In the local press, pretty cool!

July 18, 2019

Such a cool week! I posted the other day about our visit to the ayuntamiento (city hall), so hopefully you've had a chance to see the video of us singing the himno asturiano with the mayor. If you missed the last post, here's how you can see it: on Facebook, search for "Ayuntamiento de Oviedo" and scroll down until you see a 27 second video from Tuesday of this week - you can hear us singing!

We also got some additional press; a reporter from La Nueva España came to chat with a group of our students and publish a piece about us. The students who did the interview did such a great job! I listened in here and there...I am constantly impressed by these students. Indeed, the reporter even remarked to me afterwards that she was pleasantly surprised by their level of Spanish, and she wrote at the end of the article that our group speaks with a level of fluency that would be the envy of many Spaniards who study English.

Regarding the article itself, it's kind of a good news/bad news situation. Here is a link to the online version, but you'll notice that it is behind a paywall. I can't seem to find any way to purchase access to just one article, but I did buy a copy of the print version and will send it along to the IUHPFL central office. I also took a couple photos and have pasted them here. Indeed, many of the students bought their own copy during free time yesterday...so maybe you'll be able to see one yourself. In any case, getting some local press was a nice surprise and I think the students enjoyed it.

The other big thing for this week was our second community engagement activity. We visited the Compañía para la Gestión de los Residuos Sólidos en Asturias (COGERSA) and learned about regional conservation efforts, and we also participated in a workshop where we learned how to reuse old t-shirts to make a small bag instead of throwing them away. It was a fun workshop and the students enjoyed finding...um...creative ways to wear the scraps of cloth they cut off!

We are approaching our final weekend in Oviedo...it is hard to believe! Our classes are officially over; today we played Jeopardy to review some of what we've learned here, and tomorrow the students will do a final assessment. We are also aiming for a full dress rehearsal of our farewell show tomorrow afternoon, so there's still lots of excitement to be had!

I'll be sure to write at least once or twice more before we head to the airport in Madrid next Thursday. Ciao!