La Corrida de Toros

Friday was a big day. We took our midterms in the morning. In our grammar class, it turned out to be super easy because our teacher gave us tons of hints and encouraged working together. haha. I ended up with an A:) The culture exam was more independent but I think I did fine.

After our tests we went to eat lunch in Retiro. Allison showed us a beautiful rose garden in the back of the park. It´s safe to say I´m obsessed.

Me and Allison in the Rose Garden.

**Granny Short would have loved this.

Me and Courtney came back home after that and did some serious ¨siesta-ing¨. Spanglish has taken over.

We met our group at the Plaza de Toros at 6:30pm. It was still super hot so we bought super cute fans to keep ourselves cool like the Spaniards do. We practiced fashionably throwing out the fan and gracefully fanning ourselves. I think we´ve got it down.

We had the top row of the top section in the Plaza. They actually turned out to be great seats. Not too gory, and not in the sun. So, you think, ¨bull-fight¨, this should be quick. Kill the bull. Done. Oh, you are so wrong. They take about 20 minutes per bull. And there are 6 bulls. I had enough after the third. After one guy got trampled and a few ran for their lives and jumped over the wall of the ring.

There´s actually an art to bull-fighting. (For those of you who know I´m obsessed with Dancing with the Stars, I kept thinking of the Paso Doble which is actually a pretty good representation of what goes on). It´s much easier to watch when there´s a good matador and you´re not continuously fearing for the life of the idiot in the middle of the ring.

Here´s your bullfighting lesson of the day:

Each bullfight is split into three parts (tercios).

1.) In part one, the bullfighter uses a large purple and yellow cape and two ¨picadores¨ on horse back stab the bull with a lance. This was actually my least favorite part because the bull sometimes picks the horse up with its horns.

2.) The second part is ¨la suerte de bandilleras¨. Three guys called bandilleros run at the bull and jab 2 hooks (called bandilleras) each into the bulls back all while trying to avoid getting run over.

3.) The last part is the ¨suerte suprema¨. This is the part where the matador uses a red cape with finesse and eventually stabs the bull with a sword. It´s more valiant if the bull dies on the first try and he doesn´t have to stab him again.

Needless to say, this was quite a long and bloody process. I´m sure there were spontaneous cries of horror coming from my mouth interspersed throughout the events. I can say I´ve been there, done that and that´s good enough for me.

After the bullfight, the entire Samford group went to the Casa Mingo. This restaurant is famous for their baked chicken and sidra (cider) and is one of the only restaurants in Madrid where smoking is not allowed. We had a delicious dinner and then met up with our Spanish friends Marcos, Nihin, Ruben, and Jose. We went to the Templo de Debod Park that overlooks the palace and just sat and talked for a little while before going home. It turned out to be a great night.