Liberal Arts | Spring 2018 | Newsletter II

Spring semester is going fast! Liberal Arts students have been very busy with classes, internships, cultural activities, and academic trips. Find here some details.

STUDENTS VISIT THE FALLAS FESTIVAL IN VALENCIA

Liberal Arts students travelled to Valencia for their weekend trip. In there, they had the opportunity to experience a local festivity called Las Fallas, a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage of humanity.  It is a traditional celebration held in commemoration of Saint Joseph. People build monuments out of wood and paper-mache, a lot of times with a satire, political meaning, and they burn them on Saint Joseph day, March 19th.

Students also toured the old town, did a street art tour and went to the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. They also learned that this year, the main Falla (monument) was made by a famous Spanish street art artist, Okuda San Miguel.

“MY PROJECT IS UNIQUE IN THAT I HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK WITH PEOPLE FROM OTHER COUNTRIES”

Laura from University of Minnesota-Twin Cities is doing an internship in a public hospital, Vall d’Hebron research institute on a project called MyHealth. The project aims to improve the healthcare of immigrant communities throughout the EU. She commented: “I have been given the task of writing the first drafts of some of the documents which is great and shows me that they have a lot of trust in my work. The experience has been amazing. The people I work with are really nice and patient with me learning Spanish. My project is unique in that I have the opportunity to work with people from other countries. We have a weekly video conference with our partners from all over the EU and I learn a lot about their working culture from those interactions.

HOW TO GRILL CALÇOTS

As one of our new day trips, students grilled a traditional Catalan meal, the calçotada. Calçots, are variety of green onions that are barbecued and dipped in romesco sauce. They are accompanied by pieces of meat and roasted bread slices. Calçots are eaten with your hands and you need to wear a bib. Students had a lot of fun with that!