Tracksuits, Whistles, and Square Dancing

Mea culpa for the lack of posts in the past week; my life has been slightly on the boring side so I don't have much toooooo much to report. That doesn't mean that there isn't ANY good news to report: I got the Health Tech job! Woohoo! I thought I would get in the mind-set of being a school nurse/PE teacher (even typing that feels odd) by having a job-related Title for this post. It's only part-time, but they're keeping me on as a sub, so I will be what they call "dual-appointed". The principal has also put in a request for me to have more than the 15 hours that were alloted for the job, bringing my weekly total to around 25-not shabby at all. Since the previous Health Tech is no longer there to train me, I've had to dive right in and teach myself all the different requirements for the job. I've already gotten the school involved in National School Breakfast Week next week, and I've gotten updated immunization records for a few students. From what I understand, my duties are as follows:

-Recess duty
-Manage and update health and immunization records
-Arrange hearing, vision, and scoliosis testings
-Act as a First Aid responder/school nurse if a kid gets injured or doesn't feel well (I took my first temperature today!)
-Teach PE to all the students twice a week
-Arrange for various health profession speakers
-Develop a Health and Nutrition curriculum to go along with the PE one

If you read that list and thought to yourself, "Uh, you don't sound qualified for any of that", I thought the saaaaaaame thing. Fear not, I have a plan. I'm already registered for the CPR/AED/First Aid course at the Red Cross on Rota's base (the one that's on the coast about an hour and 15 minutes away), have familiarized myself with all the required vaccinations (including their code names), printed out the PE standards and am already working on aligning lesson plans and activities with them. That, and I've already played frisbee and wiffle ball with the kids at recess, to which they shouted "HOLY COW, MS. BROUSE!" when I got my hit..... The kids have been really great and are super cute, especially the little guys. There's one kindergarten boy that has the funniest little voice, and he's so stinkin' adorable. He was walking towards me, pointed to his butt, and said "I farted!" I said, in my best Renee Farrell voice, "Hey! Stop being a little piggy!", and he could not stop laughing. Even after I passed him, I could still hear him little kid laughing, which always ends up making me laugh. I've been going with them and the temporary PE teacher to PE this week, and I believe I am taking over the reins next week. I've got "Mother May I?", SPUD, and volleyball (for the older kids) planned. Suggestions for activities are more than welcome; send 'em my way!

The other interesting bit of news is that we attended our first bullfight in Utrera last Sunday afternoon. Please be advised that the next part of this blog will be gory and/or very sad for people.

So, the bull ring in Utrera (the city where we live) was built brand-new a few years ago but years of anti-bull fighting protests kept it from holding an actual fight until just last year. Utrera is known for showcasing a special kind of bullfighting that involves matadors on horseback; the moves of the horses are supposedly unbelievable and that type of fight is the one you need to go to. Unfortunately, since this was the first fight of the season, we got the standard ole thang.

After grabbing a few drinks at the local Irish pub with the people from Elliot's work, we walked over to the bull arena. It's on a dusty patch of land that is set off in the outskirts of town where a lot of new (unoccupied) townhouses have been built. Walking to the arena was very much like walking to any major sporting event, you have people selling seat cushions outside the gate, and other people are trying to scalp tickets (which was odd because the arena wasn't even full). We bought a few seat cushions as you only have a cement slab to park yourself on for a good four hours of toro fighting. We had third row seats in the shaded side of the arena, a must have for those hot Spanish summer days.

At first, a group of people came out on the sand and were applauded by the crowd. There were no introductions made, but one guy got more applause than the rest, and we still have no clue who those people were. The important looking guy (he was wearing an ascot which automatically equals importance, natch) was to come out throughout the rest of the events and gave what looked like advice to the different matadors. My guess is that he was a former matador who was a hometown favorite. Not too sure though.... perhaps I should google "significance of men with ascots" and see what comes up...

There was a full-fledged band, including piano, that would start playing while the matador was coming close to the kill. There were also three random trumpeteers who sat opposite of the band and would start playing when the bull was released. There were shawls, known as Manilla Shawls for their origin, that people draped along the walls in front of their seats much like people at football or baseball games. I'm not sure what the shawls signify, but one of Elliot's friends was telling me that they cost upwards of 400 euro. YOWZA. That thing better be spun with angel's wings and leprechaun hair for me to spend 400 euro on it, and you best believe I wouldn't be taking it to a sporting event where it can soak up all the bull stink.

