The Catalan elections

The elections to the Catalan Parliament are coming! They are almost here! Are you scared? You should be! Are you uninformed? Lucky you!

I would like to start introducing the candidates to you, and at the same time I will say something of their paries, to let you know... them. In a future post you can find how did the debate go, and a personal view of the politeness of our political class. I must warn you that this is going to be a long and non funny post... I hope that I’ll keep your interest somehow, or that you are going to read me in the future!

The candidates are organized in order of members in the current parliament: CiU (46), PSC-CPC (42), ERC (23), PPC (15), ICV-EUA (9). Let’s remember that CiU has been in the government for 23 years, from 1980 to 2003 with the President Jordi Pujol i Soley. From 2003 to 2006 the government was composed by PSC, ERC and ICV-EUA and dissolved last May (if I remember it correctly), and the President has been Pasqual Maragall i Mira from PSC-CPC.

Convergència i Unió: Artur Mas i Gavarró.

This is a Catalan and nationalist party; actually is the addition of two parties: Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya and Unió Democràtica de Catalunya. Convergència is the bigger one, and Unió (self called demo-cristians) the smaller. If you ask them, they are a centre party; if you ask the average people, they are a centre-right party, if you ask to ICV-EUA they are a right-right party. Anyway, they are not a communist party and they are Catalan nationalist. But, they have been having pacts and agreements with PP (and you’ll know after a while that this is... shocking).

The candidate was really rude during the debate (only the PP candidate was ruder) and treating all the others with condescension. He is arrogant, big headed and completely confident that he is going to win. The statistics are saying that he is going to win. They won the last elections but not with enough people in the parliament, and if we follow the statistics, they are going to have better results than the last time.

Partit Socialista de Catalunya – Ciutadans pel Canvi: José Montilla y Aguilera.

This is the Catalan part of the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español). They are independant of PSOE, but they are not, but they are, but they are not. Ask them if you didn’t get that. They say that they are “catalanistes” but they want a federal vision of Spain. Everything is a bit blurry because inside the PSOE there are some people fighting for the rights of the Catalans, and some people who really want to fuck the Catalans in the ass. Then... what is the PSC saying when receiving attacks from PSOE, considering that they are the same party but not?

The candidate was really polite, really silent, almost hypnotic. Charisma is not the word that comes to your mind looking at him. He was born in the south of Spain and moved to Catalonia several years ago. He has been the mayor of Cornellà and speaks Catalan. He doesn’t have the C-level of Catalan that is asked to work for the government, and he wants to be the president. Where is the problem? Ask to the other parties then!
Note: the look-alike-guy is a famous Catalan humorist.

Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya: Josep Lluís Carod-Rovira.

The name of the party comes from lots of years ago... Esquerra means left in Catalan, but there is the doubt about the name... they doesn’t seem to be that on the left. Hearing them maybe they are... who knows. They want the independence of Catalonia, and knowing that this is basically impossible (at least in the near future) they try to have the best for Catalonia, do they? At least they say it... Some actions were... (you can write disappointing words here): Perpignan, Jerusalem (with the PSC involved too).

The candidate was really polite during the debate. Probably to avoid attacks to the actions that he did being in the government. He studied philology and he knows how to talk (but he doesn’t know how to pronounce the “r” sounds).

Partit Popular de Catalunya: Josep Piqué i Camps.

If they ask to them, they are going to say that they are a centre-right party. If you ask to anybody else (including the people who vote them) they are a right-right party. The previous name of the party was Alianza Popular, and the members of that party came directly from the people next to Franco (it says a lot, doesn’t it?). After approving the Catalan Estatut (a kind of constitution) at the Catalan Parliament, at the Spanish Parliament and by public referendum, the PP party has been doing a campaign along the whole Spain against it. They are against homosexual marriages and rights, they wanted to put more religion in school and took off some maths, their government (in Spain) was giving money to the Francisco Franco Fundation. Enough?

The candidate is a weird example of opportunist. He was in the PSUC (communist party) when he was young. Then he studied economy and changed to the right. When the PP was in the power in Spain, he joined them and became minister (Science and Technology and something else too). From left to right and being the ruder one. He interrupted everybody in the debate, sitting in really rude way, holding his head and touching everybody else. Unbelievable.

Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds – Esquerra Unida i Alternativa:

Joan Saura i Laporta. The party was the Catalan version of the Izquierda Unida, but then they split it, and IC was alone, and the Catalan version of IU was EU. But they were a few people only. After it, IC joined the Greens (Verds) and EU became Alternativa, and after it they joined all together... ICV-EUiA. They are in the left and in the green side of the Catalan politics, that is true! And they have been in the last three years government.

The candidate was the only one who wasn’t wearing a tie, it is not sustainable probably. One line of the 2003 campaign was: “the tomatoes are going to have tomato taste again!”. But he is informed, and polite. They have been working for ecological stuff, historical memory and promoting the estatut.

I will save for the next post the summary and opinions of the debate. See you soon people!!!

