Novillada

April 13, 2010

Hola todos. I am sorry I haven’t written in a while. I really need to finish my entries about Barcelona, but in the meantime, I will write about my past week. Let’s see: this past Thursday, I had my teaching English class again. My teacher assigned me an exercise to do with the class. I was kind of nervous about it because she didn’t give me much warning, but it turned out alright. We talked about recycling. Before the class, I sat by the river and wrote in my journal. Last week the weather was incredible, and it was so nice to people-watch and relax. Ok, so after my class, Amanda and I went out with Daniel, her intercambio, and also a student in my class. We began the night speaking in English, and switched to Spanish halfway through. We talked about many interesting things like the accents of the people of Andalucía and the way of life here. We ate delicious tapas at a bar in the centro. The name escapes me right now, but they are little sandwiches with ham, bacon, tomato and a mayonnaise like sauce.
Friday began with a trip to the hospital…no not for me, but for a tour with my Health class. We went to a Red Cross hospital, called Victoria Eugenia. The class (consisting of six people) first met with some of the directors of the hospital to talk about the public healthcare system and their specific hospital. Spain has both a public and private healthcare system. The doctors were very enthusiastic about the public system and when asked what the disadvantages were, they did not have a reply ☺ The head director stepped in for a while to greet us, btu I had such a hard time understanding him! I haven’t had to concentrate on someone’s speech like that in long time (which I guess is a good thing, but at that moment was a little intimidating). We then took a tour of the hospital to see the rooms and equipment. It resembled most hospitals. The only big differences I noticed was that it did not look like a typical American hospital from the outside. It is an old building, but is modern inside.
After the visit, we took the bus back to Triana (I can actually ride a bus now!), and ate lunch. Amanda and I did some homework then we got ready to go to a Novillada! It is a bull fight, but with amateurs instead of the ‘real’ toreros. There were three of them, all around 20 years old. They each fought two bulls. It was amazing to watch! First, they paraded out and saluted the crowd. A ‘pep band’ played regal music and horses pranced around as well. It almost felt like we had stepped back in time. For each fight, there are three stages. The first, Tercio de Varas, involves four or five banderilleros, which look like the toreros but have pink and yellow capes. They would lure the bull around the ring to get him dizzy and so that the main torero could observe the movements. Next, three banderilleros would each stick two banderillas (like small lances) into the bull’s back. That was my favorite part because the banderilleros had to get really close to the bull and kind of jump up to stick the bull. In the Tercio de Muerte, the torero comes out with his red cape and ‘fights’ the bull to the death. We he has determined the time is right, he sticks a sword (estoca) deep into the back of the bull. Hopefully he does it right, and the bull is seriously injured. The banderilleros will come out again and run the bull around until he collapses. A team of three horses will them come out to haul the bull away. Sometimes the band would play music while the torero was fighting, and other times it would only play at the end of each stage. After one fight, the people stood and waved their handkerchiefs at the torero. Occasionally they did say “Bien!” and “Olé!”. I loved the experience, and was not grossed out one bit ☺ I hope to go back to another one soon.
Well, this has turned into a novel, so I think I will stop for now. I do have a Civilization exam tomorrow…so I need to study. Adios!