It’s December and the holidays are almost here. Can’t wait, just a few more days to finish things up in the lab. The last couple of weeks were taken up with more fractionation until all the samples were done and are now drying in the oven. After drying and grinding more than half of them, I was able to weigh them back at the elemental analysis lab in the Parc Cientific. The last few samples I’ll have to leave for after the holidays, but at least I have three quarters done. Since I will be doing fractionations again with the final samples next year, I didn’t want to leave too many of the initial samples to pile up. All in all I think things are going on track and finishing the final analyses next year shouldn’t be too overwhelming (especially if Joan gets an undergraduate student to help out which he said might happen, so we’ll see)!
Last weekend we made another little afternoon trip to the Roman city of Tarragona. I really liked it, it wasn’t too busy and the downtown is small and open enough that it doesn’t feel claustrophobic. We walked through the old city with its lovely cathedral and then down towards the waterfront to see the ancient Roman circus and amphitheatre. Past the amphitheatre is a nice waterfront walk called the balcony to the Mediterranean which leads to the New Rambla (the old Rambla being in the old city). Here, there are several restaurants, but we ended up heading back into the old part of the city to have lunch on one of the many outdoor patios. Just an hour away from Barcelona, Tarragona was a nice escape from the big city.
A few other activities in the last couple of weeks were a visit to the Christmas market in front of the Catedral de Barcelona…
and seeing displays by university clubs of castellers, castell (castle) builders, in front of the UB’s Faculty of Biology. The first group did well, building quickly and keeping balance before safely coming down among cheers and applause. The second group started well, but just before reaching the very top, the girl trying to climb onto the others’ shoulders started to wobble and suddenly lost her balance, causing the whole castell to come tumbling down. People crashing down on a mass of other people looked pretty painful, let me tell you. I only saw one injury, but there might have been others. It’s definitely a dangerous art, but when everything turns out well, the castells look pretty amazing.
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- Success!
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- Right before collapsing
Next week we’ll be heading to Madrid for Christmas and New Year’s, with a trip to Galicia in between. The weather there will probably be a lot like Vancouver: humid and rainy! But I’m excited to visit the region and see the North Atlantic. Until then, happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year!