Christmas Break

First official day of Christmas break! I finished my finals yesterday and celebrated by sleeping in today. And now I'm sitting at a cafe, eating churros with hot chocolate and some tea. How European of me. (Churros are basically just fried dough...something you'd expect to see at the state fair..) Finals went well for the most part, my grammar one was a little hard, but that was expected. I seem to be at a loss for words though, so I think this post is going to be a short one. This semester has been awesome! And I decided yesterday that I will continue writing in this blog for another couple weeks to keep filling you in on some of the things I have done that I have failed to blog about thus far. It will be my Christmas break project. It's hard to believe I fly home in two days. That 48 hours from right now I will be on an airplane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean and 64 hours from now I will be landing in my home state of Minnesota. The land of hockey, snow and frigid winters. Crazy how time flies. That's about all I have today...and I think this will be my last post from the Eastern Hemisphere, so for now, Hasta Luego España. I will see you again someday. 

Christmas

Hello Hello! Time is winding down here. Not that I'm counting down, but I know for fact that some of you are...(9 days?). I've started listening to Christmas music and busted out the ugly Christmas sweater yesterday. I'll be honest, part of me is excited to go home, mostly for the holidays, it was super weird to be so far away for Thanksgiving, but a lot of me is also not ready to leave. I love it here! Sunsets are beautiful every night, the climate is finally more agreeable, the food could use a little spicing up, but it's not bad, the people are friendly, and the lifestyle is awesome.

It's been fun to watch Spain get ready for Christmas! Toledo has been gradually hanging up Christmas lights across streets and setting up light displays over the past two weeks or so. I went to Madrid this past Friday with my friend Meg to go see the Lion King on broadway (which was AWESOME by the way, and entirely in Spanish), and we walked around a little before the doors opened at the theater and stumbled across a mini ice rink for kids. Upon close inspection, turns out the mini ice rink was really just white plastic with some cotton batting around the edges for "snow". There was a giant Christmas tree next to it as well and lights strung across the main street we were on. And the best part? Last night they FINALLY turned on the lights they've been hanging in Toledo. It was magical. All they need now is a light dusting of snow to top it all off.

See you soon!

A plastic "ice" rink

At the show! 

The same tree next to the sad little "ice" rink, but all lit up!