Madrid & Salamanca

I write you from a peaceful student apartment at the University of Kent-Canterbury, in Canterbury, England. Since the last writing, we spent two nights in Madrid. We went around the city, saw lots of great things, and the three of us went to a bullfight. It was the second to last night of the San Isidro bull festival, we saw the "rejones" which means that the "toredores" are on horseback. It was a great experience for all of us, as Greg noted, the first bull or two are kind of gory, but after that you begin to understand the challenge to the bullfighter and see why the Spanish consider it an art form. We spent the next two nights in Salamanca, the town where I studied abroad last spring. It was a great time for me, to catch up with olds friends. We visited with my host family and ate hordes of delicious Spanish meat, tortilla de patatas, and delicious olives. We also hung out at the McDonald's at the mall with some of the kids who I helped coach in basketball. After Salamanca, we travelled up to London, England and spent the last two nights with the Cassie and Sally Hubbert, two sisters from TU who are doing an internship there. Yesterday we won the metaphorical lottery at the House of Parliament. As we were preparing to wait in line to watch the House of Commons, when MP Colin Burgon came up to us and said "they're Americans, they can come with me." Well, Mr. Burgon is a staunch Laborer from Leeds, and a big US Civil War historian. So, he gave us the grade A tour, going into many restricted areas, explaining the historical significance of paintings, statues, and rooms, as well as taking us to the Members only Terrace overlooking the Thamses. It was truly great, see here for more on Mr. Burgon: http://www.colinburgon.co.uk/. Then, today we (the Hubbert sisters, and Jason, a friend of ours from TU who came over to visit and use some frequent flyer miles) travelled to to Canterbury to meet up with and stay a night with Jessica, our friend who is studying here and joined up with us in Greece. Canterbury is great, a little rainy, but very traditional England aka peaceful and green. I hope everyone is doing well in the states!