The old Basque man in his Basque hat is still drinking wine for breakfast at Bar Jamon every morning. Not that his Basqueness was ever in doubt (and I would like him and his hat and his wine even if he weren't Basque), but I also noticed that he has longish earlobes. This one book I read about Basques says that they have long earlobes, so now I'm going around checking out everyone's ears. They're not goofily big or anything, but once you start looking you notice that some earlobes here are biggish, and the bigger ones often go with a long straight nose which is apparently another Basque trait. It's sort of a fun game to play. Well, fun for me, anyway.
Basques are very Catholic, although as far as I can tell they're not very uptight about it, and they are apparently more socially conservative than Spanish people. If you ask me, they hide it pretty well. Anyway, someone was telling me that couples here pair up early and mostly stay together, and that Basque boys are shy, and that if a woman here goes to a bar by herself people will probably think she's a whore (as in an actual prostitute). I.e., maybe the Basque country isn't the most perfect place in the whole world. It was a nice silly idealization while it lasted.
"So if I moved here, with my 33 years," I asked, "would I stay single forever?"
"Well, things are changing. You could probably find someone, but he'd probably be a lot younger."
Ridiculous idealization restored.
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