Here we are but,... WHO'S WHO?

Before we start talking about our city and its famous people, let’s play a game! Here you have a pic of ourselves in class. The only thing you have to do is guess who is who only by using the hints below. Let’s get started!

-I’m Blanca Martín and I’m the smallest of the crew….

-I’m Marta Méndez and I’ve recently got my hair cut.

-I’m Esther Vicente and I love buns.                      

-I’m Virginia García and I’m a redhead

-and last but not least we are Julia Ferrero & Noelia Iglesias , and no, we are not twins.

VIRGINIA GARCÍA.

I was born in June nineteen years ago in the town where I'm studying: León. I've always loved travelling: I've been in London, Dublin, Paris, the French Britain and lots of towns and villages of Portugal, I'd love to visit other countries soon. I live with my parents in a beautiful neighbourhood with a lot of parks and green zones where I can go for a walk with my dog, whose name is Brooklyn. I've been playing the guitar since I was nine, my favourite song in "Boston" by Augustana. I used to play volleyball in high school but now I'm a handball referee and I'm totally in love with this sport. I'm studying English Philology  cause I'd like to teach spanish abroad, maybe in UK or in the USA, but I'd like to specialise my studies also studying Spanish Philology.

Hope you enjoy our blog and see you soon!

NOELIA IGLESIAS.

Hi everyone!
I'm Noelia, I'm 18 years old and I'm from a little town of Leon, called Sotillos.
I think I'm an extroverted person who loves travelling, listening to  music, going shopping, watching movies... My favourite song is ''By the way'' by Red Hot Chili Peepers and my favourite film is ''PS: I love you.''
I'm studying English because I want to be an English teacher abroad, for example in Germany.
I hope our blog will help you get to  know some interesting things of our  city and enjoy them.


Cya! :)

MARTA MENDEZ.

Hi there everyone! My name is Marta and I live in León, not a big city but it's absoultely amazing, not that I'm saying this because is my home town, or maybe yes! WHO KNOWS??

About my personality i have to admit that I'm an unsual kind of girl, I always say that i'm crazy but the people around me say that I'm crazy awesome, don't know why but I like it .
I love doing every sport invented till the moment but over all of them i love handball, it is an awesome sport for awesome people. I play with the team of my city which plays in the best league of Spain  and I've also played for the national team with people of my same age.
Apart from doing sports i love hanging out with my friends , surfing the net and listening to my ipod speakers in full volume, I just can't help it.

I don't know where the future is guiding me all I know is that i'm the captain of it, so I kind of can decide where i wanna go, so I guess the right thing to say right now would be USA HERE I COME!

ESTHER VICENTE.

HI! I’m Esther and I’m 17. I was born in Extremadura but  I’ve been living in León since 2009, I love this city and its people.

My favorite hobby is listening to music, I’d be able to listen to music all day long. I also love going out with my friends because this makes me feel happy and free.

I don’t like doing sports but if I had to choose swimming would be it, even though I don’t like doing it I love watching Real Madrid every week.

My dream is to live in London in the future, I’ve never been there but I’m in love with the city, I guess this was the main reason to start studying English seriously.

BLANCA MARTÍN CABERO.

Hi everyone!

My name's Blanca and I was born the 30th of October in 1994. I've lived all my life in a small village of Leon called 'Bercianos del Páramo with my parents and my sister. Moreover, my grand-parents live very near and we have an irchard and a lot of animals (rabbits, chickens, cats... and a dog whose name is 'Rocky'!)
There,I've had a great time, however, this year my life has changed a lot because I've chosen to study "Modern philology" (because I enjoy very much languages and travelling) and I had to move in to the city. Now I share my flat with a french partner, and I'm loving it! Living free is a fantastic experience!
I spend my free time being with my friends, going shopping, watching films, cooking, surfing the net, going to parties...
I'd like to get married one day and formig a family, and also I want to work as teacher in another country.
My attitude towards life is: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mistery and, today is a gift: That's why we call it 'the present' ".
At last, I am who I am, a common girl, with my virtues and my flaws.
Thank for paying attention:)

JULIA FERRERO.

Hey! My name is Julia, I live in León and I am 19 years old. I am studying English because I like it a lot and I'd like to become a teacher. In this blog we will try to bring León to you so you know what our lives are about and so we can compare our cultural differences. Enjoy!:) 

San Marcos.

San Marcos: This 5 star Parador was originally a monastery founded in the twelfth century to provide lodging for the pilgrims travelling to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.
It later became the headquarters of the Order of Saint James whose soldiers provided protection for the pilgrims.

The original building was demolished in the sixteenth century and the construction of the present building, on the original site, commenced in 1515. This is one of the most beautiful Renaissance building in Spain. The carvings depicting religious and historical events on the 100 metre long facade are worthy of note.
The restaurant specialises in the local dishes. You are invited to try: "Cocido maragato" which is a stew of chickpeas, meat, bacon, etc. 

 

MUSAC

The MUSAC is a contemporary art museum in León (Musac means ''MUSeo de Arte Contemporanoe'').  It was inaugurated in April 2005 by 'Felipe de Borbón', our Prince, also known as Prince of Asturia. MUSAC only collects artworks from the latest generation of artists, between 1992 and 2012.  The museum has won international prestige for its 21st-century collection and for its innovative programming.  The MUSAC building has been awarded a number of prizes such as the 2007 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture. It was designed by the architectural of Luis M. Mansilla and Emilio Tuñón. The multicolored panels that adorn the exterior of the museum resemble the stained-glass windows of the cathedral.
The MUSAC has become a landmark for the city of León and an emblem of the new 21st century Spanish architecture.

www.musac.es/
I'm sure if you ever visited León you would like it so much!

