Maybe it was because of St Patrick’s Day, but this past week has had a tinge of the UK about it. Not only did a bar down the road start serving Guinness for the first time (you just can’t escape those ludicrous hats!), but a couple of events this week have reminded me of the Motherland:
English practice
On Tuesday we went along to an English class that a friend of mine attends. Her teacher – a lovely Tortisi guy with the most curious north English accent – was keen to meet us and wondered if we could help the students. We were more than happy to oblige, and so spent 40 minutes or so in ‘the hot chairs’ answering questions from the class.
A lot of the students were interested to hear our opinions of Catalonia and Tortosa, with only one question about keeping kangaroos as pets! We said yes, of course. Instead of asking our age, one student came straight out with it and asked if we were planning on having children……
(awkward silence)
Luckily his grammar was OK.
English Festival
So far here we have seen an artichoke festival, an olive oil festival, a local produce festival, a Christmas festival, several festivals for various saints and a ‘ruta de tapas’ celebrating all things l’abadejo (cod, currently happening at bars and restaurants across Tortosa). This weekend was the Tortosa English Festival, an initiative to help local students get excited about learning English. I have to confess we didn’t make the most of this because of the rain (see below), but there have been Irish breakfasts, English magic shows, debates and basketball demonstrations across town.
English weather
The atmosphere must have heard about the festival somehow because it has been raining all weekend! A perfect English spring drenching thanks to a bunch of moist air coming from the Mediterranean. This has kept us inside most of the weekend, finally catching up on Serial and getting stuck into a puzzle like the 65-year-olds we secretly are. All we need now are some Yorkshire puddings…
lindenashcroft.com 
Hi! Yes, it was a pity the rain meant many of the English Festival activities were called off. It’s a curious festival, with a strange mixture of activities providing something for everything. Did you see any of the students’ debates on Friday morning which were held at the URV campus? Pretty impressive level of English for 16-year-olds!
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