torro torro torro

So after all my time in spain Brooke and I felt we had to see a bull fight. I wasn't sure how I felt about it before, and I thought seeing it would clear it up for me. It was only 5 euros anyway. I still don't really know how i feel about bull fighting in general, but i'm glad I went it was interesting to see. I got to see the rare instance of a matador getting injured.
It was probably one of the weirdest things i've seen. First there was like a procession of all the bull fighters with drums and trumpets and the carriage, that was neat to see. Then they let the bull out first there are like minie matadors who get close to it and do the thing with pink capes. Then there's guys on horses who stab the bull with this lance. I felt bad for the horse. They werre armored and with the first bull the horse didn't even flinch when it got rammed, but the second bull was stronger and it wanter to leave. Then these guys come out with those spear things that look like acupuncture needles covered in pinata paper. And stab the bull and run. that was scarey. They everyone leaves and the matador comes out with the red cape and fights the bull for a but, then takes a sward and stabs it in a certain place in its back, where they have to like reach over the horns. Then it dies and they pull it off with this carriage.

The first bull went as normal, but the second bull was a lot stronger, bigger and smarter. The first parts were more difficult. Finally when the matador came out and tried to stab him. The second time he tried the bull knocked him down and trampled him. Bing a matador he got back up to try again, which he shouldn't have done. he tried again and the bull like threw him up between his horns, he looked like a rag doll. The he threw him down and like stomped on him and tried to stab him with his horns, which i couldn't see weather he did or not, i think there was at least a scrape. The other guys finally distracted the bull and carried the guy off into the infermery. It was pretty scarey. It took the second guy a bunch of tries to finally kill the bull. For a while we thought we were gonna see the bull win, which is very rare. Finally he got it. It dies quicker than the first one, but vomited blood. We had only a little bit of time left that we could have stayed before catching our bus anyway, so we just kinda looked at each other and said "we're done" And went to the bus.

Real Madrid

Before the bull fight we had some extra time, wo we decided to tour the football Stadium de Real Madrid. It was huge!!! It dwarfed any american stadium i've seen. the tour was a little pricey,but it was really cool to see. We got to see all the trophies, and old uniforms and we got to go up to the field. Thus far I have not found a comfortable place to sit in Spain, I finally figured out what u have to do to get one. You need to be really good at soccer and play for madrid. We got to sit in their seats, it was like heaven in chair form. I would not complain about being benched on that team. Their chairs were even better than the king's chair, which was still more comphey than anything else in spain. Shows where the priority is.
We got to go into the press room and the locker room. I saw where the futbolistas shower and urinate, lol. people get excited about it. They had a hot tub. Overall it was pretty cool, I'm glad we went.

We got to go into the press room and the locker room. I saw where the futbolistas shower and urinate, lol. people get excited about it. They had a hot tub. Overall it was pretty cool, I'm glad we went.

There better be a Telekabap in heaven

Our favorite place to hang out in Salamanca, isn't even Spanish. We go to La Passion Turca: Telekebap and Pizza pretty much every day. It is AMAZING! Kebap is like their fast food here. It's a pita pocket, with either lamb, chicken or falafel with a little salad and a sauce kinda like ranch and goat cheese. It comes wit hfries covered in the sauce. It very quickly got to the point where they knew our order. The staff is so nice, they're are best spanish friends (tho none of them are actually spanish). They have good pizza too. And they usually give us a free drink at the end since we're there so often. You'd think we'd be sick of it by now but it is awesome every time.

Last week we went out with the staff after close. It was fun but we were out really late, and the wierd turkish liquor we had (reminicant of orzo) did not mix well with thee rum drink I had later. Tho I was responsible in my little 6 week strip of legality, I didn't feel good the next day. It was still really fun, We'll prolly do it again now that exams are through. I'm gonna miss this place so much!

Lost cultural context for the 8th grader in all of us

Its amazing what can be lost in cultural context. We;ve learned some things in classes and in life here that have different meanings. Now we no that if someone asks you Quieres Chocolate, they don't want to give you a candy bar. And you need to use emocionado when your excited in stead od excitado, unless you want wierd unwanted attention. And a Viejo Verde, is not an old man with a stomach flu. Anyone will encounter this when entering a new place, tho there are cases of the reverse. One little tidbit of lost cultural context that has made us all giggle: Magnums. We all know what they are at home.

Here "I have seen many magnums, they have many varieties, including magnum gold and magnum minnies (which really cracks me up.

Here a Magnum is a type of ice cream bar. And they are delicious! they have like chocolate icecream dipped in fudge dipped in chocolate, some with nuts, other flavors the gold has like butterscothc in the middle chocolate and is sprayed with gold, minnies (ha), and they're all amazing. But somehow every time hearing people talk about them or seeing advertisments for them turns every american into an 8th grader. An unknowing non-american student wil say something in reference to the ice cream, that sounds really dirty to us, and the giggles commence. Then we explain it to them and they're like OOOH, i didn't know! Oh what is lost in translation!

