Sept. 11th in Spain

Hello Everyone,

This is my first September 11th anniversary in Spain. I spent a great deal of time talking to my new flatmate. He was there in NYC that day and lost four friends. He picked up something from the WTC that morning and was out about an hour before the first plane hit the building. His ex that worked at Morgan Stanely at the time and was late that morning and thus, her life was spared. Unfortunately, others weren't so lucky. He was telling me how everyone was frantically trying to contact their loved ones, and how he couldn't go home for a week. I couldn't believe it. He also told me how people on the streets were holding up pictures of loved ones, asking strangers if they had seen their friends/family members.

Before I met him, I didn't personally know anyone that was in NYC the day of the attacks. Hearing it from him was so much more emotional. And I was glad we got to talk about it. Because it should never be forgotten. People should talk about this and pass down this information from generation to generation.

Here in Spain, September 11th is an actual holiday for the people here in Catalonia. Almost everything was closed today except for the shops in the tourist area. This is the day that Catalans show their pride.

To give you a quick background, Barcelona is considered to be the capital of Catalonia, a region in Spain. Though people here speak Spanish and, their first language is Catalan and they consider themselves to be Catalan, not Spanish. Catalans here believe that Catalonia should have it's own government and it's own laws. People here don't want the Spanish government to make its laws.

So many people today hung the Catalonian flag on their balconies and people on the streets were walking around with the flag draped around their shoulders. And for this day only, the Spanish flags were taken down, leaving only the flags of Catalonia.

I was glad that I was walking around the city today and got a chance to see all this. I was glad to see people proud of their culture and demonstrating what they believe in. While I was watching people march down the street, I saw a lot of people wearing the Catalan flag, but I also saw a few people join in with flags from their own countries such as Ireland and Brazil. I wish that I could have draped the US flag around my shoulders. Especially since this is also an important day for people in the US.

Anyways, I will writemore later.

Ciao.