On Thursday July 8th, Professor Zabalbeascoa took our class on a day trip to Pamplona in order to experience the Fiestas de San Fermín, a festival honoring Saint Fermín. After our daily class with the Lucunza school, we met up with Professor Z and took a bus ride over to the city, where on the way we got to see the beautiful scenery of Spain, looking at vast mountains covered in lush greenery as we drove by. When we got to Pamplona, we walked around a little bit while the Professor explained some of the traditions such as the “running of the bulls”, an event that happens at 8 am everyday during the festival where people run with bulls from a farm down to the arena where the bull fighting takes place later on. One of the main traditions of the fiesta is dressing up in all white and wearing red accessories such as a bandana, hat, and sash. All of us on the trip decided to dress accordingly and we took a nice group photo in the city in front of the Ernest Hemingway statue as seen below.

  After this we went to a place where we could all sit down and we discussed the book The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, which is the reason for this fiesta being so popular to begin with. During this discussion we talked about a few different things, with the one that really stood out to me being how different generations will interpret the message of the book and the novel as a whole. For context, the book follows a group of men who just got out of WWI and are dealing with the angst of such an event. Our group talked about how as the world goes further and further away from that war, will younger generations still understand and be able to feel the emotions that Hemingway is trying to convey. I thought this was really interesting to think about and it really stuck with me because it made me realize how the state of the world changes so many times in the span of a century. After our discussion we went our separate ways to explore for about an hour, I went with my buddies and we walked around the food stands nearby. While there we saw a wide variety of food consisting of things such as smoked meats, fried food, sandwiches, pizzas, and much more. After walking for a little we found ourselves in a bar, where we got small portions of food called tapas, which included things such as a deep fried, hard boiled egg with cheese surrounding it, at least we thought that’s what it was. We hung out at the bar enjoying these tapas and some nice refreshments for a little while, then we went back to the food stands and got some fried potatoes.

Whenever we finished up we started to walk back towards the meeting point we were given, and although we got lost for a second, we eventually met back up with the group and walked back to the bus. The ride home was quiet, which is most likely because a lot of people, including myself, slept the entire time. This trip was overall a lot of fun, it was interesting to see how different the city of Pamplona is compared to San Sebastian. It was, from what we were told, the first time a session has ever gone to Pamplona and I personally think it was worth it. Seeing a big part of Spanish culture, being fiestas, firsthand was incredible and has definitely been one of the best parts about this trip so far. The day as a whole was great and I will be able to look back on it in a positive manner, and while we were leaving we did see horses walk by with bandanas on, hence the title of the blog.