Spain - Day 8 - Gandia y "la gran fiesta"

Today (Friday) we had a field day for the kids at camp as an end-of-the-week celebration.  It's amazing how much fun you can have with 25 kids, 4 buckets of water balloons, and 1 garden hose.  When camp was over, the missionaries took all of the workers to a beach in Gandia.  This was my first time touching the Mediterranean Sea.  The red flag was flying so we couldn't swim, but we were still able to wade in the water.

The beaches in Spain are huge and have full size sand volleyball and basketball courts, as well as large beach soccer fields.  I walked along the beach for about half an hour and then played some soccer.  Playing soccer in the sand is very difficult so after about an hour we decided to do some shopping along the strip.  On our way to the shops, we passed by a massive sand castle.  Ten children could literally fit inside this thing.

(Side note: I didn't take many pictures at the beach due to the amount of topless women and old men in speedos...this blog is PG.)

After our time at the beach, we headed back to Alcoy to get ready for a fiesta that the Spanish church put on for the Americans.  We arrived at the party at about 8pm and mingled outside for about an hour.  Then the women who were in charge of planning the party asked all the Americans to come inside.  As we all filed into the large open-air room, the Spaniards greeted us with Spanish music and food as if it was a welcoming home party.

The traditional Spanish dress for a fiesta is over-the-top and extravagant.  Each of the American women were presented with a large red flower and a brightly-colored clip to put in their hair.  The men were presented with  black sombreros (which must be a turn-on for Spanish women because they all wanted their pictures taken with the American men after receiving our hats...they said the hats made us "guapo").  We danced and ate for the next 3.5 hours.

There were four tables of snacks and appetizers when we first walked in.  The men carving meat would walk around with platters and serve the freshly cured ham.  The main course consisted of blood sausage, spicy sausage, mini hot-dog looking things, and hamburger along with a piece of bread.  The desserts consisted of chocolate covered cookies and small pieces of cake coated in chocolate.  This was the first time the church has ever had a party this big and elaborate.  They really wanted to celebrate our presence in Alcoy and they did a fantastic job showing their appreciation for us.  The fiesta lasted for 4.5 hours and may have gone longer if our bus wouldn't have had to leave at 12:30am.  This fiesta was a great way to get to know our Spanish friends better and experience an exciting part of their culture.  These are some of my new (and old) friends: