All adjusted

When I decided to go to the Basque Country last year I told all of my friends and family in the Netherlands that they would be more then welcome to visit me. And they still are but at the same time, and I feel bad while I am typing this, they aren’t..

After spending two months in the Basque Country I feel like I am having a life here, it is of course a different life compared to the one that I was used to in the Netherlands but it really feels like my life. And I really don’t want it to turn back into my old Dutch life any time soon.I started to realize all of this when my family started to visit me. In a normal week here I go to school, have nice dinners and parties with my funny housemates and friends here or I just do whatever I feel like. But now people have started to visit me and with the knowledge that more are coming it feels like I don’t time enough anymore to just life my relaxed Basque life. There aren’t many weeks left here in which nobody is visiting and I can just hang out with the locals or do things spontaneous. I love all my visitors for coming but at the same I’m looking forward to the day they are leaving because then I can just do my own thing again. That feels really rude and ungrateful to write down because after all they are coming here for me but I will try to explain..When somebody is visiting me then of course I will do my best to show them the most interesting sides of the Country and life in it. I want them to enjoy their little vacation here and in my opinion being a good host is important then. Because it is all new to my Dutch compatriots I’m afraid that they might miss out on very nice things here when I will just drag them into my daily routine. Also I can’t try to improve my Spanish or Basque on the streets because it is impolite to them to speak in a language that they don’t understand. So I automatically adjusted my own days and manners here to theirs while they are visiting and that slows me down a bit in exploring everything during my little four month adventure here. The winter is coming over the Country now, that is really noticeable outside. For sure people will change their daily routines because they can’t be living on the streets all the time like they did the last sunny months. Because I just arrived last September I only know the way of living here while the sun is making it nice and warm outside so being on the streets everyday is a pleasure. Now that it is winter I would love to get to know the way of living during the cold season as well. I can imagine people still meeting on the streets but now for going inside where it is warm and cozy. But I don’t want to just imagine it I want to be a part of it. So I hope that the few personal weeks that I have left here will be enough for that.Next to that I’m far from done with meeting new people here, getting to know what keeps them busy and meeting their families and friends or going to there houses. Traveling around here is a thing I also can’t get enough of because there is still more for me to see and discover in the Basque Country. The same goes for going to the good local fiestas, improving my languages skills in Spanish and in Basque and more. So the feeling about having visitors is a little bit strange and mixed, the only certain thing that I’ve realized now is that I’m all adjusted to a Basque life.

I like it.

A beautiful Basque view

On Saturday evening during a dinner, made by my Slovak, Russian and Italian friend, me and some of my Erasmus friends decided to go walking in the nature on Sunday.So after I made us some lunch on Sunday we took the bus from Arrasate to Oñati because I knew from an earlier walk on Saturday with my Brazilian friend, Taric, that the countryside there is amazing. The walk made us feel so good and relaxed then so we knew that it would do our other friends good as well.At two we arrived in charming little Oñati. We walked past the old monistory, the building of the oldest university in the Basque Country, the big old church and true the small streets. It is because of all these old monumenst that I call it charming little Oñati, I just love them because it feels like you are going back to another century when you are near them.Around three we reached the border of Oñati, the temperature was about twenty-five degrees at that time so it was the perfect moment for a nice walk true the nature.A lot of fields, old farms, stock of cattle and of course beautiful views because we were walking true the mauntains were amazing all of us. Taric was our guide for that day because he had taken the route that we were walking before. Only his earlier walk got an unexpected end because he bumped into a very angry animal that scared the hell out of him and that made him run back home like speedy conzales!Of course all of us were very curious about the animal that made our Brazilian friend run. It was around five when we all walked very cheerfully on a path when Taric suddenly said “This is it, the animal that chased me!”. It turned out to be a ewe, a family of the sheep that little childeren in the Netherlands just love to pet and feed. So we coudn’t help it but we had a good laugh about his pursuer.We decided to walk back because we all were getting al little hungry but before we went back to Oñati we made sure that we had taken enough pictures of the countryside. Around seven we returned at the flat of Taric and Adriana, she is my Mexican friend who is going to spend her chirstmas with me in the Netherlands this year!Starving from our more then three hour walk we digged in to the delicious pasta that Taric prepared for us. That night I had no trouble sleeping after, again, such a nice weekend with my Erasmus family.

A Basque – Dutch life

The Basque way of living is hard to compare with the way of living which I am used to in the Netherlands, the Dutch way of living. Of course there are some comparisons but the differences overrule.

