In France I got to visit the city of Grenoble, where two of my friends live, for five days before heading off to Paris to meet my roommate for another five days. We basically did all the touristy stuff but the city was in full-on Christmas mode so that made things extra wonderful (even though it was cold and rainy). Here's an example of the lights around the city:
There are also great lights around Madrid but my camera is pretty awful at taking pictures at night so none of those turned out too well. There was actually a fireworks show in the Plaza de Cibeles last Sunday which I got to see. The Christmas spirit is clearly alive here, even if it is different than in the US. For example, 3 Kings Day in early January is a much bigger deal here, almost as big as Christmas. The 3 kings actually bring kids presents on that day instead of Santa Claus (although recently Santa Claus is becoming more popular). My favorite part about Christmas in Spain has definitely been turrones and polvorones. Yum.
For our last day in Madrid we went to the oldest restaurant in the world for lunch, Botin:
And tomorrow I depart! This semester has of course been an incredible experience that has really made me want to travel more! Living in a different country for this long has been so cool, I hope to get to know other cultures as well as I've gotten to know this one. Happy holidays to everyone and I can't wait to see you all back in the good ol' USA!
