Last weekend was the most exciting weekend is Valencia so far. On friday, we went to see a FREE flamanco dancing performance. It was amazing the way the women moved their hands and bodies in super tight long dersses. It was a fun performance to see and Flamanco is what you think about when you think of Spain, so I am glad I got to see it!
On Saturday some Iowa State students and I went to the southern region of Andulucia and climed a mountian. There were also a group of older professors and non-traditional students with us. We had to climb many super steep hills of this tiny town to get to the beginning of the montain trail. One of the older men fell/collapsed on the street and they called an ambulance and I believe were doing CPR on him. We were about 30 minutes from the top of the mountian when one of the leaders of the hike caught up to us and told us that man who fell in the street had died. We tracked passed the word around to
everyone on the mountain and well began to climb down the mountian. The rest of the afternoon consisted of a lot of waiting and gathering of our group. The mountain was beautiful and the views were awesome and I really liked the hiking part of the day.
I was exausted and really weirded-out by the occurances of the day and I just wanted to get home. I have become so aware of how precious life is with Grandpa passing away this month, a week later my best friend Maggie lost her Grandmother, and then this man from the hike. It was really difficult to not be able to be with my family in Michigan and be at his funeral. I am thankful for all the time I was able to have with him and being able to write a little something for his funeral was helpful for me to feel like I was there in a small way. I am really looking forward to getting back to the States and being able to go to Michigan and see family.
On Sunday I went to a bullfight. The bull ring stadium thing--called Plaza dr Toros in Spainsh-- is less than a 15 minute walk from my apartment. I walk past it almost every day here in Valencia and I was so excited to finally be able to go inside of it! The bullfight started at 7, but of course it was still 90 ourside so I was sweating. The the bad or cheap seats are the ones in the sun, and of course our were int he sun so I was dying of heat for a bit! The beginning of the bull fight startes with the madadors all walking out, some guys on horseback and traditional stuff. I really liked it and they outfits were so traditional and just as I had imagined them! Then the bull fight started. Each bull fight has 3 madador and they each kill 2 bulls. Sometimes if the bull is too
aggressive, they send it back
and send out a different one. The first bull was very difficult for me to watch. I was peakin
g though my fingers for most of the time! A couple of madadors attract the attention on the bull and get it to run around and tire it out. Then, a man on a horse comes with a stick in his hand that has a knife on the end. The horse man stabbs the bull near its spin and it justs bleeding and bleeding. FINALLY, the great and brave madador comes out to kill the bull--keep in mind its already really tired and it´s been stabbed and is bleeding alot. The madador does some cool moves, though. There was one madador from Mexico and he was my favorite. He did a really good job of making
it entertaining and showing off. The madador takes a sword and stabbes the bull next to its spin to its heart. Then as he is celebrating that he killed a bull, some other guy stabbs the bull in the head to make sure its dead. OK, so I´m being biased and a bit negative, but it so unfair to the bull and the madador doesn´t even fight it full strength. I am glad that I went and staying the whole time.After the bull fight we went over to a bar and ordered some food and watc
hed the second half of the Spain vs. Italy soccer game. Right now is the EuroCopa. It is like baseballs world series, but a tourment for the soccer teams in Europe. It is so exciting because everyone gets really into it! There are signs everywhere telling people when the game is and all the bars are full of people. People will yell at the TV just like Dad yells at the TV when someone missed a putt or dropps a football pass!:) Love you daddy! The game went to over time and then into a shoot and and Spain won!! Our goalie stopped TWO penatly kicks! He was rocking! Walking home from the game lots of the cars were honking and people were yelling out their windows. We also saw soem guys running the streets with a Spain flag tied as a cape!Going to class is my least part of the summer; they are super boring. I had a test in my Management class today and I think it went alright. Luckily, our professor has already told us he is going to curve our grades it alot. He is such a suporter of study aborad and he thinks we are all really great students and people becuase we are on this program, so he gives us a break!
Vinshea and I have been going to the beach and hanging out with kids from Iowa State. There is such a great group of people here from Iowa. Everyone is getting along really well and we all have a great time together. For those of you who do not know Vinesha, she is a good friend from high school. We went to Eden Prairie together and we went to the same chruch. She attends the University of Minniesota. We had talked about studying abroad together even before college, so we kept eachother updated with the programs we were looking into. I told
her about ISU´s program here and Valencia and she decided to come! We are roommates here and are having zero problems. I am so happy she is here and that I get to experience this once in a life time trip with such a good friend. She is half Malaysian so thats why she has such a super sweet name! I love her! And I love telling people she´s from Malaysia! Haha.These three pictures here are a smapling of the photoshoot we had one night in the apartment before we lef t to hang out with people...it happens that you get kinda board waiting until 11:30 or midnight to leave so pictures happen a lot !
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