With my homework for Monday classes adding up to 130 pages including financial exhibits. What a way to start the week! I'm doing my best to speed-read/speed-analyze so I can be awake in class tomorrow.
After class our workgroup will be studying together until 8pm because we need to practice a mock exam that takes 4 hours. Then after 8pm I can start on my individual homework.
I love school. I love school. When is the next weekend? Focus. Focus. I love school. I do, I do, I do!
May 4, 2008
Bullfight
When in Madrid...
Had to go to a bullfight. But you have to do it right - for the complete experience.
1. Go to the plaza early in the morning to buy tickets
2. Check out the Museum and the guys getting ready to choose the bulls
3. Eat Bull's Tail for lunch - it's delicious in fact.
4. Go to the bullfight!
I haven't decided exactly how I feel about the bullfight. Thanks to my excellent Spanish guide, I could understand how Spaniards appreciate the bullfight as an art. Thanks to my California hippy upbringing, I felt more for the bull than the torero.
In fact, at one point I thought the bull's name was "Jorge". But Manuel burst out in laughter because what I heard was the torero trying to get the bull's attention by yelling "HO HEY". It reminded me of our joke about "Jose, can you see?" By the way, for you hippies that are worried, the real name of the bull was "Carasucia", which means "dirty face".
I didn't realize that in each bullfight, there's not just one bull that they fight/kill (depending on if you think like a Spaniard or Californian). There are three matadores or toreros and each one of them gets to fight 2 bulls. That means in one bullfight event, you will see 6 bulls in total. Interestingly enough, the spectators are most interested in whether or not the bullfighter is able to accurately determine how the bull will react to each type of "pase" that he does, how he manipulates the situation to get the bull as close as possible to his body, etc. There is a president that sits in a special balcony and he evaluates the bullfight. If it seems that the bull is not appropriate for whatever reason, he has the right to tell the matador to let the bull go back to the stalls. Keep in mind that the bull was chosen pre-event because of certain characteristics. So if this bull is not "bravo" enough, it was a bad choice and the president has governance over deciding.
There are rare times where the bull is like Bruce Willis in "Die Hard". In those cases, the bull is saved and never goes to a bullfight the rest of his life. He is considered a super-bravo bull and I guess it goes down in bullfight history. The people do wish for the bullfight to be artistic or the appropriate performance. For example, a bullfight that lasts a long time does not necessarily mean that the bull is super bravo. It may mean that the torero is prolonging the fight, and therefore the bull's suffering, for unnecessary reasons. In these cases, the spectators boo the torero because it is unjust.
When a bull dies in the event, the spectators show their respect by standing up as they take away the bull. The applause given by the spectators explains how much they value the bull and the torero. The first applause is for the bravery of the bull, the second applause is for the torero. If you don't hear much applause in any one of those, then you can guage how much the people believed either party performed.
Will I go back? mmmm. Not sure. But I did like that Bull's Tail plate.
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