The Sun Also Rises

I went to a bull fight and although it was a part of the spanish culture that needs to be experienced, I doubt I'll go again. I can now say that I understand how Ernest Hemingway fell in love with Matadors. That was the part of the bull fight that I could watch over and over again. They danced around the bull in beautiful silk outfits. I did a little background and I think it's called "traje de luces"which means the suit of lights. In Spain they call the matadors and I guess all those that fight in the ring, torero. Then again I learned all of that on wikipedia so for all I know it's not true. Back to the Matador, he would dance around the bull slapping his feet against the dirt ground getting the bulls attention. He would wave a beautiful pink, silk cape. Picadores, people riding on horses, came out and would encourage the bull to attack the horse while injuring the bull. They also stuck these pole type things into the shoulders to weaken the bull. I'm not going to go into detail, I have a video but I don't want to put it up and make anyone uncomfortable. Finally the head Matador comes out with a muleta, or the red cape and a sword. He obviously kills it but I'd rather not go into the details. They do it to six bulls. Personally it's part of the Spanish culture and I enjoyed watching the historical, performance of the fight but hated watching the bull suffer.  So that was Sunday, oh and if anyone wants to see the video I can send it to you. I will warn you that I unfortunately got a video of the one Matador that seemed to have some trouble. You can figure that out on your own.

Today is the 9th of October in Valencia, also known as Valencia Day. It's a day to celebrate the independence of Valencia. It was no longer Moorish but King Jamie brought Christianity.  So last night or early this morning there was a fireworks show in the riverbed at midnight. These were fireworks like I had never seen. Growing up so close to Kings Island allowed me to watch fireworks every night at 10 in the summer if I wanted but when I watched these, I was shocked. It was beautiful and loud. I'm not kidding when I saw that it was like going to a concert and standing next to the speakers. I couldn't hear anything. The ones that freaked me out were the ones that are just like big bombs and are really loud, you could feel them on your skin. They made the ground shake. Valencia is known for its pyrotechnic abilities. I don't know how you would say that. But there is a two year school here where someone can go and be a certified pyrotechnic.

This afternoon Alex, Abby, Galen, Michael and I went and had lunch at the plaza de la virgen. I had already eaten lunch with Colin, I made grilled cheese but I still went anyways. I tried Orxata and a croissant. They were out of the normal pastry that you dip in the drink. If I'm correct Orxata is a rice and milk drink. It is very sweet but realllllyyyy yummy and delicious. Then we walked to la plaza del ayuntamiento and heard anothter fireworks show. We were late because it started ten minutes early. I didn't see anything but I'm pretty sure that it called La Mascleta and there wash;t much to see but a lot to hear.

OK that's all for now, until next time...