Hola a Todos!

I have had a very eventful weekend! On friday I went to see my first bullfight, which was very cool, however, I wouldnt recommend it to others. It was very graphic but definitely a great learning experience of the culture. I will explain a little bit about it, trying not to be so graphic. (Aunt Colleen, Ali and Lauren might not want to read this one). So over the course of the bullfight, 6 bulls are killed by 6 different people. When the first bull is released, it goes crazy because there are about 6 matadors (the guys the fight the bulls) in the ring all waving their flags. They mess with it for a little bit by waving the flag and running behind a way and what not. After they mess with it for about 5 minutes a guy on a horse enters the ring. When the horse comes in, it is heavily padded and protected because the bull wants to attack it. The first time the bull actually flipped the horse over on its side which was scary, but 6 guys picked it back up! Then as the bull is attacking the horse, the guy on the horse stabs it in the back with a big long shank type tool. There is a lot of blood shed with this stabbing but this weakens the bull so it doesnt go quite as crazy. After that, the matadors have to distract the bull so that they can get the horse out of the ring. Once the horse is out, three different guys carry 2 little poles about a foot long they have sharp ends. One at a time they run at the bull like in the game of "chicken" and at the last minute the matador moves to the side and stabs these poles in the back of the bull. They stay in the bull somehow and hang off of it. The placing of these is very important because depending on the placement, points are received. After all 6 are in place, all except for one matador leaves the ring. The one that remains uses the flag to have the bull run underneath as we all have seen on tv or whatever. The more times in a row he gets the bull to run through, the more points. After the bull gets to tired out, the matador gets a sword, stands in front of the bull and stabs it through the head and the bull then dies and is dragged off the ring. After this, the process is started over equally 6 times. It is quite graphic but to them, it is an art. All of the different tricks they do with the flags and the different points and what not. I am glad i went but probably do not want to go again. Definitely a great learning experience however. On saturday night i went to a flamenco bar. It was this hole in the wall place that is kind of a secret. There are just a bunch of tables with 2 bars and it is free, you just pay for drinks. There is a little stage in front and 3 people perform at once. Someone plays the guitar, someone stomps their feet, claps and sings, and then the dancer dances obviously, and claps and stomps her feet. It is definitely not what i expected but very cool. The dances are pretty short and they dont use their hands much. Its basically like a bunch of different wats you can stomp your feet and the stomps go along with the songs to help make the music. It was very cool. We met some cool people from Austrailia so that was fun to meet some english speakers! Next weekend its off to Lisbon, Portugal!

High point of the weekend: Being able to talk to Joe for a long time on Sunday! And the bullfight and flamenco show!

Low point of the weekend: The bulls getting killed.

Something I miss the most:Coffee to go.

Thing I learned: The northern part of Spain, Catalon is banning bullfighting presently because they dont like to associate themselves with the country of Spain and bullfighting is a very Spanish tradition. They do other bull related activities like letting the bull run the streets but not the original bullfight.