Friday, July 29, Student Presentations and farewell to Deusto

Marta, Mike, Nicole, Kevin, Irma and Stephanie

First of all, a big THANK YOU to our colleagues here who are taking this summer course for college credit.  These six teachers presented today as our three illustrious profes (pictured left) evaluated their presentations.  We all learned valuable tricks on how to present new information to students, including El Camino de Santiago (Marta), Vamos de pintxos (Mike), Las caras de España (Nicole), Puerto Rico (Kevin and Irma) and La comida del mundo hispano (Stephanie). 
The Director of our program in Deusto came today and addressed us all to listen to our comments and share her insights.  It is clear that Deusto is committed to finding ways to improve and grow an already excellent program.  She invited us as teachers to consider bringing pre-college age students to Deusto for specially tailored summer programs, like the one we just completed.  She promised to design the program to meet the developmental needs of our students, offering residence hall or home stays, courses geared for their level and fun excursions to outlying regions of northern Spain. 

After lunch today, we all begin to go our separate ways.  Jeff and I are off to Madrid, and by Sunday, the dorm will be empty, and all the workers will officially be on summer vacation for the month of August.  What a great summer so far.  El Pais, a Spanish newspaper, had a challenge to write a mini-story that relates why we love summer; in less than 140 characters.  Here's my attempt:

Yanqui nací. A Bilbao fui.  En Deusto aprendí; profes, pintxos, playas, historia, toros, cine, arte y jazz en bici.  ¿Un día, volver?  ¡A que sí!  Agur, Vizcaya.