Urbana, Illinois

Good news, everyone! That's what Professor Farnsworth says everytime he's about to send Fry, Bender, Leela and the rest of the Futurama's crew to the Planet of Destruction in the Painful Galaxy... But, in this case, we have really and truly good news to everyone: our friend Lourdes, after passing an exam and an interview last week, will finally go to teach next year the students of... Urbana (Illinois)! I've been looking for some information about this place and that's what I've found: Urbana is located on the East Side of Illinois and it's the tenth-most populous city in the outside of the Chicago Metropolitan area with 41,250 people. It's a well-known city because of its University, the University of Illinois, that has most of its campus here, in the Champaigne-Urbana (by the funny nickname of Chambana) zone. Apart from the University, at Urbana Lourdes will also be able to see the famous Market at the Square (a 33 years old market where vendors sell local products such as tomatos, corn or watermelons), the Urbana Free Library (founded in 1874) or the Station Theatre (a Big Four Railway until 1956, when the Theatre was finally built). Funnily enough, there is a connection between Urbana and Spain and that connection is a writer, the spanish writer Javier Cercas, who used Urbana as background for two of his novels: El inquilino (1989) and La velocidad de la luz (2005). We are all very happy because of Lourdes' success although we haven't celebrated it properly yet. We'll do it soon! Congratulations Lourdes! You really deserve it!