So I am pretty much horrible about this

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I think it's been over a month since I have published anything. Oops! It's so easy to put this off, especially these past couple of weeks.
October 20-24 were midterms, which meant the weekend before all I did was study. Not to mention a few close-to-sleepless nights. It's not that I put my studying off either, it just piles on so quickly! I had two midterms that Monday. One on Tuesday and a paper and a midterm on Thursday. I felt confident on all of them. I knew coming out of both art history exams that I did very well. I got both back this week and I had As on both of them. I got an A on my tower paper too. We had to go around the city and find church towers that are done in 'mudejar' style, which is common style between Christians, Jewish and Muslims during their period of 'convivencia' from the 12-14 centuries. That night I only got 2.5 hours of sleep. But it was well worth it! I am glad that I turned in my sketches too. I had my grade as well as 'bonitos dibujos' (beautiful drawings) written on the front. I knew that was a good idea and I am sure I scored some brownie points with that one! I am still waiting on my lit and cinema exams as well as a cinema paper. I am sure I did fine; I felt prepared!
Last week I had a literature paper as well as my 10 page master painters paper due. I had to finish the book for lit, so my art paper got pushed back a bit. I didn't get much sleep that weekend either. But all of my hard work is paying off and my grades reflect that.
Now I get to take a break and go to Paris next weekend!!! I am sooooo excited. We're going to the Louvre on Friday for sure and Versaille on Saturday. We're going to do Moulin Rouge at night and the Eiffel Tower, and maybe check out some of the markets in the morning. November is going to fly by! There are only 6 weeks left! I have a couple of presentations and papers due every Monday and I am traveling almost every weekend. 21-23 I will be in Granada and Thanksgiving Weekend will be spent in Pais Vasco in Bibao, Guernica and San Sebastian! We're taking a bit of a chance with this last trip. Leaving at 1 AM Friday on the bus and returning to Madrid at 6 AM Monday morning. We don't have class until 11:30, so it's totally do-able.
Over the past couple of weeks I have been meeting with my intercambios, which are people from Toledo that we meet with for a conversation group. We practice our Spanish with them and they practice their English with us. Raquel is 25 and a school teacher, and Maria is studying at the local university to be an English teacher. They are both so much fun! Maria invited me to her house the first day, which I thought was a bit odd since we didn't know each other at all. But it was great! She invited me to go to the village where she is originally from some weekend. I am definitely going to take her up on that! My Spanish is definitely improving from talking with these girls and I learn a lot more vocab this way.
I bought a winter coat today. I thought that my corduroy blazer would have been enough...but when it's cold and it rains you definitely need one! Angela and I went to the Poligono market this morning and bought pea coats. I only paid €20! It's good quality too. I think clothes here are made better than they are in the US. And for some things, you pay less than you would in the states, even with the exchange rate. Speaking of which, it has been awesome recently. And by awesome I mean it was down to €1=$1.26. It's gone up since, unfortunately.
I have my one way ticket to Milan! I am SO excited for Italy!!! I have to make sure that Amanda and I can make reservations for The Last Supper. It's better to do it now than later since it will be a busy place because of the Christmas season. My flight home from Rome on the 24th was canceled too. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because I might not be stuck in the airport for Christmas and it's bad because I have less time than I thought. Oh well, it just means that I can't do the day trip to Venice. I would rather have more time in Florence and Rome anyways.
Well I think that is enough for now. I have to write another paper...and we're going to the Rostro (a really big market) in Madrid tomorrow. FINALLY I GET TO GO! I've always had to pass because of my homework. I better start working now. I'll try to be better about updating from now on!

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