Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Athens, Madrid, Salamanca

I walk through the Plaza Mayor everyday.  Between my second and third classes of the day, I enjoy the buzz of locals, tourists.

On this overcast morning, I walked through to find a group of students chanting together accompanied by the sounds of whistles, drums, and news reporters. I didn't really see this at first, I just heard it. It took me awhile to walk to the other side of the Plaza since construction has been going on for the upcoming annual antique book fair.

It was a young crowd of university students with cardboard signs with slogans like "Education isn't an expenditure, it's an investment". The back half of the Plaza was just teeming.

The window was left open during my next class. I wish I could have seen what was happening in the Plaza Mayor. They sounded like they were right under our window. The whistles and drums faded; their voices were the highlight of the moment. For maybe 30 minutes strong they didn't let up. The only thing the prof said about it was "Well, the people on the streets seem to be happy today."

By the time class ended, the Plaza Mayor was empty. Everyone must have gone back to class.

While Rajoy is in Bucharest today, I hope he knows his disapproval rating is getting much higher and the average age much lower.

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