First Real Week of UGR Classes

So this past week was my first real week of classes at the University of Granada (UGR). I take two classes at the university and two classes at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas (CLM), where my intensive language prep class was during September. Here’s my schedule:

Monday:
8:30-10:30 Oral and Written Production (CLM)
13:00-14:00 Hispanoamerican Literature (UGR)
18:00-20:00 Political System of Spain (UGR)

Tuesday:
13:00-14:00 Hispanoamerican Literature (UGR)
18:00-20:00 Islamic Culture in Spain (CLM)

Wednesday:
8:30-10:30 Oral and Written Production (CLM)
18:00-20:00 Political System of Spain (UGR)

Thursday:
13:00-15:00 Hispanoamerican Literature (UGR)
18:00-20:00 Islamic Culture in Spain (CLM)

Friday:
No classes! :)

For the most part, I like the way my schedule is set up. The 8:30 class in the morning is a little too early for my taste, but my professor seems really great (and freakishly perky) which makes it much more bearable. My Islamic culture class looks like it's going to be really interesting. I'm still not quite sure what to think of my two integrated classes at UGR. My Hispanoamerican Literature class is at the main campus called Cartuja so it actually takes me longer to get to and from class than I spend in class. It wouldn't take so long to get there if I rode the bus, but for now I'm still determined to walk. I have to take the bus on Thursdays after class though so I'm home in time for lunch. 

Wednesday was Sophie's birthday and Thursday was Francisco's saint day. Aloana told us in hushed tones that they don't like to make a big fuss about birthdays in Spain, although birthdays in Brazil are similar to the US. She is obviously super weirded out by how little they care about birthdays here which was cracking me up. Apparently people here celebrate their saint day instead of their birthdays. From what I understand, someone's saint day is basically just the day that honors the saint they're named after. In honor of Sophie's birthday, Aloana and Francisco bought a chocolate torta de la virgen (virgin cake) at the festival over the weekend. It was much better than the other torta de la virgen we had tried the day before because it was filled with chocolate rather cream. We lit candles and sang happy birthday for Sophie but it was a small celebration. 

Aloana accidentally forgot Francisco's saint day on Thursday. He told us over lunch and we all felt awful, especially Aloana, so after dinner she put a candle in a muffin and we sang an altered version of happy birthday to him (we made it happy saint day instead). Aloana clearly had no idea how you're supposed to celebrate a saint day so the whole thing was pretty hilarious. Because Aloana was so guilty about forgetting his saint day, Francisco managed to finally talk her into singing for us. They ended up performing during and after our dinner because they had already eaten and Anna Clara was napping so we had to stay in the kitchen anyway. Francisco and Aloana both sing and play the guitar. Francisco prefers to play the guitar and Aloana prefers to sing, but they're both very talented at both. They sang in Portuguese, Spanish, and English. Aloana said that they're wedding was very musical because music is such an important part of their lives, so they sang us a few of the songs from their wedding. I was completely enchanted by it and never wanted them to stop. One of the highlights of the song session was when Francisco stopped playing to answer the phone and handed the guitar to Aloana, who proceeded to play and sing Twist and Shout for us. Sophie, Brittany, and I were all laughing so hard. Unfortunately, they had to stop after about 30 minutes because Aloana was exhausted and we all needed to pack for our trip to Portugal.

Here are links to a few of the videos we took of them singing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-tb9Ft-170&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pn0i84PzsM&feature=youtu.be