Hospitalidad

One thing I will miss about Spain is how hospitable and welcoming the people are. Despite being eight and a half months pregnant and currently on maternity leave, one of the English teachers still managed to take me and some friends on a mini tour to see even more of the Basque country. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great so while she was describing and showing us the beautiful countryside we couldn't appreciate it as much when we were freezing cold, wet, and spent most of the time trying to avoid puddles (although my efforts were unsuccessful). I definitely didn’t imagine that I’d still be wearing my coat in Spain in MAY!

Because of the weather we had to alter our tour slightly to include visiting lots of different Basque bars, and we even ended up at a huge shopping centre just outside of Bilbao - how I’ve not been there before I do not know. However, one of the strangest moments of the day was walking into a church as a wedding was taking place in Leketio and standing at the back with the other uninvited spectators, as if watching a wedding was a normal pastime. Me and my friends all stood very awkwardly trying not to laugh, while Jone couldn’t understand why we weren’t comfortable crashing a wedding ceremony. Although I clearly didn't feel too awkward to take a discrete picture.

On the subject of hospitality, a few weekends ago my friend Laura and I were invited to have lunch with one of the teachers at her school who first took us to a bar, and then fed us a 5 course lunch before taking us to the beach. This was especially lovely considering I'd only met her once before. Everyone here has wanted us to feel as at home as possible, our landlady who we rarely see even gave us Christmas presents, and Silvana calls herself my Spanish mum. I'll definitely be sad to leave all the amazing people I've met this year!