Our seven year anniversary

It’s been seven years since we moved here. Some random things that come to mind:

• Culture
• The whole Catalan nation thing still seems as stupid and closed-minded as on day one, but it doesn’t bother me anymore. In the US the stupid and closed minded people are into guns and crazy religion, so compared to that, it’s pretty harmless I guess.
• Culture is something that should come from the people, not be imposed by the government.
• Referendum
• I’m 100% in favor of having a vote. If people want to be stupid and decided to have their own country, well, it’s a democracy.
• As an American, I’d have to leave an Catalunya until they approve a tax treaty with the US (or I’d have to pay about 90% taxes). Good luck in getting it done quickly, since the US hasn’t approved a tax treaty in five years because one US senator is throwing a hissy fit.
• Let’s see if anyone in Catalunya does a Ghandi and actually has the guts to stand up to Rajoy.
• Real estate
• The prices are still stupidly expensive. Aren’t bubbles supposed to pop?
• People don’t know how to take pictures of real-estate. You’re trying to sell that house for a million euros, and you can’t be bothered to clean up and pay someone 200 euros to take some decent pictures?
• Employment
• If I ever lose my job, we’re going to have to move away because the jobs here pay nothing.
• Working in high-tech here still feels like a backwater whenever I go back to the US.
• The finiquito is a really dumb idea that keeps people working in jobs that they hate.
• Part-time employees here are exploited at least as much as US ones, if not more. 
• Kids
• Being a parent in Spain without grandparent support is very very hard
• Kids are happy here.
• It’s nice being able to let the kids run around town by themselves without the safety paranoia of the US. It’s weird, when I was growing up our parents let us run around but now kids in the US to be supervised 24/7.
• The kids speak Catalan well enough not to be a handicap anymore, although I’d prefer if they’d learned an actually useful language like German or French.
• Economy
• Things are marginally better, but I feel that nothing substantial has been fixed since the crisis. Mostly just swept under the carpet.
• Long term
• Who knows? I keep waiting for some event to force us to move somewhere else, but so far, it’s been pretty smooth sailing.