Amsterdam Journal 2

PA190198.JPG, originally uploaded by Leo el Feo.

Oct. 19, 2006

Spent the day taking pictures. Amsterdam is a bounty of photo ops. I usually want to take a picture of everything. I look one way, point to the other; so many options.
Walked Michele to the ballet at around 9:45 am and took off from there. Visited Dam which I had done yesterday, but without my camera. This time around walked along Rokin. Had Miche's Ipod with me playing Sabina and then (gasp!), James Blunt. He's alright. It's a live show and it sounds just fine. Some of his songs are actually very good although he gets kind of repetitive and cliche.
Picked Michele up at the ballet at around 1pm and we went to eat something. Wound up going to the supermarket where a dominican girl from San Pedro was the cashier. We bought wine, steaks and a couple of other things.
Went to a pub right before, and I had a draft Heineken which was good.

Then in the house saw a couple of episodes of Grey's Anatomy ( Miche and Laura have 2 seasons on DVD) while Miche napped. Can't believe how little gravitas some of the actor's voices carry. I mention this because I've only seen the show recently in Spain, dubbed in spanish, and found the actress that plays Meredith Gray absolutely stunning, but I didn't know how much that had to do with the voice of the actress who dubs her. When I finally heard the "mimi" voice that she has... uffff. It was a bit of a letdown. I guess it would take getting used to. So definetely, voice and timbre have a lot to do with how we relate to characters on a screen.

Michele cooked a steak for me, and put chili on it. Jejeje, The entire house all of a sudden got a bit acrid, and we all started to cough or sneeze. Had to open all the windows. It was good. Ate it with a nice Bordeaux. ( There are only two types of wines, Red and bad. El tinto y el malo.)
Afterwards, walked Miche to the ballet where she was gonna catch the show,to see some of her friends performing. So I went to take night pictures.
There was a copter hovering over the city. Apparently there had been an incident near Dam involving a police officer. Don't know exactly what happened, but it made me think that Amsterdam is, after all, a city, like any other.
Had a good time taking night pics and made some mental notes for places I have to visit at night, cause my battery was running really low.
Met up with Miche again at 10:45 and we went home.
I fell asleep at around 12, I was so tired. Slept almost straight through until 8am. Construction noises in the back of the house awakened me.

Amsterdam Journal

Amsterdam Flight, originally uploaded by Leo el Feo.

On wednesday, oct 18 I took the 9:30 AVE (high speed train) from ZGZ to Madrid, where I took the 1:20 KLM flight to AMS. It was very cloudy throughout the flight and when I was awake, caught glimpses of some very beautiful cloud formations. As we descended into SCHIPHOL and broke through the clouds, flew over the IJ River where the plane made a U-turn to make the landing. The sights were amazing,and it's incredible how much water there is around AMS. The airport is actually around 8m below sea level, and lower at some points.
Made my way to the Muziktheater via Conexxion, a service that connects hotels to the airport. Met up with Michele at the entrance. It was great to see her after so many months. We went around the corner to do some catching up while we ate this great lentil soup ( with prunes, beef and some other stuff). Afterwards she went back inside to prepare for her debut as Carmen in the ballet of the same name. I walked around a little, revisiting some of the places I had been to in late february, early march. Outside the theater there is a great ecological Photo Exhibition. The photographs are taken from a helipcopter, all over the world ( there are 3 from the DR), and show things related to the environment and global warming. Some of the pictures are breathtaking, others are shocking.

Went in to the ballet. There I met Michele's flatmate and her mom.
There were 3 ballets performed that night. Two 20 mins pieces and then Carmen.
I knew I was in trouble when I began to doze off the minute the first ballet started. Well, I don't actually remember much of the first one. People in grey tights jumping around to this sequenced, syncopated, very percussive music. When it ended, during the intermission, I hurried to the men's room to wash my face, had some water and hoped I wouldn't doze off during the next dance.
This one was a little interisting. Titled Crossing Paths, the music was a blend of Bach and arabic music. I kinda of got the story, and enjoyed the dancing, though for a few moments I felt it was dragging. The contrast between west and middle east was stark musically, but the wailing in arabic put me in a kind of trance, and alas, I briefly dozed off a few times.

So in the next intermission I did what any brave soul who's going to see a relative perform would do: Had me a good old cup of java.
I hadn't seen Michele dance since she performed in Santo Domingo, Oct. 2005 with the Washington Ballet. So it had been a while since I had gone through the worrying, and the stress and the heart attacks I get any time she is going to perfom. It has been that way since she was little, and I would get nervous and anxious, rooting for her to land some difficult turn, or a particular lift, or fouetees, or whatever. It was difficult in DR when she was a teen, and I would videotape he shows, so I basically knew the choreography by heart.
The show went well. The crowd warmed up to her, and the production as a whole was very impressive. I liked this take on Carmen, and any time a full orchestra accompanies a ballet, it's something beautiful to witness.
There were a few moments that I got teary eyed because of the passion she and her partner put into some of the parts. I've always enjoyed how expressive Michele is on stage. She dances with feeling, she bears her emotions. Her mom would have been really proud.

