The Matt Faus Blog

After the bullfight we went down to the beach, with the rest of Valencia, to celebrate the Fiesta de San Juan. I have never seen so many people on a beach before in my life. There were literally thousands of people packed everywhere. Party of the festival is to write your sins on a piece of paper and then to throw them into a fire as a symbol of purifying your soul, so on this night everywhere is allowed to build a fire on the beach. On top of the hundreds of fires, thousands of people, all kinds of food and drink vendors, there was a huge stage setup near the southern end of the beach that was pumping out dance music that could be heard across Mediterranean until the wee hours in the morning. Looking down the northern shore you could see fireworks and festivities going on along the entire length of the beach. It truly felt like we were celebrating with the entire nation of Spain.

On Saturday, I had tickets to the bullfight at Plaza de Toros in downtown Valencia. I had never seen an authentic bullfight before, and it was an intense and eye-opening experience! The seats we got were pretty cheap, but it really didn’t matter since the seating arrangement was so well suited for everyone to see. Even so, there were not very many people there at all. I would say the stadium was at about 40-45% capacity.

As the first bull charged into the ring, it was incredible how powerful and strong it was. At nearly 1300 pounds, it was apparent that this beast could plow through pretty much anything. The first matador was on horseback, and it was an amazing display of partnership between the man and the horse as the matador graciously led the horse just a few steps in front of the bull’s sharp and charging horns. With each barb that pierced the bull’s back he began to slow his hooves and quicken his breathing. Once the matador was ready for the kill he retrieved his sword from a peer outside the ring and quickly slid it between the giant heaving shoulders of the beast, straight into his heart. Dismounting the horse, the matador looked the bull in the eye until it bowed its battered knee in defeat. The crowd rose in cheer as one final blow severed the spinal nerve of the bull, sending it to the great beyond.

The second fight was the first of this matador’s bad day. The barbsmen ran towards the bull with their spikes and drove them in deep, all the while taunting him with their ever-elusive capes. The blood began dripping and the bull charged even more fiercely than before, a blood-rage overcoming him. The matador entered the ring and wore him down even more with his skillful hand and graceful movements. When the time came he raised his sword to strike, but when he did so, the bull moved and dodged his strike! With the help of the barbsmen, the bull was goaded away from the blade, which the matador then recovered. Again and a third time he tried, but only one third of the way in would the blade go! The next attempt was with a long spear-like device with a short blade at the end. The matador wore the bull down and taunted his head down to the dirt to expose the spinal cord that connected the brain to the rest of the body and with a lunge he stabbed, but still nothing! The bull raged in fury and the matador tried with all of his might to dodge him. Beaten and bloodied, the bull began to simply limp around the ring, but the matador would not give up. Again and again he lunged at the most sensitive location at the bull, but after 20 tries he could not sever the nerve! The matador left the ring in a fury knowing that he would be ridiculed for the day he let the bull leave the ring alive.

The next bull charged into the ring, the energy and fury of health contrasting the slaughter that had ended so brutally. After the barbs were placed and blood was dripping down the bull’s back the next matador stepped into the ring with his red cape and piercing sword. With swirling movements of grace he wore the bull down twisting and turning him about. And then the moment of truth came. The bull stood there face-to-face with the matador that had ripped at his flesh and humiliated him in front of the crowd. The matador dangled his cape by his knees, attracting the bull’s attention with slight ripples of movement while he raised his rapier high above his head, ready to sink the final blow. With a roar of intensity, he lunged with the sword thrusting its sharp blade through the ribs and into the chest of the bull. The thrust was stopped only by the hilt of the sword contacting the bull’s back and then the matador spun with lightening speed, to just barely miss being impaled by the bull’s blood-dripped and furious horns. With only a few minutes of life left, the bull limped around the outside of the ring before collapsing in death. The horses came to carry him away, but before he was gone the ear was severed and given to the matador for achieve a perfect kill.

As the horsemen with their Kevlar-armored and blindfolded steeds trotted into ring, the next bull charged in and heaved with all its might into the side of the horse. With horns lifting the horse off the ground the horseman buried his spear into the back of the bull and heaved back in an incredible display of brute force. While the horseman continued the shred the tendons in the bulls back the horse was almost toppled by the power, but the bull broke away just in time. The matador came and the deed was done, but the horse left the ring badly bruised from the impact it had survived.

