Me & The Baby & The Bcn : 6. Independencia!

One maybe strange sounding thing I like about Barcelona ( and Catalunya ) is the fight they are having for their independence from Spain. I dont know why.... I think its funky I get to live there and feel it all.. Maybe cuz Im Finnish and our little country is not very old at all, my grandfather was there in action to get us out of Russia... Somehow I feel like I connect to this fight. Its not my war, I do not take part on it.. but who knows, maybe my little man will one day have a Catalan passport and not Spanish.

I follow some of the politics what's happening in Spain, but not in a super active way. I've studied politics when was younger and those days my dream was to become a Political Journalist, so, Iguess because of that I do have a curious interest to see how this fight will end. Also, my little man's dad is quite political personality and veeeeery Catalan, from him I have heard a lot about the facts now and before.. and have asked many questions to be able to understand the madness better.

More history of Catalonia HERE

But as said.. its not my war and I dont decide or vote, I just think its cool to be living in the middle of it. I don't even speak Catalan.. or understand much of it.. I think its like chinese or russian and sometimes watching the news or tv in general, I dont even catch when they stop or start a sentence.. Yes. Shame on me. I should learn a bit..

This fight shows everywhere on the streets and bars and schools and offices. People are hanging Catalan flags from Balconies and apart from the huge demonstrations that are shown in news all over the world, little demonstrations are happening each week somewhere. I actually think that now that I was out of BCN for few months when my baby was born, the amount of flags on the balconies had increased a lot during that time. There are some neighbourhoods like Poble Nou where I used to work that are really Catalan and its starting to look like its minority soon of those people who do not hang a flag from balcony or window.

The official flag of Catalunya is Senyera

but the more popular on the balconies and on the streets is this Estelada,
the flag of the Catalan Independence supporters.. If I remember correct there is even 2 of these, the socialist independence flag has a red star instead of this blue & white one.

This huge crisis in Spain was also seen in kids school, classes were cancelled, bigger amount of kids in the classrooms, less teachers and for instance Oskars Swimming lessons were cancelled for this year. Last year on the 1st grade they went to swimhall once a week for swimming lessons.. but as second grade started, it was cancelled because of the lack of money. Kids were also talking about these demonstrations we saw and in school they had learned all shoutings like "Inde Inde Indepedencia!" and they actually understood in some level what all this means... they started saying they go on strike if theres no pancakes for breakfast or they have to go early to sleep and was shouting at home these things- with a laugh ofcourse.

Hmm... I guess I have been brainwashed as we also have a flag in our home .. hehee..