My Fake Birthday, Parque de las Ciencias, and Cold Weather

On Sunday, the same night that Brittany and I got back from Ireland and Sophie came back from Rome, Aloana decided that we needed to celebrate my fake birthday. Because Sophie and Brittany have October birthdays, we celebrated both of their birthdays here. They each got a cake with candles and we sang to them. Aloana is from Brazil and in Brazil they make a big deal about birthdays so she insisted that we celebrate mine too since she likes for all of the chicas (girls) to be treated equally. She baked some sort of cake with pineapple and coconut that was actually very tasty and made everyone sing to me. We were all exhausted from a long day of travelling, but it was very sweet of Aloana to make sure I got a day of celebration too. 

Last Friday was the first Friday I've spent in Granada in weeks. I went on an immersion activity with my program to La Parque de las Ciencias de Granada (Science Park of Granada). We went to an exhibit on the human body. Then, we played in the exhibit on the perils of daily life, which was mostly just comical, especially the dangers of slipping and tripping section. My personal favorite, however, was the one on puppeteering. The puppet exhibit is an homage to the Granada puppet company that's celebrating it's 30th anniversary this year. There were two puppet masters who gave a presentation about the different kinds of puppets that exist. The presentation was very informative and entertaining because they used all the puppets in the exhibit for demonstrations. We were watching it with a bunch of kids who were probably in fourth or fifth grade and knew all of the answers to the puppeteer's questions (none of us, the college students, knew any of the answers). We also walked around the outside are of the Science Park a little bit. There was some sort of bird exhibit which I wasn't a huge fan of because I hate birds, but a few of the owls were super cute. We also went up in this tower thing. It was alright, but it had already started raining so I was ready to go home. Compared to science museums  in the US, the Science Park wasn't that exciting, although I'm glad I went. I spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing because it was cold and rainy and I didn't feel well.

Speaking of being cold, it's absolutely FREEZING right now. It's been raining on and off for the past week so that's been fun (and by fun I mean horrible). The rain is annoying but usually manageable. What's really driving everyone crazy is that our apartments are cold, even colder than it is outside sometimes. Why is it so cold, you ask? Well, in my apartment anyway, the community (apartment complex) decides when everyone is allowed to start using the heaters because like the water, the heat is shared. We won't be able to use our heat until the second week in November (I think) so until then, we will continue wearing our coats in the house. Francisco wears his robe all the time, Sophie lives in her puffy coat, Brittany bought warmer pajamas, and Ana Clara walks around in a ski jacket, at least two shirts, and countless pairs of socks. Thank goodness Aloana gave us all a second comforter because I've taken to living under both of them when I'm home. I know everyone else in the city is in the same boat, which makes it a little better, but I appreciate my heater at home so much more now!