Post Archive


Here you can find every post from Jack's Journal, even the ones I've hidden! 

From watching trailblazing novillera Olga Casado to reconnecting with Borja Jiménez, Jack's week in Spain blended bullfights, Sevilla, and quiet work time.

From Santiago’s crowded cathedral to running with the bulls near Madrid, this week brought disappointment, adrenaline, and a longing for Sevilla.

Jack experiences Spain’s encierros beyond Pamplona, where tradition, danger, and camaraderie meet. This time, he's in San Sebastián de los Reyes.

Jack finishes the Camino de Santiago—315km, new friends, lessons, and loss. Reflections on the journey, Spain’s fires, and what comes next on the road.

Jack shares highs, lows, cathedral visits, lessons from fellow pilgrims, and plans for Turkey, Iraq, and Morocco while cruising buses and walking the Camino de Santiago.

Spain faces rising tensions over illegal Muslim immigration amid mosque fires and street violence. Jack takes a closer look at what's fueling unrest and growing public concern.

Contrary to popular belief, I am a highly sentimental person. Not with photos or gifts, but with symbols of something greater than...

What a year this week has been! As always, the fiesta has yet to disappoint!

On our last full day, we decided to get out of the city and went for a hike outside the Royal Residence. We spent nearly all day and afternoon out there wandering the paths and woods. It wasn't an especially rigorous hike, but we both enjoyed our time away from the hustle and bustle of city life after the past several weeks. Plus, Jo managed to have us stumble upon the Civil Guard's K-9 training center.

What a few weeks it has been back in Texas.   To be honest, there's not much of an excuse not to have written a dispatch since the end of...

Not many Spaniards in the rural towns speak English, there are rarely special, fast-to-produce fair menus at cafes, and the local attractions—like castles, churches, and museums—stay open during the fiestas. You can run an encierro in the morning, visit a castle before lunch, join a wheel dance in the afternoon, and end the night with dinner among locals instead of raucous partygoers. You don't get that at the big fairs.

An advance chapter from Jack's next book, "Aficionado: Discovering Spain Through the Art of Bullfighting." He discusses Pamplona's history, traditions, and the San Fermin Festival

There is more to the religious angle than simply commitment to God in the face of an uncertain end of the night. There are lessons to draw from the corrida as an allegory for Christian life, from the written law to our behaviour in the face of social change.

Watching the spectacle before me, I realised it was the first time I had seen something die before me in person. This wasn't a movie, video game, or a thought experiment. Death was real in the ring.

In running, I lived life not just to the fullest but to its potential end, less than a macabre call for help than living life all out, or at least as much as I could without staring a bull down in the bullring later that evening.

I am an American, and I fell in love with tauromaquia...