1. The 2 week vacation: My close friend from home, Ashley, came and stayed that week! She got to see 2 of the shows and then we toured around Spain and then went to Paris for 3 nights!! After Ashley left I went to a bullfight!!!! Ah!! Basically what happens is this...........................
Every Sunday night at Plaza de Toros a bullfight takes place.... Since we were off a few of us decided that it would be a great cultural experience to go and see what a bullfight was actually like. It was an experience I was glad to have but it was a once in a lifetime thing and I would not go back due to the brutality of it. there are 3 matadors and 6 bulls which means each matador takes on 2 bulls. The event began at 8:30pm and lasted till around 11:30pm. At the beginning a march through is done where the matadors, the crew and the trainees walk around the stadium initiating that the bullfight is about to begin. After they exit: the bull is let out into the stadium and the fight has begun. The same thing happens with each bull: the trainee matadors are brought out into the ring with the bull and they are carrying capes that are pink and yellow. Their job is to irritate the bull and wound the bull prior to the entrance of the matador and the traditional red cape.It is very sad and brutal but a cultural experience I was glad to have went to. After the trainees are done, the matador then comes out and begins the traditional bullfight. There is a whistle at the end which the matador then gets the sword (very disturbing to see!) and tradition says he should kill the bull with one stab that would hit it directly in the heart. :( Only one of the three matadors succeeded in doing so and because he had success he got to keep the bulls ears. Because the other 2 matadors did not we had to watch them stab the bull over and over till it died. I had to cover my eyes because of how brutal it was. Our quote for the night was: “IT’S CULTURAL!!!” At the end of each fight the ending is always the same, the matador survives and the bulls are sacrificed. There was only one time in which the bull was spared: 1982 because the matador asked that it’s life be spared because he felt as if the bull fought like an actual human being. That has been the one and ONLY case! CRAZY!! This is a very dangerous event to even witness, let alone participate in so I must say that these matadors are very brave!
On my 2nd week of the tour layoff I spent a few days in Spain relaxing by the pool and then I took a trip to London to visit 2 of my friends: 1 from home and 1 from college. While I was there I met a lot of people and 2 of those people I met happened to go to Fordham!!!! :) Anyways, we did a lot of sightseeing and it was a beautiful place which I want to go back to and spend a lot more time at.
2. Japan: Our first stop was Nagoya for 1 week and now we are in Tokyo moving into our 2nd and final week before we head off to Osaka.......... Japan is such a cool place!!!! It's indescribable and can only be explained through pictures. All I can say is this: the people are very friendly and willing to help with anything and of course, there is tons to do and there are tons of sights to see!!!! Our opening party in Tokyo was incredible: chocolate fountains and everything......... sooooo nice!!! They also gave us each a program and a t-shirt :) Upon our arrival in Tokyo I went to the electronic town and I got a camera : the Nikon P90 and it is INCREDIBLE!!! I'm slowly learning the about the cool things it does and every new thing I figure out makes my camera seem even cooler! ha! Also, the hotel we are staying at in Shibuya (in Tokyo) looks over the world's most famous/busiest crosswalk in the WORLD!!!!!! Anyways, yesterday: august 3rd, 2009 i climbed Mount Fuji! It was hard and something I will only do once in my life but it was so worth it and it was such an incredible experience. Throughout are some pictures from this post to best explain everything i have written (or attempted to write) above....... As they say: "A picture is worth a thousand words."
