A Break from School

It's that time of the semester..finals week/s. This week was the beginning of the end. With only a few more weeks left before we all return home for Christmas break, we are being bombarded with schoolwork. I had two presentations and a paper due this week so I am running on little sleep right now. In the next two weeks I have about 3-4 other papers due and then, of course, finals. I am not too worried about it all, I will just have to focus over the next two weeks. However, this weekend is a nice break from all of that work. Last night we went to a play in downtown Madrid that was offered through our literature class. It was a play called Persefone and it was by far one of the strangest things I have ever seen in my entire life. It was about the idea of death and mortality but it was a dark comedy. There were people wearing crazy masks and singing and dancing and so many inappropiate things that would not fly in the US. It was insane to say the least. Today, after my first class, I got on a bus to Toledo (about 45 min away) to do some shopping and visit with Sam for a bit. I bought presents for my mom, dad, brother, grandma and grandpa. I did some rapid shopping and finished everything up there pretty quickly. I grabbed some fries with Sam, walked her to class and then headed back home. I hung out in my apartment for a couple of hours, eating and watching some TV. Later, at about 8:15, my roommates and I headed downtown to a new, somewhat up-scale market to meet up with some other friends. The market was very cool. The ground floor was filled with different types of meats, fish, fruit, vegetables and cheeses. The second floor was filled with little places to try different types of food. They were a little pricey but all gourmet as well. We all split a bottle of cider before sampling some of the food. I had a slice of pizza, a duck sausage hotdog and strawberries with cream. Afterwards a couple of us walked around downtown to look at some of the Christmas lights that are starting to go up throughout the city. Then, I found the most amazing thing possible. A crepe place. I had my favorite banana and nutella crepe and all was good. It doesn't really feel like Christmas yet here because of the weather and lack of snow so we have to try and make the best of it. For example, I oought a Spider-Man advent calendar. It's the little things that count. This weekend I am headed off to Portugal with about 8 other friends. It should be a great time. Then, unfortunately, it's back to the heavy workload.

Luke