¡OLÉ!

¡OLE!

5.29.2008

Jack Hannon and David Wieand

Today, Thursday, everyone went to classes at 9:30 this morning thinking about not having classes on Friday. We went over vocab for earlier in the week and past tense. Some of us played a vocab game but we all got a crash course on bullfighting and it's illustrious history.

In bullfighting, there are six bulls and three matadors, two bulls to each matador. The matadors use either a two-handed cape or one-handed, and have a back-up team to distract the bull if the head matador gets in trouble. There are three types of bullfighting; fighting the bull from a horse, slicing it (but not killing it) standing up, or stabbing its neck and trying to kill it.

There was a change of plans this afternoon. Instead of going out on the Guadalquivir River in paddleboats, we went to the Plaza de Toros. We had a tour guide who repeated her Spanish speeches in English, a welcome change for some of us. We saw the ceramic human heads that were whacked with lances from horseback in an attempt to phase out bullfighting. The heads of several famous bulls were mounted on the walls inside the building. We saw the plaza, which is still in use by bullfighters. it looked like a gladiatorial ring. We saw the entrances from which the bulls and matadors entered, and the tunnel leading to the small hospital.

Pretty much everyone is doing well, apart from the expected difficulties of travelling. Seville is a beautiful city and there are tons of places to see and things to do. We are all looking forward to Friday and the day-long festival in honor of San Fernando, patron saint of Seville. Can't wait to see what we do. And no one can wait for this weekend in Cadiz and the beach!