Hey everyone, So everything is going better in Valencia. I think that everyone has accepted the fact the we may not all get along collectively.
But in other news, I got to see my first bullfight. It was interesting. I had no idea what was going on the entire time. So from my little understanding of bullfighting, this is what happens... A bull comes out into the ring. The matadors-in-training are waiting to start distracting him with pink tabelcloths and spear him with these medium sized spears. Then another matador (maybe in training) on a blindfolded horse comes and spears the bull with a large spear. Finally the real matador comes in with his red tabelcloth and spears him with a sword, and if the matador is good, the bull dies after one spearing. Then when the bull dies, a carriage of horses comes into the ring and drags the bull out. If the matador is good, the audience will applaude. If the matador is really good, the judges will say that he is worthy enough to get the ear of the slain bull.
So this happend six times during the bullfight, which lasted about 2.5 hours. By the end, I was used to the blood and carnage.
So my feeling on bullfighting...I felt like I was watching The Gladiator. It was edging close to the barbaric side of things. There were people outside protesting, so that was expected. Surprisingly, not a lof of people in Spain support bullfighting. The stadium was half full, which was surprising that the day I went was the last bullfight of the season.
So fast forward to this weekend. Brian and Richard from Madrid are here visiting us. We've tried to take them to all of the places that are worthy of going to visit in Valencia, like the beach and a few other places.
Speaking of Valencia, it is SOO hot. It's in the high 80's...but with about 60-80% humidity. It never rains, so there never is a relief of the humidity until it gets in the mid-90s, and then the moisture just burns away. Did I mention that I don't have air conditioning in my dorm room!
It's hard.
Alright, I'm going back to a mid-day siesta. I'll put my bullfighting pictures up this week.
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