More days passed and the holidays soon began to roll in. The first important day was December 22th. It is the day of the National Lottery, which every Spaniard plays. This year on the news they said that the average that each Spaniard spent on this lottery was 70 euros! Soon Christmas came along. On the night of Christmas Eve we had a special dinner of various seafood (shrimp, squid, and noodles) that Feli cooked up. It was delicious. Next day was Christmas. Christmas isn't really a popular gift-givnig day. Instead they exchange gifts on Januaray 6, El Dia del Reyes.

On Christmas Day we went to a city about an hour away called Salamanca. Salamanca is home to one of the oldest and well-known universities. Some great sights there are the University of Salamanca, the Cathedral, La Casa de Conchas and a great plaza. It was cool city and my host family told me that it is a great center of learning. I was also surprised to see many people out and many stores open on Christmas. "This Christmas I gave you my heart the very next day"... Christmas was certainly very different this year but I still enjoyed it.