Salamanca Day 3-Toros and a call to the embassy.........

Here's to Salamanca, the bulls and mom!

A chaperones work is never done!  Beth and I have enjoyed texting with Steve, who taught Spanish at Mulberry High School in 1979, and was the chaperone for our Salamanca Summer Study program.  Earlier today he sent us a real treat, some pictures from that summer of cultural and language immersion.  We hoped there were still some floating around out there but until today no one had been able to locate any of them.  What a special treat!

The Brave Travelers!

Left to RIght

Front Row:  Unknown, Nancy (Cindy and Kathy's Roommate from UF), Keith

Middle Row: Beth, Lori, Judy (a friend we made who has always been known as "Judy from Aruba", Cindy (Beth's sister), Kathy, Unknown

Back Row: Me, Lamar

Sorry for the two unknowns.  We think they were from Lakeland (a bigger city that's close to Mulberry) and that they came along as part of our group.

Bullfighting in Spain has been around a while.  The earliest documented records indicate that they started around 750.  There is quite a bit of controversy around the events and for a time they were banned from parts of the country.  In 2016 some of the restrictions were removed and the number of bullfights held annually across the country has increased.
We went to one when we were here in 1979.  To no ones surprise the bulls lost badly that day, the final score was; Matadors 6  Bulls 0.   One bull did get in a nice parting shot to the gut of the matador before his demise.  Going to the bullfight was kind of like our trip to India, I'm REALLY glad I did it, but I don't need to do it again.  I remember being told that the meat of the bulls were sent to orphanages and poor people throughout Spain.  This made me feel good for the orphans and poor, but I still felt bad for the bulls.
The real thrill for us, as it related to bullfighting, wasn't at the Plaza de Toros, but was on a farm somewhere near Salamanca.  This area, had at the time, numerous farms where bulls were bred for the specific purpose of one day being led to the bullring.  I'm not really sure what the training methods were but they seemed to work because the bulls entered the ring with a really bad attitude.  Our field trip to the farm wasn't to learn about the training methods.  It was to get in the ring and fight these savage beasts ourselves!
OK, so they really weren't savage beasts quite yet.  They were calves that weighed less than us, had no horns and spindly legs.  However, what they lacked in strength and endurance they made up for with energy.  One by one, and in the safety of small groups, we bravely entered the ring, knees knocking and with a red cape in hand.  The baby bulls would do what they were supposed to do, snort, scratch the dirt and charge.  We did what any college student would do, squealed and ran for the fence!  It was a blast, and when it was all said and done no students were injured and all the bulls survived (at least for that day).  Even though I wouldn't go to another real bullfight I would go watch this spectacle again if I had the chance.

That's Lori on the right trying to convince the bull to go after whoever is on her left

Before getting to the next story of days gone by I'd like to share a little bit more about this wonderful city:
Salamanca has a metropolitan area population of just under 300,000.  It is located 120 miles west of Spain's capital and largest city, Madrid and 80 miles east of the Portuguese border.  The city was founded in what is described as the "pre-Ancient Rome period".   If, like me, you're unsure as to when that was, the gospel according to Wikipedia says it was several centuries BC.  Any place that has been around as long as Salamanca has a lot of history.  The university has for centuries been the centerpiece for the city and continues to be so today.  In 1988 the "old city", where the university, cathedral and Plaza Mayor are located, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Although it's a fairly large city with plenty to see and do, the "old city", as well as the surrounding neighborhoods, has a very relaxed, laid back atmosphere that just feels good.

Steve, Me, Lori and Beth in front of the Aqueduct of Segovia

I did discover one bit of useless trivia about Salamanca.  In 1993 a Cuban athlete named Javier Sotomayor was the first person to high jump eight feet and he did it right here in Salamanca!  It's a world record he still holds today.  Who knows, maybe he's even related to our Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor!

Judy from Aruba is upper left, Kathy is in the middle, Cindy is beside Kathy and Nancy is in front

Now back to the reminiscing:
I was very blessed with a wonderful, kind and caring mother.  I'm sure it was out of love for her family, but she was quite a worrier.  Well, maybe on occasion I gave her a little to worry about, but not much.
In 1979 communication between Mulberry, Florida and Salamanca, Spain consisted of sending a post card or letter that may or may not have arrived during the summer or at all.  There was no daily texting, and long distance calls were expensive and practically nonexistent.  Somehow my mom heard on the news that two people were killed at a train station somewhere in Spain.  I did a little quick calculation and based on the estimated population of Spain at that time the likelihood of me, Beth or one of the other kids from Mulberry being one of the victims was something like 0.00000005.  Mom probably didn't do the math, and being the worrier that she was, she somehow convinced herself that two of us, with me probably being one of the two, had met our maker on foreign soil.  Thankfully she held off on sharing this dreadful news with any of the other parents.  I guess she was going to wait until the news was official and the bodies had been identified.  What she did end up doing was calling the state department in Washington, DC who put her in touch with the US Embassy here in Spain.  They reassured her that no missing or dismembered college students from Mulberry. Fla.  had been reported.
She shared this story with me when I got home, which was verified by my brother.  When I quit laughing I did a little fact checking.  As it turns out the bombing was in the Basque region of Northern Spain where they were fighting for their independence.  We knew nothing about the entire incident until we got home.
A mother's love is a special kind of love!

Saving the best picture for last........our fearless leader and chaperone (who at the time was younger than our children are Now), Steve Osthoff!

We spent our final full day in Salamanca fully in the groove of the relaxed pace of the city.  We enjoyed a morning walk along the river trail, but this time took a different route back towards the city.
This route led us to a huge city park that had a cafe' with outdoor tables under massive shade trees.  We came back to the hotel, got cleaned up and headed straight back to the park.  We sat for a couple of hours enjoying tapas, reading, listening to music and generally just chilling out.  As the afternoon wore on we slowly made our way back to the city.  We did a final walk across the Roman Bridge and past the cathedral.  We stopped for a few minutes on our favorite steps in the city, the ones we sat on forty years ago, and took a couple of selfies.  We then made our way through the 264 year old Plaza Mayor to an outdoor café we discovered our first night.  It was off the tourist route, so the already inexpensive wine was even cheaper, and they actually whipped up a pretty good order of nachos (two glasses of Sangria and Nachos for less than $6).  We sat quietly soaking up the atmosphere and appreciating the journey.

The park had several areas with nice exercise stations.  If I would have done around 6,000 of these I would have probably burnt off the chocolate and churros from the previous day.

The Park Cafe

A small section of a very long rose covered wall in the park

We're so happy we came back to Salamanca, we don't want another forty years to go by before we come back again!