Finally, the seventh bull came into the ring. The matador’s lunge was almost to the hilt, but a little short. It was however, true enough of to pierce the lung of the bull. As the blood rushed into the bull’s lung to attain the life-giving oxygen that it needed so badly, it unexpectedly took a wrong turn and gushed out of the bull’s mouth and nose. For several minutes the bull spewed massive amounts of dark blood from all three respiratory openings until finally laying down for the final peace allowed to all creatures.

I worked most of the day on Friday, but Ashley spent her time at the beach. I finally made it down there around 4:45pm, and man was it enjoyable. I had not spent a whole lot of time at the beach because I guess I just don’t have much time during the day, but it was just incredible. The waves and breeze felt so relaxing and soothing. It was hot, but not unbearably hot. Also, the water was really rather clean and not nearly as salty as the Gulf of Mexico – the only other saltwater beach I have been to. (Seattle doesn’t really have beaches, only rocks). Needless to say, I enjoyed simply laying in the sun and relaxing tremendously.

Afterwards, we met some friends downtown, again, and stayed out dancing until 5am. Gotta love that Spanish spirit!

Ashley came to Valencia this weekend, and we had a great time. When she arrived Thursday evening we dropped her stuff off and went downtown to have a nice dinner. The meal was good and hanging out amongst all of the beautiful architecture of downtown was very enjoyable. After the meal we met some of my friends from Don Quijote a few blocks over and jumped around to a couple of different pubs there for a while, but decided to make it a relatively early night since I wanted to work the next morning. There are really quite a few street vendors downtown, with things ranging from imitation Rolexes, to flowers, to these crazy dancing dolls. Much like the Santa Claus dolls you see at Christmas that sing and dance, these dolls do the same thing. The funny thing was that in the last place we were in, we got the vendor to put 3 of them on our table and had them all dancing at once. All the while, the girl trying to buy one was trying to bargain him down on the price. It was really quite comical to see a donkey and two Dalmatian dolls singing and dancing in synchronization.

The cleaning lady, whom I am ever grateful for, just kicked me out of my room so she could clean it. This annoys me to no end as I have to get a lot of work done today and I can’t freaking be in my room. At least it gives me time to catch up on writing blog posts, now I just wish I could get my stupid Gallery application to work on my website.

I went with some friends from the school I’m studying at to a Flamenco show last night, and it was pretty cool. We got there about 30 minutes before the show began so we were all kind of standing around. They didn’t play any background music, so it was a little awkward at that time, but when the show started it was better.

From what I heard, I think Flamenco is the Spanish version of “flowin’”. There were two guys sitting on stage, one with a guitar, and one with a microphone. The guy with the guitar was playing some rhythms and the guy with the mic was laying down the vocals. The singing was really pretty cool – you could tell by the guy’s face that he was really getting into it. It really reminded me of going to parties where two people would pick up guitars and just start jamming with each other. Improvised music, I think, is some of the most interesting stuff to watch live. It’s like the people playing are just using the instruments as an extension of themselves and talking back and forth with them. It’s also awesome to see how two people can remain so harmonious by only making a plan moment by moment.

Anyway, the Flamenco Dancer came out after a while and that was the icing on the cake. The rhythm was a big part in the music as the dance consists of a lot stomping and twirling. She used her hands as a flourish, twirling them around, and then stomping with her feet to the music. I guess I’m not very good at describing people dancing, but rest assured that it was a lot of fun to watch and listen to.

I had been looking for this for a while, and I finally got the right keywords. What I was trying to do was make sure that a user was logged into a website before my code tried to download something from it. I was setting the CredentialCache to DefaultCredentials, but this doesn’t work unless the user has already logged into the website. So, if you want to pop the default window and get the credentials from the user, here is the link:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-US/library/aa375177.aspx

I’ll edit when I get some sample code working.

The next morning we made an early start so that we could trek to our flight with RyanAir. For those of you who haven’t heard of this airline, it’s supposedly this awesome deal where you can get flights for 20E around Europe. However, that’s only the price they advertise and then when you’re checking out there are all kinds of hidden fees. It’s good for some locations (probably within the same country), but you’ve really got to do your research if you want to find the deals. We probably saved about 20E each on the flight from Paris to Barcelona, but it was quite a bit of a hassle and it took much longer than a more traditional flight would have taken.

