On "castle rock" in the Bay of Biscay, as I bit into a sort of hand-held omelet, I wondered: who invented this ingenious snack? I mean, who in history was the one to discover that you could even eat an egg, not to mention fry it with potatoes and onions into a graspable food item. The true genius of it struck me because Josu, my hiking companion, had prepared this himself and though I had eaten this same thing in nearly every restaurant in my neighborhood, there was something notable about this one.

The Latin American Studies Program (LASP) will conclude its two-part spring speaker series with a talk entitled, “Latinos, INC. in Social Media: Univisión and the Dynamics of Mass Connected Hispanic Media" by Sean Gelles of Univisión TV network.

Student-athletes can and do study abroad. Find out what you need to know to get started! UI Study Abroad will host an information session for UI student-athletes on Sunday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m. at the Gerdin Athletic Learning Center.

Douglas Baker, a senior majoring in piano and Japanese at the University of Iowa, has received a 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Student Award to further pursue his research abroad in a project titled, “The Japanese Style in Taijiro Goh’s Piano Music.” In this project, Douglas will gain access to unpublished compositions in archives held in Japan, where he plans to explore the methods Taijiro Goh used in order to express a Japanese style in his compositions. Goh was notably recognized as the composer of Japan’s first violin concerto in 1935.

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors on Thursday unanimously approved the creation of a community ID program, the first of its kind in the Midwest and one that supporters say will help bring hundreds of local residents out of the shadows. "I just think that this is an incredible, historic day in Johnson County," Jesse Case, Community ID Group member and president of the Iowa City Federation of Labor, said to the supervisors after the vote. "I've never seen a city with elected officials so willing to come together and work with people for an issue like this."

This year marks the tenth year of exchanges between the University of Iowa and China Daily, China's largest English-language newspaper. In honor of this long-standing collaboration, International Programs and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication will hold a tenth anniversary celebration on Friday, April 24 from 3:00-4:30 p.m. in the Adler Journalism Building rotunda.

On March 10, 2015, the African Studies Program, a constituent program of University of Iowa International Programs, hosted a reception for musicians of The Nile Project. The Nile Project is a collective of musicians from the eleven countries through which the Nile River flows in Eastern and North Eastern Africa.

The 13th Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival will take place April 10-11, 2015 in 105 Adler Building. The festival, presented by undergraduates in the UI Cinema Department, features documentaries from both Iowans and national and international filmmakers. The students aim to showcase different documenting styles and methods, questioning what it means to make a documentary.

A glance at a timeline of events in the Arab world since the December 2010 anti-government demonstrations in Tunisia that triggered what we now know as the Arab Spring reveals a swift and previously unthinkable resetting of the geo-political map of the Middle East. What followed those heady early days has been a toppling of dictatorships, emboldened public action, a sharpening of divisions within national and religious groups, humanitarian crises of alarming proportions, and challenges to major world powers unlike anything in recent memory. Internationally-renowned scholars on the Middle East and Arab world will join host Joan Kjaer when WorldCanvass explores “The Arab Spring in a Global Context.” This is the first event of the 2015 Provost’s Global Forum, and the public is invited to attend the free program at 5 p.m., April 28, at FilmScene in Iowa City.

I have never been one to shy away from a challenge, but helping students devise the “right strategy” for applying for a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award has been a daunting task. As the Fulbright Program Adviser (FPA) at the University of Iowa, a Big Ten institution with more than 30,000 students, it’s my job to assist students in their quest for this unparalleled, life-transforming opportunity.