TORO!

Woke up on Thursday without too much to do. The gym was closed, and I was feeling particularly lazy, so I just bummed around until lunch. Lunch was really good: arroz cubano, which I always thoroughly enjoy and plan on preparing in the States. There was some confusion because Maruja thought that Maria del Mar wasn't eating at home, but she was, so we had to do some last minute improvising. But we ate the 3 of us and it was nice. We watched the news which was having a live broadcast from Feria. I love Feria! At around 3:30 Stacey came home to drop of Ryan and her suitcases because they didn't have a place to sleep that night and they needed to store their stuff. Okay, let me digress to explain. Ryan had planned his trip out here way back in February. It's extremely challenging to find lodging during Feria because people flock to Sevilla from far and wide. Even in February he had a huge struggle finding a hostel for him and Stacey. So for the first night they stayed in one hostel, then the second night another hostel, and then Thursday night they couldn't find a hostel at all. So they just planned to stay up all night, store their things at our apartment, and then just keep awake until walking over to the bus station. You see, they had plans to spend the weekend on the beach in Cadiz Friday till Sunday, so they figure that they'd stay up all night and take the earliest bus to Cadiz. It's doable, I mean, we did it from Cadiz to Sevilla back in February (who could forget that infamous trip). So that's that story. Then Stacey asked Maruja and Maria del Mar if they wanted to meet Ryan. They said of course, and she brought him in. It was so interesting because not only is Ryan a giant compared to Maruja (who is shorter than I), but he does not know a word of Spanish. However, we learned in the whole interaction that Maria del Mar knows English! Well, she understands English for the most part (about as much as I understand Spanish, perhaps a bit less) but she cannot speak it at all. Maruja was kind of awkard and talked only for a bit, but then went off to finish the dishes and take a nap. So it was just Stacey, Ryan, Maria del Mar, and me. It was cool, Maria del Mar would talk to Stacey in Spanish and ask questions for Ryan and then she'd translate it to Ryan and vise versa. So fun. She also showed off her gift. I didn't tell you about this! Months and months and months ago Stacey had a brief phone call with Ryan in which she shared her inspired new goal to teach herself guitar that Summer. Well, he remembered, and came to Sevilla with a brand new, beautiful, large Fender guitar. It's gorgeous. I was blown away by it, and I'm sure Stacey was even more. Those are the kind of boyfriend presents that are the best--the kind that show that he's listening and really in tune with your desires. It was so thoughtful, kind, and generous. I approve big time. Best boyfriend gift I've ever seen, hands down. Soon Stacey had to do some cleaning and changing, so it was just Ryan, Maria del Mar, and me. So now I was the translator. It was so fun! I loved it! I had never played the role of translator before, it's really quite an experience. It made me feel like I was really a Spanish speaker. Like, this is really clicking with me. I am bilingual. Holy crap, I'm bilingual! Wow. I translated their conversation about the differences between school systems in the States and Spain. I learned a lot. I learned that in Spain, at the end of high school everyone takes a standardized test (just like in the States), but the height of your score does not determine the calliber of school you will go to, but rather what career you will study to be in college. It's a ten-point scale, and the highest scorers get to study engineering. Maria del Mar studied law as an undergrad and she said that to study law you need a 5 or a 6. Interesting. I also learned that I had been getting Maria del Mar's studies wrong. She always said that she studies impuestos (taxes), so I assumed that she was training to be an accountant. However, I learned that as an undergrad she studied law, and then as a master's student she specializes in taxes. So she's studying to be a tax lawyer. Ohhhhhh! We ended up talking for awhile so I didn't get to do some of the internet "errands" that I had yet to accomplish (a.k.a. blog, hence the tardiness of my Feria blogs). The coupole headed out around 4:30 and I got ready for the bullfight. That's right, that evening I was to see my first bullfight. Before getting ready I made a quick run to the dollar store to pick up some batteries for my camera and some super glue for Maria del Mar (her fan broke the night before). Did I mention that Maria del Mar got home after me the night before? I got home at 5 and she got home at 5:30. Usually I'm the last one home! Ohhhh Feria and ohhhhh Maria del Mar. Who knows what that crazy girl was up to. Anyways, I got back, Maria del Mar got dressed up again for Feria (she wore the brown rose and shawl again) and I got dressed up for the bullfight. Nervously. Ohhhh man was I nervous. I was anticipating tears and perhaps a relapse into vegetarianism. Maria del Mar told me that