One of the best participants and friends we had in AEGEE-Oviedo, Gabor Peto, from our twin antenna AEGEE-Budapest reminded me of the beginning of one email we sent to our participants in 2010:
“Sun…Flamenco… Sangria…. Bullfighting… Now that you are coming to Spain, forget about this!”
Oviedo is a city located in the northern coast of Spain, together with some other AEGEE antennae such as Coruña, Santander and Bilbao, and this is an important remark, because people like the north of Spain so much that every year our SUs exchange participants. That should mean something.
The weather in the north of Spain…. well, we could say it is not what you have in mind when you come to Spain. Compared with 35ºC in Madrid or 45ºC in Cordoba, an average of daily temperature of 25ºC during July, together with usual clouds or rain, makes the Asturian summer not the usual setting for sunbathing and walking with not so much clothes down the street. So if you ever apply to our SU you should not come here for the SUN.
Anyway, even though Asturian summer is not the hottest in Spain, from time to time we like to cool down ourselves drinking, and what is better than a cold and refreshing glass of sangría for this? A drop of sidra (cider).
“Sidra” (spanish for cider) is the most typical drink of Asturias. It is made of apples, and the main difference between the Asturian cider and other kinds of cider is the way to pour it. For us “sidra” is religion and we worship it in a particular church: the “praos” (meadows).
Cider is drunk in big and thin special glasses where you pour a “culín” (which also means “Little ass”). The way to pour a “culín” is called “escanciar”. It is an art and if you want to enjoy it you should come to Oviedo (or ask some of our participants, it is a must to learn how to do it in all our events!).
So, even though you can easily drink in Asturias that néctar called sangria, which is like ambrosia for every foreigner, and good enough if it is red and have pieces of fruits, usually in Asturias we drink sidra.
For us “sidra” is religion and we worship it in a particular church: the “praos” (meadows) singing and dancing. But not flamenco!!!
There is a common thought all around the world that in Spain everybody plays football, has long hair, plays guitar, is a “torero” (correct Word for “toreador”) and dances flamenco. Ah, the stereotypes… I am sorry to bring you bad news but that is not the truth.
Spain is a melting pot of cultures, and in the north we are proud of our Celtic heritage, noticeable in musical instruments, gastronomy, languages and so on. That is why it is more likely to find a guy at a party playing the bagpipe or Celtic cymbals than someone dancing flamenco.
Once you know what to find in Asturias the following question is: how to organise a SU in here when people look for sun, beach and typical things? Our answer: sports, culture and nature!
SUperAction is one of the oldest franchise in the SU world (maybe right after Non Solo Sole) with six years in a row organising the same kind of SU. Why do we do this? Because it works and people like it!
It is not that in 2007 someone decided to organise a new kind of SU totally different than the ones before (AEGEE-Oviedo have been organising SU during 12 years in a row), but for this time the SU was more sports-oriented.
Not everyone could walk a mountain path of 12km, cycle in the nature during 18km and do canoeing in a river for 16km in a few days and still have the energy to join the parties at night, but I am very proud to say this year we had the most amazing group of participants.
Not only the whole group was able to do all the sport activities (which, as I said, is complicated), but they were party animals every night, always waking up on time, cleaning their own mess, paying attention in the workshops and last but not least, not complaining when the organisers had any problem. Instead they started to organise games to spend time until we could fix the problems…. What are the chances to have such a wonderful group? I can tell you: not many.
Our SU is also about competition, so according to one of the geekiest topics for a SU (with the permission of AEGEE-Alicante): “Game of Thrones”, we divided them into groups so they had to compete with each other. Why did we ever had such an idea? They were so competitive that in the moment we forgot to write down the points in the blackboard there was someone reminding us to do it. At the end it did not matter which group won, but I think they all enjoyed the competition.
And if this is not enough, the day of canoeing, SU of AEGEE-Santander joined us in the school of Gijón. It may look crazy to join two SUs during a whole day, but the experience was amazing. Both group of organisers have really close bonds, and we worked so the participants of both groups connected for at least one day. In my opinion we managed to do it, although we had to wait for the night to succeed.
My most sincere gratitude to everyone (organisers and participants) made me enjoy once again the magic of Summer Universities. You were an amazing group of people and even if this is a cliché…. I hope to see you somewhere in Europe!
And for all of you who have been Reading this article until the end without sleeping in the way, we are waiting for you in SUperAction 7!
Written by Juan Sordo, AEGEE-Oviedo