The Inspiration

This is what made me think that a blog might be a good idea. Andrew and I were sitting down to dinner one quiet evening when we heard some rather loud chanting and drum beating. We looked out our balcony to find a mob marching down the street past our apartment. Yes, those are torches in their hands. Having no idea what they were saying, we tried to listen closely for anything that sounded like, "Kill the Americans." Thankfully it was just a pre-holiday party for the next day, Catalonia Day.

A little background might be helpful. Catalunya is the region of Spain that we live in. From what we've heard, Catalunyans have a strong independent streak in them and there are more than a few of them who believe they should form their own nation. They have their own language, catalan, which is not to be confused with spanish, or castillan. Most people here grow up learning both languages so you can hardly blame them for not wanting to learn English like the rest of Europe. Of course it makes it very difficult to learn Spanish (castillan) when you're never sure if what you're hearing or reading is castillan or catalan. The flag the torch mob is carrying in the picture is Catalunya's flag. We probably should have bought one to hang on our balcony so that we could feel a little safer that night. Fortunately the mob was more concerned with getting drunk than with defending Catalunya from invading foreigners.

The next day, 11 September, we took a walk after dinner to see if we could find where the party was at. It turned out to be about a five minute walk from our apartment. There was a huge stage set up on which a very loud band was playing. We left there about midnight and they were still going. I think I jinxed us when I said something about feeling sorry for the people whose apartments bordered the street where the stage was set up because the party moved to our street a few nights later.