The reason RyanAir can offer low prices on their flights is because they basically build their own airports in little towns outside of the bigger cities that everyone wants to go to. So to get from Paris to Barcelona, you actually have to go from Paris to Beauvais (an hour away), by bus, and then you fly from there to Girona, and then finally take another 70 minute bus ride into Barcelona proper. You can definitely save some money with RyanAir, as long as you don’t check any luggage, but just realize that, like so many other things in life, it sounds a little too good to be true.

As mentioned in my previous post, we saw a lot of beggars in Paris that all had the same ploy: poor Bosnian women that had lost their passport. Now, there are poor and homeless people that have legitimately fallen on bad times out of their control and we should help these people. However, these beggars were little more than con artists leveraging the power of deep-seeded human desires to win a few coins, not terribly different than prostitutes. So, in my desire to get a refund for being so uncomfortably assaulted at the Arc du Triomf, I decided that the next Bosnian woman to ask for money from me would see the tables turned. At the Notre Dame Cathedral, such a woman came up to me and before she could say more than a few words I explained to her how I had lost my passport and my wallet and that I needed money to get back to the United States. As she realized that her plan had backfired she reached into her purse and gave me a 10 cent coin, from Australia. That’s right, I got money from a beggar. Boo-ya-kasha!

Well, after a good night’s sleep, Saturday presented us with a whole ‘nother day of exploring the grandiose city of Paris. The decided agenda was Moulin Rouge, Arc de Triomph, Eiffel Tower , Notre Dame Cathedral, Les Invalides, and then back to the Eiffel Tower to see it in day and night light. Ashley and I really don’t take this travelling stuff light-heartedly.

The Moulin Rouge is pretty far out of town, and a little disappointing from the outside. The red windmill was there along with tourists taking pictures and such, but compared to the other sites we had seen, it was pretty lame. We did, however, buy some crepes from a street vendor and they were delicious. I got a chocolate crepe and Ashley a nutella. Nutella is this really cool chocolate/peanut butter hybrid that is all the rage in Europe. We even had an English-speaking French person take our picture eating them. Afterwards we walked around Moulin Rouge a little bit, but the only thing there is to see in that part of the city is Sex Shops. And I’m not kidding; street after street was filled with Sex Shops of all kinds. Then, back on the metro for the Arc de Triomph.

Upon exiting the metro stop and breaking through to the daylight under the Arc du Triomf ever so much like a groundhog breaking through on that spring day to determine the weather for the next month, we were greeted by a woman asking if we spoke English. We said yes, thinking we would be helping out someone how might have felt like we did just the day before, but it turns out it was just a beggar with a ploy to use human emotion to rip a few cents from our grasp. Alas, I gave her a coin, just so she would be on her way. It was pretty frustrating since I thought it was a sincere plea for help, but no. Anyway, I’ll let you in on the rash of these same beggars throughout Paris and my revenge, later.

The Arc du Triomf was really cool, and something I had never really seen before. We have really cool architecture and buildings in the United States but they almost always serve a purpose. This work is simply a statement of nationality and victory, and nothing else. This is what made it so admirable. We took some pictures and had a look around, but there wasn’t much else to see so we moved along.

The Eiffel Tower was the next stop, and it was really pretty cool. I had in my mind that it would be similar to the Seattle Space Needle, both icons of their respective cities, but the Eiffel Tower was much more impressive. You could pay to go up to the top and take pictures, but we really didn’t feel like waiting in line for at least a couple hours. There were an incredible amount of tourists here, of course, but we were able to take some pretty nice pictures that I’m sure Ashley will frame and hang in her apartment. If I can get my stupid picture application working for my website, then I will post them for the whole world to see. Alas. The other interesting site we saw at the Eiffel Tower was the Band of Bosnian Beggars (henceforth known as the BBB). You could literally look around and identify 3 or 4 women with the exact same garb and the exact same ploy to get a few coins of pity from their fellow man.

All aboaaaarrrrrrd! Next stop, Cathedral of Notre Dame. This place was amazing from the outside. The detail in the stone carvings and the magnitude of the towers was somewhat overwhelming. We took several good pictures of everything here, and then stood in line to go inside. The inside was also quite amazing. The stained glass windows were bigger than anything I had ever seen and the statues of apostles and Jesus were very detailed and spectacular. I just wish we could have gone up in the towers!

Later that evening we headed to the Eiffel Tower to lounge in the park beneath it (with quite a few other people, I might add) under the lights of the stars and the Tower itself. I’m not sure if they do this all the time, but every hour on the hour for 10 minutes they turned on some extra lights that blinked and shimmered all along the length. It was pretty spectacular.