The "Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa" is our football team, it was founded in 1923 as a result of the mixture of the two teams of the city. Now the team is in the Second Division, but for fifteen times it was in the First Division and even once we were in "La Liga" but we lost a lot of matches and we lost the category.
A few days ago all of us remembered the winner´s spirit of the season 54-55 when we were in "La Liga" because we had to play against F.C Barcelona in the National Cup and everybody in León were very excited because F.C Barcelona came to our city to play against Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa, our football team.
The whole day people couldn´t stop to talk about it. The match was at 10:00 pm but people started to go to the Stadium at 8:00 pm. At 10:00 pm the stadium was full and the match started.
Our players had a very good chance to score a goal but they failed and five minutes later Barcelona scored its first goal. In the second part, Barcelona scored another goal and Cultural lost the match 0 -2, but it didn´t matter because people enjoyed with football, with Barcelona and with the famous players who came to León.
Fourteen days later, Cultural went to Barcelona to play a rematch and a lot of people accompanied the team. They spent a beautiful day in the city, visited monuments and known more about Barcelona. At 12:00 the match finished ant the result was worse, Cultural lost 5-0.
18 nov 2009
ADEMAR LEÓN
It was founded in 1956. It´s the most representative handball team of our city.
It´s name came from "Asociación De Ex alumnos MARistas".
Since 1975 it played in provincial categories because it didn´t have money. In this year it ascended to Third National Division and in 1990 got the ascent to Second National Division. At 1994 ascended again to "Liga Asobal". It played in an European competition (City Cup) in the season 95/96, for first time. After two years, they had an excellent team and they got two second places in “Liga Asobal” and “Copa Asobal”, and the third place in “the king´s cup”. They made history in handball´s world.
Since this moment the team has got a lot of victories, the most recent are:
- In 98/99: Copa Asobal and Recopa de Europa. - In 00/01: Liga Asobal - In 01/02: King´s cup. - In 04/05: Recopa de Europa. - In 08/09: Copa Asobal.
This team has a lot of supporters who accompany them wherever they go.
The Ademar León´s anthem:
17 nov 2009
BALONCESTO LEÓN
Our basketball team is called "Baloncesto León", it was created in 1981 making its début in Third division and in only nine years, in the season 90-91, we were in the First division called ACB.
We got to stay for ten years in the most important basketball competition in Spain but in the season 00/01 we lost our place in it. Although in the 2007 we returned to ACB for only one year playing against Real Madrid or F.C Barcelona.
Basketball is one of the most popular sport in León and the "Palacio de los Deportes" our field fills with people everygame. It´s our little coliseum:
This year our team is doing a very good work and we hope to be in ACB for the next year. Here you have a compilation video about our better moments in the history:
The University of León is divided in two Campuses, one of them is sited in Ponferrada and the other one is in the capital, and it is the biggest one.
The degrees available are in the reach of: Experimental Studies Degrees Degrees in Humanities BA and Diploma in Social Sciences and Law BA and Diploma in Experimental Sciences and Health BA and Diploma in Humanities Engineering and Technical Engineering Third Cycle Studies (PhD) Graduate Studies
And some own degrees and more university extension.
This is a very small University (comparing with others in Spain), and here there are very few students. In fact we haven´t got any fraternity but when party time comes, each Faculty organized an “Espicha” for the rest of the students in the University.
Our Espichas are typical parties in León in which organizers earn money so that their studies trip became cheaper. Usually, Espichas are on Thursday evening, but some of them starts in the morning and goes on all day long. It takes place in a tent on the street, maybe in a car park or over the green, green grass. When the Espicha is over, students go out around the “barrio húmedo”, a neighborhood with a lot of bars and pubs. This is a very famous area in León to have “cortos y tapas” (little drinks and food) to go out every weekend.
"Empty green, green grass"and "Full green,
green grass because of an Espicha"
We five are students of the Faculty of Education in Vegazana’s Campus, studying to become English teachers. This is a new Faculty, actually it´s the newest in the Campus. It has only two years old. Here we have seven specialties and Psychopedagogy.
