Up in the Clouds of Oviedo

¡Saludos a todos!

It’s been a busy but wonderful time this week for both students and professors. The students spent the weekends with their families and hit the ground running! They’re still a bit tired but they are all adjusting amazingly well. Eli and Jack both told me they went to the beach with their families, Georgia, Lexi, Margarita (Micala), Jayme, and others went to a fiesta with their families and got to eat some really delicious food, and all of them got many a good night’s sleep between our arrival and today. They were actually trying to one-up each other with how much sleep they got! Clara won with a whopping 14 hours of sleep from Saturday into Sunday. Second and third place were Georgia with 12 hours and Amia with 10.

As I’ve said, everyone is adjusting slowly but surely! On Monday we all went on a small tour of Oviedo and everyone was enchanted. We saw the Cathedral, El Parque de San Francisco, and we saw plenty of statues along the way. Our favorite statue by far is “El Culo,” which many of you can guess what that is by the pictures below J .

Due to the heavy fog that has set on Oviedo that isn’t scheduled to let up till Saturday, we will not be taking our excursion to Covadonga and Los Lagos as scheduled. But fear not! We will have two excursions one of the following weeks, so that will mean double the pictures and double the fun!

On Monday, we had orientation and played games to get to know one another. My favorite game by far was the Human Knot, which there is a video of below. At lunch time, we all met Eider and Jessi who prepare our food. We were having such a good time during lunch that we had to be told to quiet down! Oops! The kids are truly enjoying themselves.

For now, here are pictures of our first couple of days in Oviedo. 

In order to learn everyone's names, we played a game to help us along. Here are the students practicing

The Cathedral in the Center of Oviedo! Behind the Cathedral there is an Abbey of Benedictine Nuns that stamp the passports of the pilgrims traveling through Oviedo on the "Camino de Santiago"

This statue is called "La Regenta". She is a character in a novel that took place in Oviedo, and has become a staple in the city.

The oldest house in Oviedo

This is the statue christened "El Culo," and it has become a key landmark to the students wanderings in Oviedo.

This arrangement is found in El Parque de San Francisco. The date changes every single day!

Roberto the movie star!

Mafalda is a beloved character in Spain like Garfield is to the U.S. 

 Our Support and Success Groups!

This is the school cafeteria where Eider feeds us delicious food!

Not only is Oviedo celebrating its 10th year as a host site, but IUHPFL is celebrating 55 years of  learning, travel, and growth!

 This was my favorite game we played to get to know each other! We all got a good laugh out of it😅😆

The Human Knot! 

Oviedo in the sunlight is stunning!

The Basilica in the center of Oviedo

Anna is giving us the thumbs-up for a week well spent!