Catalans of Reddit, what's it like over there right now?

1. Catalan here, the situation feels rather conflicting. After the declaration of independence, sudden fireworks and celebrations sparkled all over the place, but quickly the unionists organized themselves in protest. Around my (small) town, I've seen a few of them very enraged, but being peaceful about it all. It's definitely not as crazy as it might be portrayed, although I cannot speak for what is going on in Barcelona, with massive groups of people & as I recall, [tensions have risen, for instance, in front of the Catalan radio](https://twitter.com/saulgordillo/status/923975487415873537), ending up [breaking the glass doors](https://twitter.com/saulgordillo/status/923990496623685632). I don't expect an outbreak of violence, though seeing what happened during the referendum, anything could be possible.
   — TrickyThoughts


2. I'm not Catalan but I live in Barcelona. All quiet round my neighbourhood. There were a few banging saucepans when the declaration happened, and a few fireworks. After that, nothing. I'm surprised. But all the action will be in the center of the city.
   — SKZCartoons


3. Not Catalan, but living near the center of Barcelona. For the time being, everyone still seems to be going on with their normal lives, except for a lot of people bringing out those independentist flags and celebrating and cars honking on the streets as a way to show their excitement... It's not particularly bad here, as long as you try to avoid the areas where there are demonstrations going on. I can't foresee what will happen in the days to come, but continuing on with your daily life here is not a problem.
   — cheesenoogets






4. .....nothing...just nothing. I was walking around near pl. catalunya and then sants. I didn't see or hear anything out of ordinary...it's like a regular day, really.
   — lebron_lamase


5. Copy paste from a similar post: I was born in Barcelona, lived in other countries for a few years and recently moved back in. First of all, I hate people saying that "there's a majority of people against the independence" or "there's a majority of people rooting for the independence". I think that it should not be divided in two groups, instead I have seen people say that they want independence, but not with an unilateral declaration of independence and a few more positions. People can speculate as much as they want, but until an official vote (doesn't need to be binding, it could be just to ask the people what they feel) we won't know for sure if it is a majority or a minority. Said that, I think that both sides handled the situation extremely bad. Both sides cornered each other like angry beasts waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack (in this case, put the other side in evidence in front of the whole world). Catalonia should not have declared independence unilaterally, but Spain should not have activated the 155th. We are all grown adults and things can be settled by talking. Another problem here has been that Puigdemont (President of Catalunya) had asked previously to have a talk and discuss the matter. Rajoy (President of Spain) declined every request almost immediately, even before the whole voting process began. A lot of enterprises have relocated to other parts of Spain, but that does NOT mean that they will bring all the buildings and workers to wherever they rellocate. It is just a bureaucratic thing: the people will still be living in Catalunya, and get money and spend it and pay taxes here (contrary to what a LOT of people I know have been saying), even though the enterprises will pay the taxes wherever they relocated to. Another thing I have realized is the strong influence that Spain has over the TV channels here. I have friends and family that went to the "referendum" on the 1st of October and the way that it was pictured in the spanish channels does not even come close to reality. There's even one video that they put in a lot of TV chains that you can even hear on the background someone say very faintly, in spanish, guys, make it look like we're a lot of people here (or something like this, can't remember it for sure). Tve (Televisión Española) has a few people behind the stages saying what can and what can not be aired (I guess the same thing could be said about TV3, their catalan counterpart, but I do not know that for sure). All this media controllation has made Spain's dislike on Catalonia even stronger than before (we can say that Spain and Catalonia never really got along). edit: I would also love to add that things are not half as crazy as the media portraits imo. Overheard someone at the train calling her mom and the mom being all worried because the situation here is "out of control", and what I assume to be two complete strangers talk about the recent events that took place here. We will see how things progress, but for now it looks like Spain has decided to hold elections in december, and retire a LOT of the people that have been working in the Generalitat (Catalan institution in charge of the administrative duties) and the President, Vice-President and a lot of other charges.
   — Zalurinu


6. Thread is 20 minutes old an no Catalonians. That's sad and scary but morbidly funny.
   — f0k4ppl3






7. There is a lot of trading for wool, but no wood to be had.
   — White_House_Hitler