Butifarra amb bolets

Wow! The autumn is definitely here people. I want to share with you the experience of a quite typical autumn Catalan meal: Butifarra amb bolets!

Some really nice bolets, concretely rovellons!

I don’t know how many of you usually eat mushrooms (and I don’t count the champignons that everybody more or less eats, because that is the main point of the meal. The mushrooms that we ate for lunch were: in Catalan “rovellons”, in Spanish “níscalos”, in English “milk cap” (I don’t trust this version) and in Finnish “männynleppärousku” (I know that this is the singular version only). The other kind of mushrooms that we ate today I only know their name in Catalan, “llanegues”.

A box filled with yummy rovellons, ready to be washed

And here we have the rovellons after being washed


The ready llanegues

Some of they are so cute, aren't they?

You can only find this kind of mushrooms in autumn and you have to go to the woods to pick them. Don’t worry, we didn’t go there! Fortunately there are some people who like to go there and pick them, and after it they sell the mushrooms to the small fruit-vegetables shops. We bought them from there (and my grand dad brought some more to us, great!).

If they are good, they don’t need much to do. And believe me, they were really good! We cooked them (ok, my mum did them) in the oven: oil, salt, garlic and parsley (not perse!, I know you Finns...).

Almost ready to be eaten... these rovellons look so good...

... and the llanegues too!

When they aren’t that good you can use them to make a kind of sauce to dress meat for example. But use the mushrooms that we had today to make just a sauce would be to spoil them!

So the next question is what to eat with the “llanegues i rovellons”?, typical solution: “butifarra”. It is just a sausage made with pork minced meat but we like it a lot, and after being in Belgium and Finland for a couple of whiles I must say that I haven’t fund the same kind of “butifarra” abroad. I like our “butifarra”.

An almost ready plate, before the llanegues

The only little mistake that we made was about the amount of them! I finished my lunch six hours ago and I still feel full!

So people, if you have the chance to try them, do it!

Bon profit and hyvää ruokahalua!

Home (sweet home? ...)

I feel home, but something is wrong here. It’s nice to be here, but not that much. I have my family here, but I feel lonely. Does anybody need more details?

Igualada's coat of arms or shield... I don't know the English word for it!

I need a bit of patience the following days, patience and luck. I will (hopefully) receive news from the company during this week, and I hope that they are going to be nice news.

But I don’t want to write a sad or complaining post. Today I’m meeting Toni. He’s a good friend, polyglot and he lives in Belgium. This fact makes that is quite difficult to meet him often here in Igualada (where we are from). He is spending some days here, and I am back from Finland just right now, it is going to be nice to meet him! He received me in Belgium and helped me a lot during my first day in Louvain-la-Neuve (he lives in Brussels).

What else? I met my guitars again! Now I just need to learn how to play them. I must confess... that I bought a new one when Emma and me where in Andorra.

The Catalan, The Belgian, The Andorran

Oh god! Last summer has been THE summer, definitely. If I think about all the places where we have been, and the really good time that we spent around Europe... amazing. I don’t need to tell anything about the company, do I?

I’ve already explained to you people how the interview went, and I hope that I’ll explain to you how is the moving thing going soon!

PD: I might write about Spanish or Catalan jobs and companies soon too... but I don't want!

Maybe a chance!

And here we are! Right now, if you haven’t noticed yet I am in Finland.

Some of you maybe are wondering “why the hell am I in Finland?” Come on… or you really know only a bit about me or you haven’t read the previous post!

I am here because I had a job interview yesterday! They didn’t hire me, but didn’t refuse me… It went well, but I don’t know anything… Weird feelings people, but I’m going to share them with you.

The best thing of being in Finland… well, everybody knows it. And I am having a good time here, and not only with her, also with her friends, and she is so taking care of me. Emma drove me to the interview and picked me up after it; it helped a lot because I was a bit (okay, really) nervous.

The company is a consultant company from Espoo and (hopefully and hypothetically) I would join them as a beginner test engineer or something like that. Apparently I would fit perfectly in the company as a person (personality and non-education skills) but of course I don’t have experience in the field. That is the bad part always! They want a 22 years old guy, with freedom to travel, two university degrees and 15 years of experience in the exact field that they are trying to fill. So, life is hard… use a helmet.

I am officially waiting for an answer from the company, and it will depend on the projects that they have if they will hire me in the near future or not. At least this is what they told me! I still have some hope.

By now, I just can tell that I am coming back to Spain next Monday. It is going to be fucking sad and hard (I haven’t done it yet… to leave) but I am surer than ever about managing the situation. I might be pissed and disappointed with myself because I WANT A JOB IN FINLAND, and I WANT TO MOVE THERE, because my life is there (sorry, HERE) now.

Anyway, it is nice to be here I am satisfied about the interview (I can’t do it better… which is sad because I now that it is probably not good enough). I am having good time, and I am going to concentrate on enjoying my time here and stop worrying and being down. I'll do that in Spain.

Life is nice, we’re here to be happy, so let’s do that!!

Hi to everybody!