people dress up nicely for the bullfights since it's sceney...supposedly since it was Feria (all of the major bullfights occur during Feria) there would be many celebrities there. Anyways, so I put on some nice black pants and a blue shirt. Oh, I didn't mention that the day before it was really windy outside and my red rose blew away! My lovely red rose! I was so sad. So when I went to the dollar store I bought a new rose--this one was periwinkle. So it matched my blue shirt. I got decked out and walked over to the bull ring to meet up with everyone. It was so hot out, so on the way I bought a water, and a really pretty painted fan for only 3 euros off of the street. Nice! And I finally got my flamenco fan! Funny enough, on the way into the bullring they hand out paper fans that actually work a lot better. Whatever, it's all about the look. I'm so vain. And I do think this song is about me. I got swept up in a huge, hot crowd of people...this was like the Big House on football Saturdays! Finally, after a bit of confusion, I found Stacey, Ryan, Jessica, Melissa, and Katie. Katie had just gotten back the night before from a day trip to Granada since she had missed the program´s Granada trip back in February. She loved it...I can´t wait to go back! We had a hard time figuring out where our seats were located and how to get to them. So it was a bit stressful, and the crowd and blinding sun weren´t helping. We were not too excited because we bought the cheaper seats and those are supposed to be in the sun. Blech. While looking for our entrance in the back we spotted some droppings on the ground...bull shit! It was a bunch of bull shit! Haha, I´m easily entertained. We finally found our entrance and walked up the old steps to the second floor, out the door, and entered the ring. It was pretty amazing, actually. Just like in the movies. Plus, we were in the shade! Who knew? We were surrounded by a bunch of American students like ourselves. The ring was packed full of people who appeared so colorful due to their dresses and fans shaking in the heat. It was pretty poetic, actually. The seats are not real seats, more like tall concrete steps so they´re pretty uncomfortable and tight. But we worked it out. At 6:30 some trumpets began to sound...this was like out of a movie, for sure! Then the first bull was released. It was big and brown, innocent and cute. I was not excited to see it die. It looked around all confused until the first group of toreros, probably toreros in training, walked out one at a time, hollered at it, held out their huge pink cloths, and then the bull would run towards them and they would hide behind a red barrier. This happened multiple times with multiple pink toreros. Then, once the bull was good and confused and pissed off, a horn would sound and a group of men on armored horses come out. The toreros taunt and tease the bull more and then the bull charges at the horses almost knocking them over. The horses are so well armed, though, that they´re not harmed. I´m surprised that they don´t even freak out. When the bull charges at the horse, the rider takes a long stick with a thin knife at the end and stabs the bull in the spine to get it to stop and tranquilize it a bit. This happens a few times. Then the men riding horseback leave, and the pink toreros grab these buoy-looking things which are another form of knives. They stand in front of the bull, one knife thing in each hand, yell at it, and when the bull charges at them they quickly stick these knives in the bull´s spine. This happens about 3 times so that there´s a sum total of 6 knives sticking in the bull´s back. The sticking of the knives is a skill and sometimes the toreros miss, don´t get them all, or none at all. It is extreeeemely dangerous. This tranquilizes the bull more for when the real torero, or matador comes out. The horns sound and out comes the first real torero, dressed in gold, wearing tights, and holding a red fabric. Every bullfight has 3 main bullfighters who are famous and travel all over Spain to do bullfights. Each torero gets 2 bulls, taking turns going in 3´s, so 6 bulls are killed altogether. Our favorite torero was Eduardo who was 21. Weird. Anyways, the torero fights in basic silence, doing crazy stances and moves and routines with the bulls and the red cloth. Just like in the movies. It´s actually pretty fascinating and looks extremely dangerous and complicated. During the first bullfight this was the part that I could handle the best because it didn´t involve taunting nor harming the bull. It was more like a show. However, the bull is constantly bleeding profusely throughout the entire thing since it still has 6 large spears sticking out of its back. After every "trick" the audience cheers. In fact, the audience cheers after the spearing of the bulls, too. The main torero continues to do little trick moves with the bull for about 10 minutes until the grand finale: the kill. This part is the worst. The torero pulls out a large, long sword and holds it under the red cloth. He does some intricate move with the bull and the cloth and strategically stabs the bull deeply in a certain spot its back