Its amazing what can be lost in cultural context. We;ve learned some things in classes and in life here that have different meanings. Now we no that if someone asks you Quieres Chocolate, they don't want to give you a candy bar. And you need to use emocionado when your excited in stead od excitado, unless you want wierd unwanted attention. And a Viejo Verde, is not an old man with a stomach flu. Anyone will encounter this when entering a new place, tho there are cases of the reverse. One little tidbit of lost cultural context that has made us all giggle: Magnums. We all know what they are at home.

Here "I have seen many magnums, they have many varieties, including magnum gold and magnum minnies (which really cracks me up.

Here a Magnum is a type of ice cream bar. And they are delicious! they have like chocolate icecream dipped in fudge dipped in chocolate, some with nuts, other flavors the gold has like butterscothc in the middle chocolate and is sprayed with gold, minnies (ha), and they're all amazing. But somehow every time hearing people talk about them or seeing advertisments for them turns every american into an 8th grader. An unknowing non-american student wil say something in reference to the ice cream, that sounds really dirty to us, and the giggles commence. Then we explain it to them and they're like OOOH, i didn't know! Oh what is lost in translation!

An american in Paris, day 2

The nest morning we went to the luve first thing, before it opened. We got some crepes, that weren't as great but still better than all previous crepes. We wanted to beat the crowd, and went with a plan. We ran straight to the Mona Lisa as soon as we got in, being as it was the smallest thing we wanted to see. It was amazing in real life, everyone says how small it is, and it was small, but i was expecting it to be tiney, it wasn't, it was really cool to see the detain i wish i could have gotten closer to it check out the wood panel. I got to get closer to the other daVinchi's, john the babtist, i'd never noticed the cross he was pointing to before, its very subtle, but it was cool. I saw the famous Venus with no arms, the winged vistory, and all kinds of really cool stuff!, of course you can't see all of it. It takes 7 days to do the entire luve, but i felt sufficuantly luved.


On the way back into town we ran into this amazing candy cookie shop. They gave free samples, it was amazing. I would have bought more but it wouldn't have kept until i got back in life with no air conditioning. It was still a really cool place, we bought some cookies and ate them. It was a cool place, we went to this huge mall thing too which was kinda neat to see all the weird paris fashion. Tried on a beret.

Next we went over to the Arc de Triumph ad went up to the top, which was included in our museum pass. It was stairs, i got my work out in burning off all those crepes, it was pretty high but it was worth it when we got to the top. We could see the Eiffel tower, it was cool.



We found out that Versailles was included in our museum pass, which was exciting because usually it's like 20 euro's to get in. We took the train there. It was really neat. We saw the palace where the nobles lived and got a free audio tour walking through all the rooms. It's one of the cooler things i've visited. Unfortunately it costs more to go to the gardens, but we got a peek at them, and i don't think we had time too look at them all anyway.




At the end of the day after we went out to a delicious dinner, we got a bottle of wine and sat and watched the light show at the Eiffel Tower. It looks like it's sparkling it's really hard to capture in a photo, it was s beautiful. I loved it, I wish i could have stayed for a few more days.

PARIS!!!!!!!!! Day 1

Paris was amazing! By far the coolest plce i've ever been! i'm so glad I got to go. We got there thursday night, our hotel was really close to the Eiffel tower, so we went there first thing. It was amazing! I really wasn't expecting it to be that great, I knew I would like it but...wow! It was so beautiful, and huge! The next morning we got some crepes from this shop nearby from this very adorable old man.

We walked to the Notre Dame and bought our museum passes, which I would reccomend to anyone, it saved us a lot of money and told us good places to go we otherwise wouldn't have known about. Notre Dame was cool, It was neat to see the difference between it and all the spanish one's I've seen. There was a mas going on but it was still packed, and you could take pictures. We went to this Chappel, connected to a courhouse, which wouldn't have really been worth it withought the museum pass, it was under construction, i'm very glad we didn't have to wait in line. Next we went to the Conciergerie,which was really cool. It's this mideaval hall that wa converted into a prison during the reighn of terror where they held nobles before they beheaded them. Marie Antwanette was there, they had reconstucted cells and a chappel, it was really neat to see. We ate lunch, got a sandwich, and was very pleased to taste butter once again after so much time without it, and free tap water.

Next we went to the Museum de Orsay, which is less known but awesome, if your ever in paris and you like art its a must see. They have some very famous works, and it's a managable size, especially compared to the luve you can see them all. Lots of Van Gough's including the best known self portrait, lots of Great Monets and other really awesome impressionist works. Some older stuff, the really famous twin painings of the woman laying on the couch naked and clothed that's artist's name escape me,some cool statues, the ballerina with her hands behind her leaning back i've seen many copies of, just lots of really cool stuff. We liked it a lot.

We went to the top of The Eiffel that evening. Well not all the way to the top, the line was very long and we were high enough . It was kinda scarey because the elivator goes crooked and once your up there your out in the open air, but you could see the whole city. It was beautiful!

We went tout to dinner both nights. Lots of people say that the french are snobby or mean, and perhaps I might have thought that if I had just come from the US, but compared to Spain, they were really nice. In spain no one ever appreciates your buiesness, it's not a customer service provider relationship, its more liek your a neucence to them. I thought maybe it was because there are no tips, but in paris they actually took care of you. There was pepper on the table, free bread and water, refills on the water, the waitors were all pleasant and polite, the food was good, It was really nice.