I'm gonna go ahead and say I've officially spent my first week in the Basque Country. So much has happened in such a short time, and is still yet to happen, that it feels like so much longer.

Where to start? The people here are incredible. Anyone who puts in the effort to speak to someone in English, or at least attempts to, is a champion in my books. I know this because speaking to people in Spanish is still something I'm not really comfortable with. I'm starting to understand more (poco a poco), but am also living in an area that speaks predominantly Basque, so there's a lot going on. For all you other language nerds out there, the text books weren't lying when they said a large chunk of communication happens without speaking.

Anyway, back to the Basques. For whatever reason, they're perceived as being 'closed' people, but I can't say I've experienced anything like that. I've been here a week and today is the first time I've spent a single Euro, which was to catch the bus and the metro (underground). Whenever I go into a bar with someone and have a drink and a pintxo (snack), someone else ends up paying and any attempts to return the favour are met with 'no, te tranquilo' (relax, don't worry, etc.). I'd go so far as to say it's almost rude to try and pay for yourself or your host, but I'm still not 100% what the polite thing is to do in the face of such hospitality.

Again, I'm having a wonderful experience with the family who has taken me in for the time being. An attempt to pay for groceries was met with refusal, and as I'm living out in the country, both the mother and father I'm staying with have gone to great lengths to cart me around when needed. Similarly, another teacher took me around a local festival (everyone was dressed in traditional Basque attire) then dropped me home when the jet lag kicked in and my face went 50 shades of pale. It feels like nothing is too much of an ask, and even I'm starting to feel a bit uncomfortable wondering if there is some sort of limit on this kindness?!?

And I suppose when I say kindness, I mean food. The cleaner from my school baked me a cake the day she met me, and has since invited me for a meal at her house (I think!) and yesterday I went with another teacher around her town, where she cooked me lunch and showed around the sights. I can't remember the name of the town (having a bit of trouble, there are so many splattered around nearby), but the San Ignacio, the founder of the Jesuits was from there. We went to a church built in honour of this, which started its construction in the early 1600s. Hard to comprehend something so gorgeous, especially when you consider it's 200 years older than post-European New Zealand.

After that I had a couple of beers with the teacher, Elena, and we ran in to some of her friends. Of course, instantly they're buying me another beer, offering me a cigarette and asking if I want a pintxo.

What else? Well, the past two days I've had kind of meetings with other language assistants in two of the cities in El Pais Vasco, Bilbo and Vitoria. It's certainly been good to see that a lot of people are in the same boat Spanish wise, although there's always going to be a couple of BVs/blowasses who have to go and show off in front of everyone else. JK, just kidding. If I could talk as well as the handful of other assistants nailing it, then I would. But instead I just sit and nod, 'bai', 'bai', 'bai' (yes, yes, yes in Basque).

Was doing wonderfully well at mastering my first experience with Basque public transport when I made a balls up at the final hurdle. Taking the wrong exit out of the underground, I popped out on the street as opposed to the bus station. Do you think I could get back to where I was without having to pay or an imaginary train I wasn't going on? No. So, I proceed to put 1.50 worth of euros into a slot for a student card (never getting that money back, fyi) before realising you can only pay in notes. Needless to say I now have about 30 euro worth of coinage in my wallet after splitting two 20 euros. Ai ene (oh my God)! The good news is I'm not still in Bilbo, lost somewhere.

In regard to the political side of things here, it is a very political area. If anybody's actually reading this, you've probably realised I'm referring to it as the Basque Country and not Spain. Especially in my area the people feel Basque, speak Basque and consider themselves as Basque. Eighteen men have just been taken by the police here, I'm not 100% sure what the story is, but as much as I can gather, this is because of them belonging to a group wanting independence from Spain (not ETA). I can't see that there's anything wrong with that, but don't know much more than that other than that there was a demonstration in the town I was in yesterday (which I didn't witness) and will be another one tomorrow in Bilbo.

Another interesting thing today was in Eibar, the town I bused to Bilbo from, the town hall still had gun holes in it from during the Spanish Civil War. Crazy, interesting, whatever. Didn't have time to explore because it was pitch black and I had to catch the bus, was just told this by the lady I'm staying with and could obviously see the holes with my own eyes.

No doubt I've either just bored myself s***less or someone else, but I'll try and update this as much as possible for anyone who is reading.