This last weekend was full of Spanish culture for me.

On Saturday, Marta insisted I go to the Museo del Prado, a museum which is really famous, and I guess it's is up there with the Louvre from what Marta told me. So I went, but it really wasn't that cool in my opinion. Marta showed me the works of the most famous Spanish painters, and their artwork was good, but I didn't enjoy it that much. I prefer museums with dinosaur bones and stuff..

But Sunday was amazing.

I got up and went to church with a family friend, Gabriella, who's from Argentina. Although many Spaniards are baptized Catholics, almost no one goes to church because they associate the Catholic Church with Francisco Franco and his authoritarian regime, which, to me it's sad that that part of Spain's history still affects people today. But anyways, I went with Gabriella, and we went to the children's mass, and it was one of the coolest masses I've ever been to.

During the mass the church had a very special atmosphere about it. All the readings were read by kids, and during the songs everyone was standing and clapping their hands to the beat, and the little kids were dancing around. During the homily, the priest held a little boy in his arms, and the homily (although I didn't understand all of it) was related to God in the kids' lives, and the priest would ask kids to raise their hands about certain aspects of God in their lives so that they were involved. And whenever the priest was standing up, little kids would sneak up and sit in his chair. It's funny because usually when you're in church and you get that one little kid that won't stop whining it's so annoying, but in this case, screaming kids was what made it so great.

After church, we took the metro to this Japanese restaurant to have lunch with part of Alfonso's side of the family. (It was soooo funny how all the waiters and waitresses spoke Spanish with Asian accents, just like they speak English with Asian accents)

But after lunch, we decided to walk home, and Las Ventas (The stadium where they do bullfighting in Madrid) was on the way home from the restaurant. Alfonso asked me if I wanted to check out the stadium, and of course I said yes, and when we got there, there happened to be a bullfight going on.

Some guy offered us tickets for 5€ each, so Marta took me in.
Going to a bullfight was something I had to do while I'm here, and I'm really glad I did it, but I'm not sure of how much I liked it.

It was fun and really intense, and it's crazy how close they get to the charging bulls so my heart was always beating really fast. And the cultural part of it was really cool, too, the costumes, and the music, and Marta told me a little bit of the history while we were there also.

But it's also kind of sad how the whole objective is to kill the bull, and they stab the bulls back and neck to a pulp. And the worst is when they finally kill it and horses drag it away leaving a trail of blood.

But hey, I got my fair share of culture this weekend. Still high on my list, though, is to go to a Real Madrid game...

Also, today, I had a pretty good day at school. I can tell that each day I understand a little bit more, and each day gets a little easier. But then came Philosophy class, which I had for the first time today.

I don't think I understood a single word.

Actually scratch that, I think he talked about the ancient Greeks once... (But who wouldn't be able to guess that?)

But at one point, the teacher randomly called on me with a question. Like I could understand a question about philosophy right now. And to answer it? Not a chance. So I just said, "Uh, I don't understand anything right now, I'm American, and I don't speak Spanish that well."

So what did he do? Repeated the question. Once, twice, three times. I don't think he got the memo about how I don't understand, because repeating the question definitely did not help. Other people in the class even tried to save me from the teacher, but he was relentless! And the whole time I was just laughing, and trying to tell him that I didn't understand. Finally, my friend mouthed the answer to me from behind his back, and I said it, and he walked away from me and continued with his lecture.

Ahhhhh. This class is going to be a BLAST!

I think it will take a miracle for me to pass it..