The first thing Brian taught
us was how to pronounce the name of this mid-west city in the USA “Chicago” and
that was not the only word he demonstrated how to utter. He started talking
about the different nicknames this city has, such as Chitown, The Windy City,
The City of the Big Shoulders, The Onion, … a city which flourished around
small towns and prairies, mainly thanks to the nearness to Lake Michigan as
well as The Chicago River and its two (North and South) branches, among other
things.
Brian’s interesting talk
went through its history and geography, its architecture, art, literature,
music, famous people, food and even sports. Most of its contents were to some
extent intertwined by a simple object: the flag of Chicago with its white and
blue stripes and its red stars.
We have found out how this
city, once completely destroyed by The Great Fire, rose from the ashes,
becoming the Second City in the United States with an incredible skyline and
breathtaking skyscrapers and buildings. He also showed us the connection
between Chicago and Spain by means of architects such as Frank Gehry or Jaume
Plensa, who has been awarded today with “Premio Velázquez 2013” or an artist as
Picasso and his Untitled sculpture that serves as meeting point there,
Downtown.
For an hour or so, Brian
Engquist, to our delight, had injected us the pleasure of visiting an
endless-film-depicted city. And it would be a good destination for our next
holiday, wouldn’t it?
Well, as I don’t want to
make this entry too long, just tell you that I’ve enjoyed it a lot and so have you. Thanks for
your participation and congrats to those who got your prize for answering the
quiz questions correctly. I’m sure you don’t regret having attended school this
evening.
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| A group of pupils during the talk |
And more than anything else,
no ketchup on your hot dogs. ;-)