'Zapatero'

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is a politician who was the President of Spain for eight years. He was born in Valladolid, but he has spent most of his life in León because his family is from here.
He studied at the University of León, where he met his actual wife. This was the main reason for him to stay.
They have had tho daughters who like gothic style, as you can see on this  famous photo taken in their visit to Mr.Obama some years ago:

After graduating, Zapatero worked as a teacher in constitutional law at our University until 1986.
This well-known man is having a house built in one of the most expensive urbanization in the outskirts.
He was elected for two terms as President, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections but on 2nd April 2011 he announced he would not stand for re-election in the 2011 general elections.
Zapatero has always claimed to base his political activity on his love of dialogue, and nowadays he's still thinking like that.

Barrys, Irish Pub

Another of the many popular  pub/bar that we have in León is this : The Barrys. It's such a relaxing place during the evenings, mostly because of the music and the lack of customers, but is not always this way, sometimes they organized private parties or simply the bar opens during the night making it a pub, one of the best, I can assure.

It's located in the Plaza Mayor (center city) which makes it even more popular among young people. Also remarkable is that when our national team plays people like to watch the games all together, so they meet at the bars located at the Plaza Mayor, with lots of TVs and speakers on the outside of the bar. Even sometimes when the team scores a goal they throw confetti into the costumers. 

If I were you and I had to come to Léon this would be one of the bars I wouldn't like to miss.

Café Quijano

Café Quijano is a pop-rock band formed by three brothers, Manuel, Óscar and Raúl, and the three are from León. They have a famous cafe in the city center called 'La Lola', owned by their father, which gave name of one of their most famous songs.

They have published four succesful albums, presented galas, collaborated with Disney and they have worked on a project to promote tourism to the region all over the country.
They even sang with famous artists such as Joaquín Sabina and Celine Dion.
In 2007, Manuel announced his first solo CD. This suppose the band's rupture.

http://www.cafequijano.com/

La Competencia

La Competencia is a very famous pizzeria in the Barrio Húmedo, between Matasiete Street and la Plaza Mayor. It is an old and very beautiful rustic pizzeria. It was inagurated in 1989. It is a  nice place for having a tapa, which is a typical small portion of food that you get for free when you order a drink. You can also come to La Competencia to have dinner because they offer a great variety of homemade pizzas. The food is really tasty and there are more things in the menu not just pizza: salads, lasagna, pasta, croquettes,... And everything is delicious. I hope that if you ever come to León you go to La Competencia, you'd enjoy it!

Harley

Harley is a bar where you can drink american beer,alcohol, coffee.. and, at the same time, you can listen to music or watch a football match if it's on Tv. It is located in Plaza Mayor and is one of the reasons to visit it, above all young people. The desing of the bar and its name show the passion for motos, so there are four inside of that place.

 

Finally, we think it is a good place to spending time with your friends because of the good music and drink. If you come to León, you should go to Harley!

Our cathedral

The León Cathedral was built on the XIII century (its construction lasted three centuries) and the king Ordoño II transformed it into a palace. Nowadays is one of the most important cathedrals in our country. It was declared of Cultural Interest in 1844 and, dedicated to 'Santa Maria de Regla'. It is situated on The Way of Saint James (or in Spanish, El Camino de Santiago). Is a masterpiece of the Gothic style. The main façade has two towers and, in the interior, there are some sculptures and important pictures. Particularly, noteworthy is a plateresque screen in the wall behind the sepulchre of King Ordoño: there, people go to make wishes.  The central section has a large rose window, but, what makes this cathedral special, is the fact of having the most beautiful stained-glasswindows in Spain. In spite of having suffered a lot of restorations and being visited by millions of tourists every year, all we can be pretty sure of is that it is one of the best cathedrals all over the world!

Dani Martínez

He is a famous comedian who was born in Astorga, a village near León (our hometown).

He is only thirty and he has already presented three important shows in the noon hours whose names are: “Tonterías las Justas” , “Otra movida” and “Guasap!”. Moreover, he has also appeared on TV as a guest star in the most popular Spanish primetime talk show called
 “El Hormiguero”. 

The summer of 2010 everybody ended up doing “la gamba” (it consists on moving when you are lying on the floor  like a prawn). 

He usually comes to Astorga, where you can see him at party rocking. He doesn´t act like a famous character, he's very kind with his fans and he's always willing to sign autographs!

He loves León, he has come to the opening ceremony for the local parties almost every year since he's famous. Furthermore, whenever he can, he comes here to act.

www.twitter.com/danimartinezweb

He's the famous everyone wants to meet!

Famous people of León: Jesús Calleja.

Hi everyone! We're introducing you a really special man who's from León and is very well known here in Spain. He's Jesús Calleja,a fearless explorer who's been from Amazonas to Himalayas Mountain. He owns a programme called "Desafío extremo" (Extreme challenge) on a renowned TV channel, called Cuatro. Here you have a video where you can watch a piece of a challenge.

You can discover more about him in this sites:
http://www.jesuscalleja.es/
https://twitter.com/jesuscalleja