Carnaval del Toro--And Lauren Comes to Town!

Decked out in our 10 euro gypsy costumes for Carnaval

Ciudad Rodrigo decorated for the festivities

Kristen, Lauren, and me watching the running of the bulls


Silly people taunting the bull

Plaza Mayor, before the bull fight

The good torero and the bull

Bring it on, Bull.

Final staredown between torero #4 and the bull

the completely packed Plaza Mayor

children in absurd cigarette lighter costumes


Here it is, Sunday night, and after another fun weekend I can’t bring myself to do the reading that I’ve already gotten so behind on (Spain has made me very lazy), so instead I’ll let you all know about my friend Lauren’s visit to Salamanca and our Carnaval adventure! Lauren is Kristen’s and my friend from Georgetown, and she is studying in Madrid this semester. She arrived in Salamanca Friday evening to stay for the weekend. Kristen, Mary Kathryn, and I went to the train station to pick her up and walked back to my apartment to drop off her things. Fortunately my host mother was perfectly happy to let Lauren stay with me—my Georgia roommates left that afternoon, so Lauren got their room and didn’t have to get a hostel. We all came up to the apartment together and had a chance to chat with my host mom. It was nice to be able to introduce my friend to the legendary Mari, and I think she really enjoyed talking to all of us girls. The other girls said they could tell how much Mari likes me, so that made me feel special! I really lucked out with my host family, they’re so amazing, and Mari always helps me with my Spanish. At dinner tonight she told me my Spanish is much improved from when I arrived, which was VERY nice to hear. Anyway, after our stop at the apartment we went out for pinchos and had a nice time catching up with Lauren.

Saturday was Carnaval! (Carnaval technically runs through Tuesday, but we only went Saturday.) Ciudad Rodrigo, which is about an hour outside of Salamanca, apparently has one of the best Carnavales in the area, so Kristen, Lauren, and I spent Saturday at the town’s Carnaval del Toro. We took a bus to Ciudad Rodrigo with a bunch of other Salamanca university students Saturday morning. Carnaval is kind of like Mardi Gras combined with Halloween because costumes are a huge part of it, so we went all out in full gypsy costumes that we bought for 10 euros. People were in costumes all weekend long in Salamanca. Ciudad Rodrigo’s Carnaval consists of a fair, a running of the bulls, a bull fight, and general merry-making. When we arrived we roamed around the fair for a while, checked out all the ridiculous costumes and drunken revelers, and then camped out on top of the old city wall to eat our picnic lunch and watch the running of the bulls. The running of the bulls, or encierro, was not really what I expected. All the images I’ve ever seen have been of a herd of people running down a street followed by a herd of stampeding bulls. What we saw was more like one bull at a time would come running down the street, chase people around for a while, and then continue to run down the street. It was really nerve-wracking to watch people climb up the walls along the streets to escape the bulls; one guy was actually picked up by the bull and thrown against the wall. Fortunately he was ok, but it was still scary, and I was very glad to be watching from far above. I saw on the news that at the Sunday running of the bulls a guy was actually gored by the bull and taken to the hospital. I’m happy I didn’t see anything that bad on Saturday! It was fun to watch, but it seemed like a really stupid thing to participate in. To each his own, I guess.

After some more strolling through the fairgrounds we made our way to the Plaza Mayor for the bull fight. I had very mixed feelings about seeing the bull fight. Up until about last November, I had always thought that a bull fight consisted of just the dance between the bull fighter (torero) and the bull. But in my Spanish class last semester, I learned that the whole point of the fight is to kill the bull—I don’t really know how I didn’t know this before. When I came to Spain, part of me really wanted to go to a fight since it’s such a big part of Spanish tradition and culture, but the animal rights activist in me couldn’t stand the thought of it. Despite our misgivings, we decided to go—I’m sure my sister, and probably others of you, will be appalled that I did. We sat next to a really nice guy from Peru who is also studying in Salamanca, and he explained to us everything that was going on. So, the way the bull fight works, with all the gory details: a group of toreros stand around the plaza when the bull comes out, and they all wave bright colored scarves at the bull to agitate it. Then a guy on horseback comes out and sticks a spear into the bull’s back; I don’t know if this is to make it mad or to make it less dangerous or what. Then the main torero comes out with his red scarf and dances with the bull for awhile. Another torero comes out and sticks long frilly spear/baton things into the bull’s back. Then the dance with the bull continues until the torero sticks a sword into the bull’s back to kill it. Yeah, it’s really pleasant. And we had to sit through four separate fights. The first one was really hard to watch, and I spent a good bit of it with my face behind my hands. The second one was better: the torero was really talented (and really good-looking), and it was fascinating to watch how close he would get to the bull without getting attacked, just by twisting and swaying his red scarf thing around and making the bull follow it. The killing part, of course, was not fun to watch. After the second fight was done, everyone stood up and started waving hats and scarves at the torero—the more people that wave, the better the torero is. He walked around the plaza to do the traditional acknowledgement of the crowd; they would throw their hats and scarves into the plaza and he would throw them back. People were having him kiss their babies, and one girl even ran down into the plaza to get a kiss. It was kind of funny how enthusiastic everyone was. Oh yes, and as a prize the torero gets the bull’s ears. Nice. The third fight was definitely the worst because it took the torero five tries to kill the bull. No one waved for him because he had made the bull suffer—because all the initial stabbing and prodding doesn’t cause suffering, clearly. The point is to make the bull die “honorably,” and I guess as long as it’s quick it doesn’t matter if you die with spears in your back. The fourth fight was better. All in all, it was a very interesting cultural experience, and the actual dance between the bull and the torero was amazing to watch. I’m glad I did it, but I will not be going to another bull fight in the near future—one is enough for me.

After the bull fight there was a costume parade through the plaza. There were all types of costumes, including some bizarre cigarette lighter costumes, and a family dressed up as a slave master, children, and a slave—in blackface and a mammy costume. We were really shocked by that one, considering how a costume like that would be viewed in the US. We also saw a group of guys dressed up as Arabs and heard a Spanish guy call an Asian girl “China.” America may have cross-cultural problems and stereotypes, but we do have a certain standard of appropriate behavior, and it’s very interesting to see how those standards are different in other cultures. That’s not to say that Spanish people are intolerant of other cultures; they just seem to have a more blunt attitude towards people that are different and are less concerned about political correctness.

We strolled through the fair one more time before heading back to Salamanca. Once we got back and changed out of our costumes, Lauren, Kristen and I went to dinner at an adorable café. I always enjoy eating out in Salamanca since I do it so rarely. We had the menu of the day, which included dessert, so I ordered the seasonal fruit. When dessert came, I got an orange—not prepared at all, just a whole orange on a plate. It was kind of funny, I guess because I can’t imagine an American restaurant ever giving me a plain orange for dessert, but here that’s completely normal. After dinner we went to a discoteca, which was really fun. Sunday we went to Mass at the university, which was nice, and I actually understood a lot more then I thought I would. We took Lauren on a tour of Salamanca and had lunch at one of our favorite cafes. After lunch we got some dessert and sat in the Plaza Mayor to enjoy the beautiful weather. Then we took Lauren to the train station—it was sad to see her go, but we’re hopefully going to visit her in Madrid in a few weeks!

Funny sidenote that has nothing to do with this weekend: last week, my American history professor was talking about all the different cultures of the foreigners in our class—Mexicans are this, French are that, etc. When she got to Americans, she told everyone that we are the most loyal, steadfast, and best friends a person can have. The Americans in the class got a big kick out of that, and it was nice to know that at least one Spaniard appreciates us!