Such a fun week!

(Artwork by Victoria, this will be the cover for our program magazine...so awesome!)

What a week! I've got a lot of photos and some brief descriptions below, but I wanted to start by just saying thanks to all the US families who are reading this blog; thanks for allowing us the chance to share a few weeks with your students. Aline, Jessica, Juan and I have loved our time with this group. When the students head off to spend time with their host families, the four of us often reflect on the day and the most common theme is how much we enjoy being around them. They are so smart, funny, responsible, hard working, and friendly. Sometimes they are goofy (which is great!), and at other times they are serious critical thinkers who ask great questions and lead our class conversations in interesting and productive directions. I am not just saying this to say it - we really, truly, enjoy this group, and we know that we will miss them when the trip is over.

This week we plugged along with normal class schedule and our preparations for the farewell show. The students who are acting in the play we collectively wrote have nearly all of their lines memorized and will be polishing up the final act this week; we have a group performing a dance to "Malamente" by Rosalía, and another group dancing to "Explota mi corazón" by Raffaella Carrá; we'll also have groups singing "Asturiana" by Manuel de Falla, "Yo contigo, tú conmigo" by Morat and Álvaro Soler, and "Creo en ti" by Reik. Aside from all this, we're also continuing to practice the Asturian hymn and a local song/dance called the "danza prima." Each song and dance fits thematically with a specific moment in the play, so in the end it will be one long, cohesive production. We still have lots of work to do, but hopefully by the end of this next week we will have done a couple of full rehearsals...I'll try to make some videos!

On Wednesday afternoon we visited the Asociación Galbán and learned about local efforts to offer various types of help (financial, educational, social, etc) to families with children who have cancer. The students had a number of really smart questions for the volunteers, and we learned a great deal about a some of the differences between health care systems in the US and Spain. Yesterday we spent the day outside, kayaking down the Río Sella. It was a gorgeous day and we had a blast! The students were diligent in applying sunscreen (I know this is something parents worry about!) and were great sports about it all. We definitely got tired, since we were using muscles that we don't often use, but everyone seemed to have a good time - and we also made it back to Oviedo in time for the students to have some free time before heading off to their host families.

This weekend we instructors are hustling to get a bunch of details taken care of before our final week of class and upcoming trips to Segovia and Madrid, and I know that the students are doing fun things with their families. I'll be sure to ask them on Monday, and then I'll report back here with some of the weekend highlights. Enjoy the photos...more to come soon!

Waiting on the instructors to arrive and unlock the classrooms in the morning

Heading out after lunch, walking to Asociación Galbán

Getting settled for our discussion about the work that Galbán does

They were so generous! They didn't have to do this, but they prepared some snacks for us once we were finished with the discussion

On the bus, heading to the Río Sella

SUNSCREEN

Juan and Aline getting details from our guides

Getting our lifejackets on, and putting our belongings in these tubs (so they wouldn't get wet)

A break for some snacks

Lunch!