¡Es tarde! It's late!

Telling time. ¿Qué hora es? — Son las ocho y cuarto: word for word "they are the eight and a quarter", that is, a quarter past eight. It's son (plural) because there's more than one hour; only one o'clock takes es (es la una). The minutes are added to the hour that has already started: y cuarto — "and a quarter", y media — "and a half". So a las seis y media means "at six thirty".

What time it is, and at what time. Son las ocho y cuarto says what time it is now. A las nueve en punto says when something happens: "at nine o'clock sharp". To ask "what time?" about an event, say ¿A qué hora…?: ¿A qué hora terminas hoy?

me ducho, me acuesto, me despierto. These are reflexive verbs: the action goes back to the person who does it, word for word "I put myself to bed", "I wake myself up". In English it's just "I go to bed", "I wake up". Me goes before the verb. When the stress falls on the stem, its vowel changes: acostarse → me acuesto, despertarse → me despierto, and also dormir → duermo, empezar → empieza.

¡levántate! "Get up!" is a command for tú: take the él / ella form (levantarse → levanta) and attach te to the end. The accent mark over the a keeps the stress where it was. More about this in unit 6 of level A2.

Days of the week. Hoy es viernes — "today is Friday", with no article. Los jueves, with los, means "on Thursdays", every Thursday.

Short phrases. Es que me acuesto tarde — es que starts an explanation or an excuse: "it's just that…", "the thing is…". Antes de salir — antes de + infinitive: "before leaving". ¿Desayunamos…? and Luego volvemos a casa — Spanish often uses the present tense for near plans, where English says "shall we…?" or "we'll…".