Madrid,
Spain
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
After a strole through Madrid that afternoon with a friend I met here, I ran home to get ready for my first bullfight. The bull came out, the wanna-be matadors agitated it, they speared it a couple times, and then the matador himself came out to take on the half-whipped bull. I watched the bullfight with a friend of mine on the left only looking through the reflextion of my glasses, and another friend on my right, hardly watching at all. They both only came because they felt like they had to see one fight while they were in Spain, to experience the culture fully. Well, I have to say I wanted to go to one, but I will never go again. It came to the point when the guy pulled out his sword to kill the bull. I told my friend not to look, and even I turned away. When we thought it was over...the bull would get dizzy and fall over and die...we looked just to see if the matador would be cheered for doing a good job or not. At that moment, the only moment when my friend on the left directly looked at the bull, it began to vomit blood, lots of it, for a while. It was the most disturbing thing I think I've ever seen. The friend on my left, shoved her head into my chest and gagged... The friend on my right started sobbing...and the bull kept vomiting. I was able to control all human liquids, unlike the bull and my friends. I felt nasua and in some surreal enviorment, but overall was able to lead the way out of the bullring before anyone vomited or passed out.
We found out right before going to the fight that there was a Real Madrid game starting at 7pm. So after leaving the fight, we ran to the stadium, bought cheap, crappy seat, and saw one of the most exciting championship games. I thought I wouldn't be able to see a game while I was here, because every time they have had one that still had good seats I was out of town. This time I didn't care what kind of seats we got because it was something or nothing. We had a great time. Real Madrid won the game by scoring in the last minute of the game. It was so exciting. We met some Spanards and some high school students from Texas, bought a jersey, cheered all the way home with fans in the metro, and got home in time to get some sleep before class the next day. It was a real Spanish day, which was only partly my style.
