m29

Today was a national strike in Spain. It is in reaction to the recent labor reforms, which from the imagery used by my host madre, is strangling workers. Cutting salaries, benefits, while costs rise. Something to get angry about. I am impressed by the union of Spaniards regarding this--especially since they normally are divided and separated by autonomous community. Anyways, in our city every store was closed. There were some rare places open, but they surely didn't have costumers. On the news in cities like Barcelona and Madrid, picketers wouldn't let anyone go into open stores.

I had lunch with la familia, and there was a pretty heated discussion related to the protests, government, reform, etc. They usually take it easy, but in general tensions were high today. Even I was getting riled up because some tonterías were being said.

There were also several marches of protest. This morning there was an enormous amount of people in the streets, the line snaked around for blocks. And later in the day, after laying at the beach with friends for a while, I ran into my host madre again. We marched in the protest together, it was much smaller in the afternoon. They chanted things such as "Mariano Mariano, no llegas al verano" (name of new president, you won't last til summer). It's nice that when the people dislike what is happening, they protest in lieu of just complaining. Power to the people!