Fire Jumping

Moving across the ocean is not for the faint of heart.  We had to jump through hoops to make this happen.  It is a wonderful opportunity, and while I am not running from my problems, I do want to leave my worries behind.  I am ready for a change, and celebrate this opportunity to rejuvenate my life. 

Valencianos celebrate everything. The Night of San Juan, held on June 23, was our first opportunity to party with them.

All over the world there are rituals surrounding this shortest night of the year. Pagan cultures believe that certain gods, for instance, make themselves visible during this night while others see it as an opportunity to leave their problems behind and seek fulfillment.  We evaluate changing our lives while the seasons change direction.

Welcome to La Noche de San Juan, a fiesta all about change: night and day; fire and water. Fire destroys, defeats, and disinfects, and leaves behind the opportunity for water to recuperate, refresh, and rejuvenate.

Bonfires illuminate and define the night.  After dark, young and old, families and friends dig holes and build fires in the sands of La Malvarrosa, a wide, urban beach located in Valencia on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.  According to tradition, people jump over the fire to be cleansed and purified, and have their problems burned away.  At midnight, everyone heads into the water to cleanse themselves of the past, and perhaps soothe any burns that resulted from any bonfire-jumping miscalculations.

We want to participate in everything while we are here.  So we went, we jumped and we bathed.  While all my worries did not go up in smoke, at least I have no burns on my feet, only sand in my shoes, which is a problem I am happy to live with for a year.

Burning Paella

I have never used a fire extinguisher.  

Oh, I have burned many things:  dinner, my nose, and calories, to name but a few.  I’ve been burned out, burned bridges, burned through money, and regularly crash and burn. However, I have never actually set fire to something where I have risked personal or property loss.

I once read an Internet article on the top things people regret most when on their deathbed.  One regret that stood out to me was that of not living a life risky enough to warrant the use of a fire extinguisher at least once.  People regret only playing life safe, and not risking the loss of comfort for a potentially wonderful experience waiting for them in the unknown.  Other top regrets were not traveling when they had the chance and not learning another language.  Since I believe everything I read on the Internet, I have risked it all, once again, to travel to a foreign country to be a stranger in a strange land.

Valencia, Spain is the birthplace of paella, a rice dish traditionally made with rabbit and garrafó (large lima beans).  The most authentic is made in a special flat-bottomed pan and left to simmer over an open fire for a long time.  It takes patience, but a true paella chef will know just how long to cook the dish so that the rice on the top is perfectly al dente, while that on the bottom is slightly burned so that it sticks to the pan and is a little crunchy.  Creating this burned part is the riskiest, but results in the most desired and best tasting part of the meal.

Learning to make traditional paella just might take me a full year, and quenching my burning desire for experiences will take patience too.  Leaving the comfort of Colorado was risky, and I hope I don’t regret not packing my fire extinguisher.  But I am excited about the unknowns that lie ahead, and hope that the end result is an adventure that I will not regret, and that may be one of the most delicious times of my life.