jake is so accommodating and easy-to-work that he can’t imagine working with anyone else, and recruited Jake for another project that was completed in April. Jake saved the day with this particular short film because the original contracted composer wrote music, but was just so unaccomodating and unwilling to make changes that James brought Jake in on the project instead. The London piece was the 3rd that Jake and James have worked together on now. So between projects for James, class assignments (which thankfully were minimal this semester) and working at the ICC, Jake remained quite busy.
While Jake was gone in London, I kept busy with friends, rehearsing with my accompanist, practicing, teaching, etc. I actually felt more busy than normal during my week and a half of singleness, and like I spent less time at home than usual. Which was good because 10 days without Jake was too long. The most we’d been apart before is 5 or 6 days. Luckily for me, I had all my girlfriends here taking care of me, inviting me over, going shopping, movie nights, etc. Ironically, I think Jake felt more lonely than me as he toured London by himself and went to all the scheduled activities thinking, “I wish Robin was here.” I thought he was going to finally feel free to be just one of the students, free to hang out and party like a bachelor. I guess it wasn’t quite the experience I’d anticipated for him. All in all he did have good time, but 10 days felt like a bit too much time apart for us.
In May we actually spent a total of 15 days apart because my cousin, Rachelle, and I took a roadtrip around Madrid in the beginning of May. Though it was 5 days away from Jake (and I actually cried like a 5 year old as Jake dropped me off at the train station for my departure) the trip ended up being one of those weeks that you recall during moments that you’re in need of happy thoughts and joyful sentiments to dwell on. We toured some the surrounding areas of Madrid including, Cuenca (sort of), Aranjuez, Toledo, Avila, Segovia, and El Escorial. Rachelle rented a car and we just drove through the BEAUTIFUL countryside from city to city, staying in a different hotel every couple of nights. We talked about nearly everything under the sun, and still couldn’t get enough talking time in. We trudged up and down ramparts, strolled through gardens, meandered around old towns, found a few adventures to take on, and of course got in some time for lounging over wine and cheese! This time with Rachelle couldn’t have been more precious to me, especially considering we don’t get to see each other that often. I think it was fate that it just so happened that this international meeting she had, that only happens every four years, just happened to be in Spain this year.
APRIL
The highlight of April I would say was Semana Santa (Holy Week). Here they do not just celebrate Easter, it’s a week (or more) of processionals throughout every neighborhood. Every neighborhood seems to have their own marching band, and I tell you, we have become quite accustomed to the sound of distant trumpets slowly making their way to your backyard. At first we were caught off guard by these Holy Week processionals, not because of the loud music at your doorstep, but because of the processionals with people dressed up in white robes and pointed hoods covering their faces. Go ahead, look up pictures, you’ll see! I don’t know if the KKK ripped off the Spanish Holy Week outfits or what, but when you see a bunch of “clan” looking figures marching down your street it’s not exactly a pleasant feeling. When we first saw this we sent pictures to our Spanish friends with the following caption, “Wuh!!??”, and they just laughed because they’re so used to it. The processionals and the attire, I heard, have something to do with paying penance while still concealing your identity. However, on Easter Sunday (Pascua) there was quite a different processional. It was a whole parade that included half the neighborhood dressed in all kinds of Biblical outfits including commoners, Roman guards, Roman royalty and nobility. I even saw a Jesus character. That was only half of the parade. The others were band members, people in the typical Valencian Fallera and Fallero outfits, and a few other strange outfits that I didn’t recognize. This wrapped around the entire neighborhood, and whoever from the neighborhood that wasn’t processing was watching looking for the loved ones to pass by and throw them a flower. We ran into it on our way home from church and since it was completely blocking our path home we stopped to watch for a while.
Speaking of church, Jake has been playing electric guitar every week at church since April. I’m still singing with the worship team every 3 or 4 weeks. Singers are on a rotation schedule, but we still all get together to practice songs once a week. In other news, I started going to help out with an on-line Rosetta Stone type language program. MariEli has been working on this program which her former bosses are building, and she suggested that I come in a couple times a week to go through it and work on my Spanish. It’s in the Beta mode, so I pay them back by correcting mistakes on the English side. So I go in for a couple of hours twice a week. But the most important part for me is when they take a 45 min “merienda” break while I’m there. We all go to a bar/cafe around the corner and they all talk to me in Spanish. I actually look forward to this the most because they can all speak English, but won’t talk to me in English, except for a word here or there if I appear totally glazed over. It’s been one of the most beneficial things for me in terms of my Spanish practice this whole time I’ve been here. The bar owners have become friends with everyone and they cheer me on when I order correctly in Spanish. Now if they hear anyone speaking to me in English the bar owners call them out and say, “No ingles! Ella necesita aprender.” It’s a lot of fun. These are the people I mentioned who came to my recital. So Friday, the day after my recital, they all wanted to talk about my recital and singing. They even showed videos they took of me on their phone to the bar owners. It made me feel good.