The weather, the dinners, the shopping times, the people, the language, the traffic, the view and of course the costumes of the Basque people aren’t comparable to what we Dutch are used to in our Dutch life.

This week my mother and sister came over from the Netherlands to visit me here in the Basque country. It was very difficult to decide what I wanted to show them because they would only stay for one week. When I finally made up a plan the Basque weather came and made it all fell apart, so the last three days we just went with the moment.

On Monday it was luckily for us twenty-seven degrees in Bilbao, where we started our little trip. Letting them taste some good “pintxos” was the first Basque thing that I would like them to get in touch with. So we went into a nice bar with a terrace. While my mother and I were almost making our mouth water drop by just looking at the “pintxos” I realized that for someone who has a harder time to adept itself to a other way of living, like my sister, that eating “pintxos” is very unknown for a Dutch person. My sister just preferred some quick toast with marmalade and that was enough.

Again the difference was noticeable at night. I had a little bar in mind where they served typically Basque dishes but my sister wasn’t used to the idea of eating in a bar. She expected a big restaurant with a lot of tables full of people eating. Not just two persons behind the bar looking curiously at us three foreigners walking in.

I myself prefer the eating manners here, different tastes of different dishes in one meal and taking the time around the dinner table. In the Netherlands for lunch we just eat a quick sandwich and for dinner that we have around six pm people who just eat typically Dutch eat a piece of meat with some potatoes and vegetables.

My personal opinion of eating traditional Dutch food is that it is just boring to eat. The variations are little. That’s why I am very happy with my mothers love for cooking foreign cuisines. That is also why I wasn’t surprised when she couldn’t get enough of the “pintxos” we ate in “Donostia” at Thursday. By that time my sister had gotten curious to the food here and I was gladly surprised to see here enjoying different “pintxos” in different bars as well.

While we were shopping here this week it was very difficult for us to find something in the right size because we Dutch women are much taller then the average Basque women. This was a bad thing because we saw so many good looking cloths but we could only do with window shopping most of the time. Which was a good thing for the wallet on the other hand of course.

When we were driving here from town to town in our rented car it was a good thing that I picked up some Basque and Spanish during the last two months. We got lost all the time because the roads and way of driving here in the big towns are more chaotic comparing to the Netherlands. I’ve only travelled by bus here so I wasn’t that good of a guide and the people on the streets admitted right away to use their legs most of the time to move around. After the second day we just dropped the car somewhere and travelled in the way that I am used to here, by bus or by foot. I prefer it this way because you can take your time to look around and another good thing is of course that everybody can join in the wine drinking with the “pintxos” and during the lunch or dinner.

To bad for us that it was raining Thursday and Wednesday and that it just was thirteen degrees on Thursday. I actually can’t really complain because all September and October the weather here was very fine, especially comparing to the Netherlands where it is freezing in the nights for some weeks already. It was only that my plan was to show them the charming sunny Basque country, which I was telling them about by phone all the time, and now they just saw the cold Basque country where you have to get inside to notice the good charm of the country by a nice glass of wine.

I was scared of my mother and sister not fitting in to the life I have here because of the country and its manners that is unknown for them and in which communication for them isn’t that easy because they don’t know any Spanish. But my worrying was all for nothing. They just loved the country and its views. They have let the dinners taste very well and they adored being with my new friends here who went into the trouble to just communicate with them in English.

My conclusion is that a Basque – Dutch life is possible but the differences are just very clear when you are trying to mix two lives like I did this week. At this moment I just wish that I didn’t had to say goodbye to my mother and sister this morning because it was starting to get better and better having them here fitted into my Basque life. It isn’t my Dutch life that I miss here, on the contraire because I don’t feel like going back to the Netherlands at all, it are just the Dutch persons that I love which I miss..

Epa, Hola, Hello, Hallo

Four months of my communication study I´m spending in the Basque Country and untill now my experiences here are great. There isn´t a day going by in wich I´m not being amazed by the people, their way of living or just the amazing views of the Country.
At one September I've placed my first footstep in the Basque Country and since that time I've been really busy with discovering it.
I´m a 20 year old girl form Holland and I love spending time in cultures which are different from my own.
For the EITB and at this page I will publish blogs every week about my joys in the Basque Country and I hope that my stories about my experiences in the Basque Country will enjoy you aswell.

At the picture on the left you can see me holding a basket. The name of this basket is similar to my name, Saskia.

Agur, Adios, Goodbye, Tot ziens

Saskia Kamphuis