A Day in the Life...: End of HOSTILE PHASE

I believe I am finally getting over the hump of the “Hostile Phase!” This past week has been very good and went by very quick! It was the last week of my Intensive Period class and I got my new schedule for the rest of semester! I will definitely be busy and time will fly by! In addition to my dance class and culture class, I will start Spanish Civilization, Spanish Society, and Art History. I also had an interview this week with a family to interview them! It is a family of five…four daughters and a son! The mother requires me to only speak English with her children, and the oldest three have all studied in a boarding school in London! I am going to meet between 2-3 hours a week! That will be a little source of income YEAH! I will mostly work with the youngest daughter to improve her spelling and reading. With the three oldest we will just do conversation! It will be a good break from Spanish. I also helped the mom with writing an email…she speaks well, but would like to improve her grammar.

I also went to the doctor this week and found out that I just have a cold. It was good to eliminate having bronchitis though! I am just toughing through and my cough is almost gone!

I am also excited to say that I have booked to weekend trips. One to Alicante, Spain on the Mediterranean Sea and the other to London; both in October! I am planning on traveling to Italy in November to meet up with Barb and Al! It will be so exciting to see a familiar face! I also really want to go to Barcelona and lots of other places, so we will see if they will fit in! It seems that Morocco, Africa might not happen because it is really expensive, but I am still looking into it! So many places I want to visit, but I am running out of weekends. I think I have four free weekends between now and when I leave! Crazy, huh?

On Friday night I went to my first ever bullfight! I can’t say that I truly enjoyed the concept of killing bulls, but it was definitely necessary to experience the culture of Spain. There were three matadors, each killing two bulls. The process is quite extent. There are three steps:

· First the peons distract the bull so that the matador can observe its behavior. Then two horses come out with metal draping so that the bull can ram into them because they just want to attack.

· After that, three sets of hooked sticks are thrown into the vertebrae of the bull. This makes the bull bleed and become tired. It is so sad to see them wear out because they don’t know what to expect next.

· The last step is when only the matador and bull are in the arena. This is the time when the matador feels out the bull and gets ready to kill. They have 10 minutes to kill the bull. The actual kill is done but driving a sword between the first and second vertebrae straight to the heart. Eventually the bull drops. If it doesn’t die right away, they take a shorter knife and stab the bulls’ brain until it is dead. HOW SAD! It made me sick to watch. Then three donkeys come into the arena and drag out the bull! Then on to the next bull!

It was definitely an art, but not something I want to go to all the time. This was the first sporting event that I didn’t know how to cheer because I didn’t know what was right or wrong!

When I got back on Friday, we celebrated my senora’s Saint Day! In Spain when you are older, your Saint Day is more important than your birthday. When I got back from the bull fight her five friends were over and we got to drink wine and beer and cherry desert liquor! How fun! She also made soooo much food! Lots of tapas, one of which that was shrimp with the eyes still on! All the ladies just laughed at me because I said I didn’t eat food with eyes still on them! It was the running joke all meal! They thought it was funny. Although I didn’t understand everything I really tried to absorb what they were saying and just listen. By the time 12:30AM rolled along, I started shutting down. How was I this exhausted and all these older ladies were still going at it! Different lifestyles here! My parents don’t even stay up that late =)

To end my week, I went on two day trips. In Arecena I visited an awesome cave with mineral drippings from the mountain above and in Donana, I rode horses on the beach! It was so fun and my horse was right behind the guide because I was experienced! It was also nice because he was good to look at!

Weather here is starting to get cold (like 70 degrees at night)…I bet you think I am crazy for saying that! I will definitely be in for something when I return home in December! I predict the heat bill being more expensive this winter!

That’s it for now! Enjoy the pictures and videos!