THE WATSONS, A NEW FAMILY IN SANT BOI DE LLOBREGAT

The Grandma always returns to Sant Boi

Today, The Grandma has arrived to Sant Boi de Llobregat to start a new English course with a new family, The Watsons.

Sant Boi de Llobregat is a town of 82,142 inhabitants in the Barcelona province in Catalonia, located aside the Llobregat river.

Though the main business activity is centred in the trading and service sector, Sant Boi also has a remarkable industrial activity, especially for metallurgy; agriculture is stimulated by the fertile alluvial lands at the mouth of Llobregat river and a mild climate, producing a wide variety of vegetables like the famous Llobregat's delta artichokes.

The finding of archeological remains corresponding to Iberian colonies (VI-I bC) and the Romans (I-V aC) - a noteworthy Roman bath is located near the river -suggests that the origins of Sant Boi can be found in pre-Roman times.

Like most of the surrounding lands, from the 8th to the 11th century the town was controlled by the Moors, until their expulsion from Iberia during the Reconquista. The Moors called it Alcala, which means castle, due to the existence of a hillock from where the river and the valley were dominated.

More information: Ajuntament de Sant Boi de Llobregat

During the Middle Ages the village was progressively populated, growing from the surroundings of the castle to adjacent zones. A baroque-style church was built during the 16th century. The growth kept on during the following centuries, giving rise to numerous Masies, typical Catalan agricultural housing, near the river and the most fertile lands. At the end of the 19th century Sant Boi was a village of nearly 5000 inhabitants, with an economy mainly based in agriculture.

At the beginnings of the 20th century the first industries flourished in Sant Boi, ranging from brick manufacture to metalwork. With the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 there is a massive inflow of immigration coming from diverse points of the Spanish geography. These flows of population consisted mainly in people from villages and small towns searching a job and career opportunities in the town of Barcelona, stimulated by the increasing demand of workmanship in the regrowth of the Catalan industry during the post-war period.

More information: Catalunya

The population rises from 10.000 people in 1940 to 65.000 in 1975. This period is characterized by the construction of complete quarters (Casablanca, Camps Blancs, Cooperativa) dedicated to housing for the immigration.

The Grandma with some nice old British friends

Nowadays Sant Boi is a town with more than 80,000 inhabitants, with well-established industrial and services sectors, and a healthy cultural and recreational offer. The town is divided into six districts: Ciutat Cooperativa-Molí Nou, Marianao-Can Paulet, Barri Centre, Vinyets-Molí Vell, Camps Blancs-Canons-Orioles and Casablanca.

It borders to the north with the towns of Santa Coloma de Cervelló, Sant Joan Despí and the village of Sant Climent de Llobregat, to the east with the town of Cornellà de Llobregat, to the west with Viladecans and to the south with El Prat de Llobregat, having a narrow land extension to the south that enters into the Mediterranean Sea.

More information: Fem Turisme

The Watsons are a family integrated by twelve nice young European women who want to improve their English and who have worked very hard on their first day.

It is always a great pleasure to return to Sant Boi where The Grandma has wonderful old friends. She has met MJ again and they have been talking about this new course.

After introductions, The Grandma has started to talk about the course and The Watsons have studied the Imperative, how to convert Infinitives to Nouns (Gerunds) and the article A/An. They have also studied which is the correct order of the adjectives in English.

They have created some profiles and they have written a password game to play during the next days. Finally, after a little listening about the origin of the name of Sant Boi and the importance of the Roman baths, they have played with the bomb, one of The Grandma's favourite games.

It has been a nice wonderful short day!

More information: Imperative I, II, III & IV

More information: Gerunds as Nouns

More information: A/An Article

More information: Order of Adjectives I & II

Roman civilization had achieved,

within the bounds of its technology,

relatively as great a mastery of time

and space as we have achieved today.

Arthur Erickson