The event started with two men dressed like Medieval pages coming into the center of the arena on horseback. It has now become standard for horses to wear armor, and I quickly found out the reason for that. The men on horseback trotted around the arena for a bit, had the horses change their gait a few times, and exited to the sounds of trumpets. If it weren't for the people drinking out of Pepsi cups around me, I would have sworn I had taken a step 400 years back in time. Also, there was a very "gladiator" esque feel to the whole experience: sitting in the crowd facing an oval arena filled with sand, waiting to cheer on a blood sport. The experience was very surreal and something I would recommend on account of the tradition associated with it. Don't get me wrong, I don't advocate killing anything for sport, but it's something that you've gotta do at least once while in Spain.

After our medieval jesters departed the arena, the three amigos blasted on their trumpets, a gate opened, and out ran a pretty small bull. I'm not sure what they do to the animals before they make their entrance, but every one we saw came flying out of that gate, clearly PO'ed. When a bull first comes out, there are three sort of matadors who have hot pink and yellow capes that they use to attract the bull's attention. They then quickly dart behind the wall when the bull charges at them. The first bull charged straight into the wall after a guy and ended up breaking his horn in half. I had no clue that could even happen! The bull's horn immediately started bleeding and you could tell that weakened him significantly. After the pseudo matadors teased the bull for about five minutes, out came a man on horseback with a spear. He rode right up to the side of the bull and stabbed him a few times in the back to weaken and anger it. The bull immediately charged the side of the horse and would not unlock his horns for a good five minutes. The horse actually fell to the ground but wasn't injured b/c of the armor it was wearing. At first we thought it was dead, but then it just leapt to its feet like it had been taking a snooze. The bull was not to fare so fortunately.

After the horseman pokes the bull several times, out come the picadores. That is a man who goes into the center of the arena (a smaller circle) and antagonizes the bull until it charges at him. Right as the bull's about to hit the picador, he thrusts these two small spears that look like they have pool noodles (smaller though) attached to them. These noodle things act like buoys and cause the spears to be stuck under the bull's skin. The bull immediately realizes something's wrong and tries in vain to knock the spears out with its nose. It's sad because blood starts running down the side of the bull and it is extremely weakened. Then, once everyone else has done all the work, the matador comes out.

Now from what I can tell, matadors wear the traditional costume everyone thinks of when they think bull-fighting: bejeweled bolero jackets, embroidered high-waisted pants, black boots, and a black hat that resembles mouse ears. Since this was a local and seemingly unofficial fight, there wasn't any elaborate embroidery or beading, but to my delight the pants were still tight. J/k on the delight but the pants were definitely tight. Did I miss my flight? Have a good night. Ok, now I'm done.

ANYWAY, the matador does exactly what you've seen in a Bugs Bunny cartoon and does the passes with a red cape. This part is actually a little boring because it lasts about 15 minutes, and it's the same thing over and over again: the matador egging the bull on by shaking the red cape, the bull charging towards the matador, the matador stepping to the side and lifting the red cape in a twirl, the crowd roaring, and the matador bowing. Finally, after doing this to clearly pump up his ego, the matador gets advice from the ascot guy, switches his sword for a gold one, and calls the bull towards him for one last charge. If the matador is skilled, he will stab his sword through the bull's shoulder blades, piercing his heart, and causing a quick and merciful death. We saw three bull fights that day, and only once did that happen. It ends up being pretty gruesome, as the pseudo matadors have to distract the bull while the matador retrieves his sword and tries again. After the bull falls to the ground, the pseudo matador punches it in the head to finally kill it (if it's not dead already). People in the crowd then wave their hankies if they believe the matador was brave and did a skillful job; the more hankies in the crowd, the better for the matador. There are three judges who sit in the presidential section and decide what the matador's rewards should be: one ear, two ears, or two ears and the tail. After the matador is rewarded for his fight, the bull is dragged by horses through the gate to an awaiting butcher shop's truck. Not even joking.

We ended up seeing three fights that day, and each matador only received one ear. The third matador was by far the best and killed the bull quickly with the sword. We ended up leaving after the third, as there were two drunk old dudes behind us who spilled their beer all over our seats.

It's actually amazing how right cartoons got it, what with the matador actions, the outfit, and the bull pawing (or hooving) the ground and snorting. I felt like I had seen it all before, and I thank ye, Looney Toons, for quite the cultural education.

RANDOM SPANISH OBSERVATIONS:

-No matter what time of day it is, there are always people cleaning public buildings. They love to mop.

-There are no stop lights... only traffic circles