Along the day we have a lot of lessons, but, we have also free hours. We spend this time finishing our homework, our projects, going to the library, reading books, studying…but the most of the time we go to the snack bar. We have four here! People use to play cards in the bar, while they take some drink (soft drink…), or they just spend time with friends talking about teachers, partners, espichas…
But party is not the only thing we do here. Sometimes we have to study to pass our exams. Our assessments are in February, June and September. But if we want to have a good summer, we must go to the library as soon as possible, and study hard. During the assessments there are two libraries which are opened 24 hours a day.
People from other countries come to León to continue their studies as an Erasmus student at the University. We met an irish girl, Beth, who was so kind to answer some questions for us.
SEPTEMBER: You have to get in contact with this city and its population. The weather use to be wonderful to have a walk and MEETING LEÓN.
We strongly recommend you to visit the Cathedral, St Marcos, Botines palace and “Barrio Húmedo”. Moreover you should go to the Campus and visit your faculty to meet your new partners and the university atmosphere.
Don`t forget to congratulate the birthday of Sara and Eider. They are growing up!!!
OCTOBER: You can start this month with a popular party, St Froilán, at the 5th, eating “chorizo” and “morcilla”
and having fun with people from this land.
Enjoy your first weeks at the university and, how lucky!!! You will have your first espicha too!!! It is organized by
students of Veterinary.
NOVEMBER: Maybe it´s raining so take out your umbrella and let’s go to the countryside! We are going to take some mushrooms! Be careful, and have some information about them. It could be dangerous if you don’t know which ones are eatables.
There are three espichas this month. Among them there is a special one: ours.
DECEMBER: We are sure that you are looking forward to the holidays, but there are great activities along this month. For instance, we have the purple weekend, an international alternative music festival. People from other cities and countries are coming to enjoy this event.
And, of course, Merry Christmas! If you are not going to come back home, be sure that you can find a place to celebrate the New Year eve.
JANUARY: Have you been a good child? You might have a present next to the Christmas Tree. The Three Wise Men are a tradition which helps parents to control their kids’ behavior. If they behaves badly they only receive coal from the Three Wise Men. In Spain The Three Wise Men is the same tradition as Santa Claus in U.S.A, it`s celebrated on 6th of January.
As you have a lot of free time, you can practice ski and snowboard in our fantastic ski stations: St Isidro and Leitariegos. We have an Asturian ski station nearer than ours, though called Pajares.
FEBRUARY: Forget everything we have told you before. Now you have to study hard for your exams.
If you have a moment, you must enjoy our fantastic carnival specially in two villages in León : La Bañeza and Astorga.
In a break, remember Nacho’s birthday.
MARCH: After the stress, we propose a trip. It’s close to León, in a little village called Valporquero. There you will visit one of the most famous caves in Spain. One of the versions of the movie “A Journey to the Centre of the Earth” was filmed there.
At the end of the month will start the Holy Week-Easter, a religious tradition which is repeated year after year; a time when the devout and curious join together to participate and see processions.
APRIL: To continue This Holy Week-Easter, León provides us of a special procession which is called St Genarín, this is a legend of a drunkard in León. Genarín was hasty by a garbage truck and people drink this day to live up to one´s reputation.
It finishes with an Espicha, of course.
MAY: The spring comes and the weather`s good.
You can visit the different parks in our city for instance “La Candamia”,“Quevedo`s Park” and “St Francisco” and you can spend a good time with your friends, reading a book, drinking a beer, take photos… it`s a beautiful place for relax.
Moreover, in this month takes place the last “Espicha” of the year, this is organized by the students of agricultural engineer.
The lessons finish the last days of the month because you should start to study for your exams.
Don`t forget Andres’ birthday.
JUNE: Maybe this month is the worst for students, because we have the final exams, and in this time, the weather is good so it`s more difficult studying. It`s really difficult!!
The 24th of June is the most important festivity in León St. John´s day. We have a tradition in León to do a bonfire that night.
On the other hand the 29th, there is the second more important festivity in León: St. Peter.
With these parties we finished an interesting year in León, ENJOY IT and we hope don´t see you in September because it will mean you have passed all the exams!!!
JULY AND AUGUST:Go on holidays, relax and in October we´ll hope see you here again.
We are Victor, Nacho, Sara, Eider and Andrés students of teaching english. We are the creators of this blog called "Meeting León" and all of us are living in León which is a wonderful city in the north of Spain. We will show you a lot of activities that you could do here.
