The Crane & The Cathedral
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Victory and Volcanoes
It’s very pleasing to be listening to NPR’s election results via my Tarragona office connection while uploading photos of Loryn’s visit. We spent the weekend up in the foothills of the Pyrenees, in a volcanic zone called the Garrotxa. These volcanoes have been dormant for a lot longer than the American populace…maybe. More than anything it’s comforting to feel a bit less alienated from most of the country and to see how overwhelmingly MA opposed the war in the state referendum. This morning in my Catalán class, the German fellow behind me said, “So now that the house and senate (maybe) are Democratic, they’ll kick Bush out of office, that’s wonderful!” As mom would say, “would that it were….” It’s been interesting to learn more about the Parliamentary system, seems like it’s really got its advantages, the German’s point being one of them. Elections in Catalonia were actually last week, and while the Conservative party won, the three leftist parties formed a coalition to maintain power in the Parliament. There’s definitely more room for negotiation the way they do it here.
But back to the volcanoes. Check out the photo album for Loryn in many random places throughout the region. After the slight hitch of misreading her flight info and going to Barcelona airport to pick her up a day early, we were happy to have the first visitor in chez Freidus-Top. Actually, we’re hoping to post a guest registration and user reviews here soon so you can all see how much fun you’ll have if you come! We went straight from the airport to do a whirlwind tour of Barcelona, got into Tarragona later that afternoon, and rented the car to go north the next am. Loryn got her shopping and wine tasting in, we got some news from home, and I got to practice a lot of Catalán up in the north where Spanish/Castellano is much less prevalent. All around good time. The remaining question….will security let Loryn take her porrón on the plane?
It’s very pleasing to be listening to NPR’s election results via my Tarragona office connection while uploading photos of Loryn’s visit. We spent the weekend up in the foothills of the Pyrenees, in a volcanic zone called the Garrotxa. These volcanoes have been dormant for a lot longer than the American populace…maybe. More than anything it’s comforting to feel a bit less alienated from most of the country and to see how overwhelmingly MA opposed the war in the state referendum. This morning in my Catalán class, the German fellow behind me said, “So now that the house and senate (maybe) are Democratic, they’ll kick Bush out of office, that’s wonderful!” As mom would say, “would that it were….” It’s been interesting to learn more about the Parliamentary system, seems like it’s really got its advantages, the German’s point being one of them. Elections in Catalonia were actually last week, and while the Conservative party won, the three leftist parties formed a coalition to maintain power in the Parliament. There’s definitely more room for negotiation the way they do it here.
But back to the volcanoes. Check out the photo album for Loryn in many random places throughout the region. After the slight hitch of misreading her flight info and going to Barcelona airport to pick her up a day early, we were happy to have the first visitor in chez Freidus-Top. Actually, we’re hoping to post a guest registration and user reviews here soon so you can all see how much fun you’ll have if you come! We went straight from the airport to do a whirlwind tour of Barcelona, got into Tarragona later that afternoon, and rented the car to go north the next am. Loryn got her shopping and wine tasting in, we got some news from home, and I got to practice a lot of Catalán up in the north where Spanish/Castellano is much less prevalent. All around good time. The remaining question….will security let Loryn take her porrón on the plane?
