Monday - to the beach!

We decided to celebrate Monday afternoon by taking a trip to the beach with the students!  It was finally very sunny in Oviedo, so we took the afternoon off to go back to Gijon.  The students were able to enjoy the water a bit more this time since it was a bit sunnier.  We spent a couple of hours there and then returned home.  Tuesday was a normal day except the students at their first evaluations.  They evaluated us, we evaluated them and we had individual meetings to go over how things have gone with them thus far.  Most of them were terrified at first, but they calmed down once they realized we weren't going to send them back the U.S.!

Tomorrow we have regular classes and sports.  It is supposed to be 34 here tomorrow.  In 'English' that means 93 degrees! Yikes!  Then it cools back off to normal.

Thursday and Friday we are headed to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia which is the end of the Camino de Santiago.  The history of this pilgrimage is fascinating.  Legend says that St. James' remains were brought by boat from Jerusalem to northern Spain.  In 813 the remains of Apostle St. James the Greater were found by a peasant named Pelayo (not the same guy that lead the first battles against the Moors) in a chapel in an old roman cemetery in what is now Santiago de Compostela.  This helped ignite the Christian troops in the area and Alfonso II (king of the region at that time) made was is known to be the first religious pilgrimage from Oviedo to Santiago de Compostela.  Today, the routes can start anywhere but the most popular route starts in France.  One route comes directly through Oviedo.  The routes are marked with shells and yellow arrows either on the ground or on trees.  Thousands make the trek every year.  If you are interested in learning more about this, Charlie & Martin Sheen recently made a movie about it called 'The Way'.  I am sure it can be found on Netflix.

We will go to a museum that shows the history of the Galician people, a museum about the pilgrimage, the church where the remains of St. James the Greater remain (ha ha), and we will be able to catch the pilgrim's mass that they hold every Sunday for the pilgrims.  We will get to eat some traditional Galician food.  It amazes me that we can travel for just a few hours and find completely different dishes to eat!

Gijón

Our trip to Gijón was a blast!  We went to the roman baths, the aquarium, a small hill overlooking the city that was once used for battle where a giant, 500 ton sculpture sits and the beach.  The students sat watching sharks being fed for 30 minutes in silence.  I had forgotten how relaxing it can be to stare at fish.  The weather cooperated for the most part.  It was cloudy at the end of the day.  The water was freezing, but most students entered for a bit anyway!

Robert has added the pictures from Santa Maria del Naranco (under the Oviedo folder), Tango dancing (apologies, I took the pictures with my camera because Robert was instructing the dances), and some videos from the trip to Gijón.

Below are some pictures from the trip to Santa Maria del Naranco.

Sta. María del Naranco & Tango

Hello!  We had a wonderful time at Santa Maria del Naranco on Wednesday.  The rain let up a bit at first so we were able to take some great pictures which will post soon.  Today we had sports at the end of the day and almost everyone decided to learn a type of Tango. I took lots of pictures and some video of the tango dancing and of us horsing around at the end of the afternoon!  I am posting a couple of those pictures here.  Robert will post the others on his site.  He has some new pictures loaded under 'Oviedo' and a new folder of optional activities.

Tomorrow we are off to Gijón for the day!  We will take the train there which is only about a 35 minute ride.  Saturday is the Noche de San Juan fiestas all over Spain (and many other places around the world).  A bonfire will be lit at exactly midnight (and yes, there will be tons of people there and even small children at that hour!).  It is said that you can put a paper with bad things that happened to you this year in the fire (before it is lit) to burn them so that you have a good year this coming year.  To see a video of 2010, go to this link.

One of our students, Aamina, is writing for the IUHPFL blog in Spanish which is a separate link.  http://iuhpfl2012oviedo.blogspot.com

Rainy Monday

Today it has been cloudy and rainy all day.  We have a full week coming up.  Wednesday, we go to Santa Maria del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo.  Both are 9th century buildings important architecturally and historically to Asturias and the entire Peninsula.   On Friday, we travel north to Gijón.  Gijon is a port city located just a 35 minute train ride north of Oviedo.  This weekend, all of Spain will celebrate the festival of Saint John (Noche de San Juan). It is a combination of what is thought to be an old pagan celebration (Beltane, celebrated May 1st) but celebrated on what is thought to be St. John the Baptist's birthday.  The bonfire tradition came from the pagan festival.  I will post more about these things as they happen.


We divided into groups today for afternoon activities to start to write skits and make some decisions about songs for the final program.  We also started discussing the t-shirt we will design and have printed here in Oviedo.  We had support groups today.  Students wrote 3 goals for the summer and then wrote anonymously a difficulty he/she is having.  Most students in my group said the hardest thing was communication with the family, both understanding them and starting conversations.  This is a normal reaction for the students at this point in the program.  They did agree that things had gotten easier over the first week.


Don't forget to check out Robert's photos if you haven't yet.  Here is the link again.  A big thank you to Robert for taking such lovely pictures.  Photography is one of Robert's passions.We instructors love to get in front of the camera as much as possible as do some of the students! We are lucky to have someone who is willing to put so much effort into something that isn't part of his job description.  Thanks, Robert!

Photos from the mountains

Robert has posted lots of photos from the trip to the mountains!  

Post-mountains

Just a note to say we made it back to Oviedo and the students are with their families now.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Best I have seen on this excursion yet!  I am sure Robert will be posting photos this weekend sometime but here are a couple of mine to tide you over.  

Misc stories

I forgot a couple of things yesterday!  First is a funny story about Nick!  Before we let the students off the bus in Oviedo to meet the host families we were going through a few things with them.  We asked if they had any more questions and Nick raised his hand and very seriously said:  ¿Qué día es hoy?  which means 'What day is it today?'.  Giselle and I were laughing about this again last night.  First, we had to think about the answer.  Second, it is a simple example of how difficult that much travel and lack of sleep can be.  I found it funny, too, because it is such a common phrase that is used in a first-year Spanish class.  It sounded so elementary but we knew he was dead-serious!

Secondly, the students had sports on Wednesday.  Many kids played soccer out in front of the school on a soccer field.  And some stayed in the gym to do Zumba!  One of the school custodians watched the soccer for a bit and was very complimentary on how good the students are at the game.  He couldn't believe their level of play.  Yesterday, a professor from the school came to the instructor's table at lunch to say the same thing only he was specifically complimenting the girls!  He wanted to sign them up for a team in Spain!  He pointed out Shelby, Anna S. and one other girl (I don't know which one!).  Hopefully Robert has some photos of this that might get posted sometime this weekend!

Lucky us (extremely lucky) that today is perfectly sunny for our trip to the mountains because Saturday it is supposed to rain all day!