Weekend activites

This weekend I went to Delta de l'ebre with 5 of the other girls in the program. We took the train down the coast and stayed in Tortosa, a little town on the river that goes out to the delta. Friday night we explored Tortosa a bit, toured a nifty cathedral where you could see part of the old Roman wall and then where it was used as a mosque for a while and finally the basilica style church added on by the Catholics. We also walked up around an old castle for a bit, but it got dark too fast to do any real exploring up there so we came back down into town and found a nice little bar to have tapas and wine. Overall, it was an enjoyable way to spend a Friday!

On Saturday we took the bus over to Deltebre, the town in the middle of the delta. The ride was really nice on the bus, driving through a bunch of rice paddies and pretty neat countryside. After getting a little lost and figuring out how to eat a kiwi with a little plastic spoon (it actually works really well!) we found a little eco-museum place and got to talk to a couple who were taking some sort of eco-tour of all of Catalunya while we waited for the museum to open. The area attracts alot of birdwatchers and people studying ecosystems and biology type stuff because of the rapid changes in where the land is because of how the river and sea have changed, etc. It was really interesting. So after rushing through a tour of the museum and little aquarium there, we found a boat tour place. While we were waiting for the owner to start up the boat and get it ready (not many people want a boat tour in the middle of January) there was this huge sweet great dane running around chasing a cat. I want a great dane! The boat tour was nice, though it got pretty cold once we were going at full speed. Once we got back, our paella was ready so we had a fun time trying to figure out what to eat of the different seafood included. They grow the rice for the paella on the delta and had just caught the seafood that week, so everything was very yummy and I suppose somewhat authentic even. After paella we took the bus back to Tortosa and Alyssa and I went back to Barcelona, while the others spent another night in Tarragona and saw the Roman ruins there. I hope to take the train back there some other day :)

Sunday evening I was able to go to a church here in Barcelona. It's a fairly small church plant of a reformed church that is outside the city. Everyone is very nice and tells me my Spanish is great. I'm excited to get to know people there and was happy that I could understand most of the sermon (the Catalan songs weren't so easy). I'm hoping to be able to go Wednesday to their Bible study/prayer meeting and get involved with that.

This afternoon after Spanish class, Raedun and I went up to Park Guell and had a picnic. It was a lovely afternoon of sketching and basking in the sun, and we were able to meet up with the others and study for our Spanish exam also too, so overall a very good day. (It got more sunny as the afternoon went on from the photo below)

On the agenda for this week:
Meet the people at my new firm
Go see flamenco
Madrid trip this weekend
more sketching!
Spanish exam - end of intensive Spanish class
Bible study Wednesday
Joan Miro museum Thursday

Hope you all back in the US are enjoying your day off!