As for English lessons, I finished teaching the conversation classes in April. I did a 10 week adult class and then the school asked me to come back for another 6 week course. The 6 week course was for a travel agency who was sending their employees to practice English during their work day. It was a fun group, who all knew each other and were all happy to be off work for 2 hours. So we had a good time. However, I was glad when it was over because the school wasn’t paying me much, and it was rather inconvenient for me to go there But right after that ended, I got another job working with the daughter of a friend’s boss, so it was good timing. The English lessons are going well. I’ve maintained all my original students. Though I’ve become attached to the kids to a degree, I certainly won’t mind when the lessons come to a close. Teaching English has probably been my least favorite part of being here. However, it certainly has afforded me a lot of new experiences and relationships that I otherwise would not have had. When you go into someone’s home on a regular basis, you see so much deeper into their lives and culture. When all is said and done, I do believe that teaching English will have made my time in Spain much richer. School gets out at the beginning of June and I believe most of my families are ceasing lessons after that.
MARCH
The big thing about March was FALLAS!! I don’t even know where to begin!! The absolute most insane week ever! They turn the whole city into Disneyland (minus the rides and Mickey Mouse), closing off streets, crowds, constant fireworks, and nightly concerts on every corner for an entire week! The significance of Fallas (which means faults), is basically a “spring cleaning” ritual. Though most Valencians don’t remember what the significance of it actually is when you ask them. But after much questioning, I finally found out. I guess back in the day they would welcome in the Spring, or new beginnings, by cleaning out old things that they didn’t want anymore and then burn them as a representation of burning up last year’s faults. This ritual has turned into a city-wide MEGA event. Every neighborhood constructs these huge wooden sculptures, which are the fallas, and during the week the entire city goes around looking at all the fallas. We went on a Sunday afternoon to view the fallas and it was wall to wall people. Of course these were the fancy fallas downtown. The neighborhoods with more money have the bigger and better fallas, and of course all the crowds are downtown. There are food stands and fairs all over the city. We spent that Sunday afternoon downtown with MariEli, Brianna, Vivi, and Lupe viewing Fallas and hanging out. It started with the Mascleta which is a big fireworks production that happens on a daily basis downtown all through March until Fallas ends. Because we went on a weekend, it was sooooo crowded. I mean an entire city block just shoulder to shoulder people. One guy sneezed near us, and because there was no where to turn his head without splashing someone, our friend, Bri, got a faceful of his shooting snot. It was so crowded that after the 5 minute Mascleta, it took 30 minutes just for it to clear enough for us to cross the street.
After a few hours of hanging out, viewing fallas, and fighting crowds Jake and I were sooo exhausted. MariEli felt bad that she took us around on a weekend when it’s the most crowded. But that’s part of the experience, right? It didn’t help that there was a full production, live concert with a huge stage, lighting, and everything right in front of our door every night. These concerts didn’t start until 1am every night, and sometimes didn’t finish until 6am! So I’m sure that played into our exhaustion as well. Jake and I later went out on our own a few times to other sides of town to see huge lighting displays, view other neighborhood fallas, and just experience everything like real Valencians. We went to neighborhood parties and danced in with the crowds a few times, and ended up having a great week after getting over the shock of all the noise and people. But I tell you, ever since that week in March, we started a habit of going to bed at 2am every night. Which of course is quite early on Fallas terms.
At the end of the week at midnight, the whole city goes up in flames. Each neighborhood burns up their huge falla. Our neighborhood falla was right in front of our doorstep. So we went down at midnight on the last day, and joined our community in watching it burn to a crisp. There was something oddly special about that moment as the whole neighborhood gathered together for a moment of calm after all the craziness of the week. We felt strangely connected with everyone with a sense of pride for our little neighborhood and all that we endured together over the week.
I also forgot to mention all the processionals during Fallas. All the Falleras and Falleros of the neighborhood process on a daily basis through the streets with the local bands, dressed in their special Valencian outfits. At the end of the week, one special girl and woman are selected in each neighborhood as the Fallera of the year, which is a very special honor here. I don’t know how they select them, but the whole thing seems to be like a neighborhood beauty contest. Again, my friends didn’t know much about this because they are not in the Falla club. But I got the impression it mostly had to do with money. Then there is one Fallera Mayor and Fallera Menor selected for all of Valencia, and there is a special giving of the rose ceremony at the City Hall. Apparently this is a very important honor. One of the little girls I teach participates in this Falla club thing, and she seemed in awe of the selected Falleras. They were like queen and princess of the city in her mind. Of course, in my mind, all I could compare it to was a Miss America contest. Though I know it was really nothing like that.
So there’s Fallas for you in a nutshell. Of course if I wrote this in March a day-to-day play-by-play probably would have given a much better picture, but hopefully we can share some pictures of all the events to help with the imagery.
It’s very strange to consider that this year is just about coming to a close. Jake just started his final summer term this week. All the students are starting feel the nerves about “what happens next” as they begin to make plans for their next move and search for opportunities. I feel growing sadness as I think about leaving these amazing friends that we’ve made here and this wonderful city that we’ve grown to adore. We’ve had just enough time to develop a lifestyle and a community here that we care for dearly, and now we turn around and leave it. Yet at the same time we feel so much anticipation for getting home, starting our new life and careers, meeting our new nieces and nephews, and being with family again. I’m trying to convince everyone here to find a way to move to LA because I want to take everyone with me. Hopefully, Valencia will become our home away from home and we can return here often. We’ve been poured into so richly here it’s truly astounding. Before we left, people would ask me what I was going to do in Valencia. I told them, “I don’t know. I just want to make friends.” I never would have imagined that that would happen tenfold. I guess that’s a good sign that this has been a blessed experience.
So 6 more weeks and Jake graduates. We are finalizing our travel plans after graduation. We’ll be touring Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and a stop in Denmark before our departure on August 7th. And then we start all over again!
