In My Mind I'm Goin' to Barcelona
So, given the assignment of picking any European country to blog about, my default choices will always be Spain. I hold this idealized, romanticized notion of the country from my 10-day visit their in high school and studies throughout college. I've said it so many times before, but I learned more in that short trip so many years ago than I have from a lot of pointless lectures and homework from other classes. (Side note, one of my big regrets in life may always be turning down the opportunity to study abroad in Madrid for logistically college course requirements. D'oh! I though-- Spain isn't going anywhere, right? True, it hasn't moved, but I have yet to return. But, my time will come!)
Kosovo's independence became a hot topic in the Spanish Global Voices community because of it's resemblance to the situation with the Spanish region of Catalonia. It is an autonomous community within the country; while part of Spain it is a very distinct area with its own culture and dialect, with Barcelona (pronounced bar-SAY-lona, per Catalan) as its hub. As a high schooler visiting beautiful Barcelona, I know from experience that Catalonians do not like Americans trying to speak broken elementary
Though some Catalan Bloggers had ambivalent feelings about their connection to Kosovo and the region's future independent status.
From Diari del votant anònim:
"It is not comparable with Catalonia or the Basque Country. However, I
think that any process towards sovereignty in Europe should take it
into consideration. That's the reason why we are so repeatedly told
that the two cases are different.[…] Kosovo might not be our mirror, but every time that a new state
says freely what and how it wants to be, the world becomes freer."
El bloc d'en Narcis Satre provides a nice insider's look to Catalonia, if you find the translation button...I had previously
