Sofia Somewhere

It's been quite a busy week. Sunday evening, the Larrabide pisos had our Christmas dinner. It was a short but fun evening. We had pinchos for dinner, talking and laughing, a toast to the new year followed by Christmas carols. Then Wednesday evening another Christmas dinner, in Larrabide this time, with all the other girls Monday I had my first exam, Uso Comuicativo. It was ten minutes only (talking and talking). I was pretty nervous but I think it went fine. I studied most the whole afternoon for my exams the next day. Tuesday I had my Spanish and Literature exam then spent the afternoon studying again. Yesterday I had my last exams, Redacción and Cultura. Redacción was probably my hardest and I had to think a lot, but everything's all done and I'm receiving my grades later this afternoon! I still have one class today though and another tomorrow. And in between writing Christmas cards, packing, and finalizing my Christmas plans, I barely have time to do anything else. Tomor...

I made a mistake in my previous entry. The Faculty of Medicine was the Student Body's pick and Colegio Mayor Ayete was the one that one first prize. (Faculty of Communication came in second place and Belagua Fase I in third). The contest was also transmitted through the University's Radio Station 98.3. They have in their website all the contestant's songs and you can listen to them here: http://unav.es/98.3/noticias/08/12/081211.ht m. Ours is there too, Club Larrabide. You can also see pictures of various groups here: http://www.unav.es/noticias/121208-12.html .

Every year the University holds a Concurso de Villancicos (Christmas Carols Contest), organized by the Department of Cultural Activities and the student body with the collaboration of UAS, Universitarios por la Ayuda Social (Social Help). This year is the 21 st time it is being held, and it was held yesterday. Every year the UAS also has a "Campaña del Kilo" (Kilo Campaign), and in ties with the UAS, each participant must contribute one kilo of any food to the campaign. Students from the University of Navarra can join. All the groups though were either Colegio Mayores (University Residences kind of like dorms), Faculties (like the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Communication), or University Clubs (like us, Larrabide).

Recently, we've celebrated quite a number of fiestas in Pamplona: November 29- San Saturnino December 3- San Francisco de Javier December 6- Spanish Constitution December 8-Immaculate Concepcion After the fiestas of San Saturnino and San Francisco, I got interested in knowing more about them. San Saturnino is the patron saint of Pamplona, along with San Fermin (whose fiesta is celebrated by the popular running of the bulls). San Francisco de Javier on the other hand is the patron saint of Navarra. But as to why these people are the patron saints of these places, I have yet to find out. I also found out that Saint James the Great is the patron saint of Spain, as well as the Virgin of Pilar. The Virgin of Pilar is also the patroness of Zaragoza in particular, but her feast day is celebrated all over Spain. I’ve been dumped with work this whole week. Last week I had to hand in my Literature paper, my European Media Culture Abstract, and then on Friday I had to present my Expos...

I totally forgot to blog about San Miguel, I only remembered yesterday when I got the pictures from Winifred. I go to mass everyday at a Parroquia nearby home. One Sunday each month, the Parroquia has a Youth Mass (Misa de Jovenes). The mass is celebrated with intentions for the youth, there is a youth choir, the reading are read by Catholic school students, etc. In October's youth mass, after the mass, an announcement was made asking for volunteers to help monitor kids for an excursion that the Parroquia is planning. Maria asked Winifred and I if we wanted to volunteer, and we said okay. Next Sunday we woke up early, met up with the others and went to the bus stop. Where I saw about a hundred kids! I didn't realize that it would be that many. These were the kids taking Catholic lessons at the Parroquias, but apparently, this excursion was for all the Parroquias in Navarra. We took the bus to San Miguel, a city about 30-minutes from Pamplona. The ride went by even faster with ...

So I finally figured out how to work Picassa, and it's much simpler and faster than Flickr. and with a bigger limit too, so I'll be using that instead. The link is: http://picasaweb.google.es/sofiainspain.pictures Sorry if there's any confusion!

Carmen, one of the girls from the Larrabide pisos, is moving to Madrid because she found work there. To celebrate, we had a despedida for her last Saturday night. We dressed up in red and white (colors of San Fermin, patron saint of Pamplona) and had pinchos at her apartment. After eating, we were just talking then someone started playing music. Next thing we knew we were dancing until about 2am in the morning. I'm really going to miss Carmen, especially since I just got to know her.