I still love the Basques

People like to complain about Catalans. The stereotype of their being cold and closed and cheap and obsessed with shit didn't come from nowhere, and the Catalan language can definitely be a complication if you don't speak it. But I don't mind them; I know some wonderful Catalans, and I'm a little cold and closed myself. That said, in case you were wondering, my heart still belongs to the Basques.

I'm eating lunch by myself at this restaurant and the two alternating waiters are great. They're asking me where I'm from (in the "you seem interesting" way, not the "what the fuck are you doing in my country?" way) and what I'm writing about and if I like the food and saying that I speak good Spanish. Then I heard someone refer to one of them as Iñaki and then I remembered the sign outside saying Catalan and Basque food and then I had the giant huge red, white, and green striped lightbulb over my head. I love this restaurant, the food, and all the waitstaff because it's Basque.

I have this colleague who has a wife who plays hockey (as in ice hockey, as in badass) in a mixed gender league (as in super badass if you're a woman), and she's Basque. So many good things turn out to be Basque. Of my few friends here,the one who gets me the most is already sick of hearing me go out on about all things Basque. I just love them.