which kills it. The worst part about it is that the bull doesn´t die immediately. Nope. It staggers, struggles, and slowly falls to the ground and convulses. Then he takes the sword again and stabs it in the back of the head which causes the bull to fall stiff on its side; therefore the toreros can attach the bulls horns to some ropes that attach to a group of horses. Then the horses are violently whipped causing them to charge off, thus carrying the dead bull with them. The audience cheers and claps. It´s terrible. I cried as the first bull died. It sucked. But after the second bull I got used to the showmanship of it all and started to become entertained by the whole event. Can you believe it? Maybe it´s all the meat that I´m eating here, who knows. However, when the bull was killed I almost had to look away every time. It sucked. The worst one was the third bull that just wouldn´t die. It kept trying to stay alive. It fell to the ground after the first stab, but then stood right back up and slowly walked and staggered along the wall. Then it fell again. And got back up and walked again. It was extremely depressing. Ugh, just put it out of its misery! The weird part is that this looked poorly on the torero because this means that he didn´t stab it completely on target. Everytime it looked like it had died, it would stand back up again. This went on for about five minutes with the audience yelling and screaming. Finally, the torero stabbed it again. And then again. And it died. It was terrible. I cried again. I hate that. Nevertheless, in the end it was an enjoyable experience...surprisingly. I mean, the show itself was entertaining, just watching 6 bulls slowly die kind of sucked. But I thought that I´d be permanently damaged by it and I was alright. I survived! And it was very, well, Spanish. I was really making the most of Spain and Feria and it made me happy. We got out of the fight around 8:30. Most people went home, but I decided to stick around and grab tapas with Stacey and Ryan. A beautiful sunset was starting, so we decided to check out the tapas place on the Triana bridge. It was great; we sat on the way top balcony and got the perfect view of the sunset and the river and all of Sevilla. So picturesque, so romantic, yay to being a third wheel, haha. The tapas were really good and we ate a lot. It took us awhile to eat because the service was kind of poor, but no biggy. We had pork loin bits in red sauce, olives, bacalao cakes, salad, and fried calamari. It was the best fried calamari that I´ve ever had because the fish was so thick and not chewy at all. It´s the first time that I´ve had calamari that I could taste more fish than coating/sauce. Amaaaaazing. I was quite stuffed. It got cold out, too. Sevilla is silly: it will be so hot out during the day due to the sun being so strong, but so cold at night. What´s the deal? Then Stacey and Ryan wanted ice cream, so we walked into Triana thinking that we´d find one there since there are ice cream places everywhere. I tell ya, the Spanish love their ice cream. We ended up walking for awhile with no luck. How strange. This was really pretty baffling. Soon we were inching up on República de Argentina, the main road in los Remedios, so we decided that we´d give Café de Indias a shot because it´s always a sure bet and they´re open until 11. We got there at 10:40 and they were closed! What? Damned Feria. So we just went to Starbucks where Stacey got cheesecake, Ryan got a frappuccino, and I just sat and hung out. We talked about their plan for the night: they´d go see a midnight movie, then hit up the bars and TexMex until 5, then come to the apartment, grab their things, and head to the station around 6. Good deal. I was planning on waking up around then anyways to go to Lagos, Portugal the next morning, so it was all good in my hood. At around 11pm I said farewell to them and walked home. I still hadn´t packed. Oy. So I got home, started packing, listened to music, talked online. I wasn´t tired at all and stressed out about packing...oh man, you´ll laugh, but I was only going to Lagos for 3 nights and I packed an entire suitcase full of stuff! I mean, I didn´t know what to expect from Lagos or what the scene would be like. I´m terrible, I know. I ended up not getting into bed until about 1:30 because I was just so awake and the internet is just oh so distracting. I talked to Nicole who is home for Summer Vacation. So weird that everyone´s on break...and I was going for my last weekend of Spring Break! Wow. I had a hard time falling asleep because since I live right next to Feria the streets were loud as hell. I ended up not falling asleep until about 2, but was then immediately woken up by this loud bang that happened a few times. The third bang was so loud and so intense that it caused car alarms to go off and dogs to bark loudly and incessantly. Not to mention people were on the streets loudly singing and clapping and playing music. I´m not a light sleeper in the least, but it was so loud outside that I could barely sleep. All in all I got an hour and a half of sleep that night. I kid you not. It was a fun morning the next day...