I found out that even if it is not installed it is still available on SQL Server Management Studio and you can create the indexes. It shouldn't allow...
Then I found this: SQL Server 2008 R2 Express - Installation Options, to allow FTS I need the 800MB version...
To check the status of FTS I found these queries:
SELECT
FULLTEXTCATALOGPROPERTY(cat.name,'ItemCount'),
FULLTEXTCATALOGPROPERTY(cat.name,'MergeStatus'),
FULLTEXTCATALOGPROPERTY(cat.name,'PopulateCompletionAge'),
FULLTEXTCATALOGPROPERTY(cat.name,'PopulateStatus'),
FULLTEXTCATALOGPROPERTY(cat.name,'ImportStatus')
FROM sys.fulltext_catalogs AS cat
SELECT fulltextserviceproperty('IsFulltextInstalled')