Summer Research and Amsterdam!

So it's been a fantastic week so far. I found on Monday that my grade for my intensive course (the class I took in September) was 9/10, which is a solid A! I also received an email back from Professor Porcheddu, the professor I want to do research with next semester. He said he would love to work with me again and that he wants me to submit the same proposal as last year because he thinks it's good enough to make it. I'm so excited! I hope I get the grant this year to stay on campus, it will help a lot with my senior research.
On Tuesday night, I went out with the girls who went to Rome last weekend. They had such a blast and hearing them talk about Italy made me even more excited to go to Florence in a few weeks! Although, I'm more excited about my mom visiting in two weeks.
When Meg and I got home last night, we booked our tickets to Amsterdam for December. A group of Arcadia students are going to Morocco, but Meg and I decided we'd rather go to Amsterdam. We are going with two other groups of girls, but we booked our own flights and hostel so that we don't have any problems. We are leaving Thursday, December 3rd (arriving in Amsterdam around 10 pm) and we are coming back to Granada late on Sunday, December 6th. I also booked us a hostel in The Flying Pig Downtown, which is one of the most famous hostels in Amsterdam. It also got voted as the best hostel in the world last year, so I'm hoping it will be a great experience. I've never stayed in a hostel before, so I hope I like it. I am beyond excited.
We only have two more weeks of October, and then November starts, and it gets a little crazy. Both of our moms are visiting, Meg is going to Barcelona, and we are going to Florence, Italy as well as hiking with the group in the Alpujarras. This is really our last couple weeks of downtime in Granada before we start traveling.
To quickly answer Paul's question (because I know it's been bothering him), I have not heard from Javier again. He stopped calling about a week ago. Although, I have met a new guy named Gustavo, who wants to do an intercambio. Since the girl I was supposed to be doing an intercambio with through Arcadia is too busy with her masters this month, I am going to see if Gustavo and I get along well enough. We are going to go for tapas and talk in English and Spanish to help each other learn.
Clare was home last weekend, so I got to see her and my parents on Skype, which was nice. I can't wait to see them all at Christmas. I've also kept up with a lot of my friends from school, who all say that junior year at DU is extremely stressful and that a lot of people are abroad.
This weekend, I am planning on going to some discotecas with the girls, since I haven't gone in a few weeks (last weekend was really restful). A few of them are going hiking on Friday, but I don't think I will be joining them as hiking is not really my thing. We are going hiking with Arcadia at Thanksgiving, and I think that will be enough for me.

I love you all,
Em