After the show, we went to this place called Wok and Walk. Great, quick chinese food cooked right in front of you. Then we took the Tram home. She told me, "Get ready for the stairs". Jejeje. Steep as hell and very small steps, but worth it. A beautiful flat with wooden floors and ceiling, warm lightning, comfortable furniture, big rooms and huge windows ( standard AMS windows). I find it cozy.
There we all talked for a while about the show. Then I logged on to the web to let the people back in ZGZ know I'd made it ok.
It's incredible how much can get done in one day. After a coupl of glasses of Argentinean red wine, and some conversation, finally went to sleep with some music in my headphones. The pace I had been living in ZGZ had kept me up til almost 2am.

Bull ring

bullring5.JPG, originally uploaded by Leo el Feo.

On visiting La Misericordia

This morning, at 8am I entered La Misericordia, the Plaza de Toros of Zaragoza. They had vaquillas. What an atmosphere. During the Fiestas del Pilar, they have vaquillas every morning at 8am and then a "corrida" ( bull fights) at 6pm.
I saw the vaquillas from all angles. We even went down to the Ruedo ( the skirt around the ring) and as luck would have it, the vaquilla ( which is not small like the name suggests) jumped into it around 5 times. One time it came charging through where we were standing and I wound up jumping into the arena. Jajaja! I was scared shitless. Stampeding steer, drunken crowds... and me so heavy footed.
One thing I can say, the adrenaline rush I got made me forget I had only slept 3 hours, and that my back has been hurting like crazy for the past 2 days. What a rush. Pablo and me wanted out of there fast!
After Pablo left, I went up to the highest point in the Plaza for a different view. The vaquillas caught this one guy and smashed him into the ground where he lay motionless. He had to be carried out. I later asked at the infirmary, and they said he was concious when they took him away to the hospital.
I've seen bullfights on tv, the running of the bulls, vaquillas, and I've seen steers in DR behind pens. BUT! It was so different in here. First, the vaquilla, which is very young and crazy, is small compared to the bull, but it's still a very big animal. The ruedo is lower than I thought from watching on TV, and the ring is also smaller ( at least here in ZGZ. Don't know yet if there's a standard ring size).
The view from everywhere in the Plaza is basically great. The noise level in this event is incredible with all the Peñas music bands playing. Basically the crowd is a mix of people who have been up all night drinking, families, tourists and aficionados. There are some actual idiots in the arena, who are so drunk that they attempt foolish stunts, but there are also those who seem to be waiting all year for this, and who run each vaquilla at least 5 or 6 times. I saw at least 3 guys who were very adept at what they were doing, and these were usually the ones who got the most applause.
It was funny to see a kid taunt the vaquilla with his jacket and when the animal started to paw at the ground in preparation for a charge, the kid blinked and got out of the way before it started it's charge. When I went down to the ruedo, even before the vaquilla was released, I was asking myself "what the heck am I doing in here?" I told Pablo jokingly "Imagine I get killed today." Tourists or "guiris" as they are known here( I qualify) are usually the ones who get hurt in these types of things. When the Vaquila jumped into the ruedo, Pablo and I almost ran into the corral through where they leave. I actually told the porter that let us into the Ruedo, "Let me out, please" and he said "sorry, can't open until the vaquilla is out of the Plaza".
I was "acojonado", as they say here. My instincts to run work!
I can understand why most of these kids, the vast majority late- teens, early 20's and curiosly, no girls, jump in there. If my brief minute of running around and feeling the fear of having the vaquilla jump straight into the ruedo, gave me such an adrenaline rush that lasted almost 10 minutes, then they must get a crazy rush from jumping in there so much or just being around the boards of the ruedo.

Can't wait to actually see a bullfight. I know it will be a strange moment to witness the killing of the animals.
When the guy got smashed into the ground today, I put away my camara and felt akward for a few minutes. The craziness did not stop, though people reacted really fast. A lot of people get bruised, but it's part of it. The risk, the excitement. The crowd would applaud the most daring, the one's that got the vaquilla to actually charge and got away from them with the most grace.
Didn't see any of the abuse I had been told I would see. Yes, some kids smack the rear end of the vaquilla in an attempt to get it's attention, or try to grab it's horns, but this can hardly hurt an animal who jumps into el Ruedo full speed and then runs all around it, and comes out charging.
Amazing when the Ox (Buey) comes out, strolling with it's herder behind, and the young vaquilla stops the craziness and leaves with it.

A lot of thoughts ran through my head this morning about traditions, about animal rights, about all these things that people say, about drunkeness, about chaos.
I literally felt the release of tension in this hectic outpouring of semi-controlled rowdiness. The smiles on people's faces as they left the arena, the worry when someone apparentely got trampled too severely, the cheers... It's a spectacle, yes.
It's also, in my opinion, a necessary release. I understand why all over Spain, these festivies ( in general, not just animal related things ) are necessary for the religious, for the fans of bulls, for the youth that organizes the Peñas and strolls the streets with their music bands, singing and drinking.