I first met Jess Soodeen in Azkoitia’s noisy(-est) bar Dean one night, where she’s become a regular face. Shouting into her ear, I wanted to know what brought her to a small town like Azkoitia. (Answer: a one-year Masters in Motorsport Engineering with local race car team, Epsilon Euskadi). My second question was, what on earth was keeping her here: “I love it!” she declared. And it wasn’t the drink talking – she’d just come off stage after gigging in the town’s main square with local veteran group Dirección Obligatoria.

For those who don’t know, Azkoitia is a Basque town of around 10,000 inhabitants situated within the Urola Valley near the heart of Gipuzkoa. By their own admission Basques take a while opening up to outsiders and in few places is this more evident than in Azkoitia.

But Jess is unphased: “I walk down the street and people say hello to me,” she says cheerily.

Aside from her integration into Dirección Obligatoria, Jess confesses to having three ‘cuadrillas’ (notoriously tight-knit friendship groups, typical in the Basque Country) and since her time spent in Azkoitia learning Spanish, has also managed a fair amount of ‘Azkoitiarra’ (a local dialect of the Basque language Euskera).

It is perhaps no coincidence that most Basque Country Live interviewees commonly share a culturally diverse background, and Jess is no exception,  starting with her surname: ‘Basically, a few centuries back a man who they named Soodeen jumped on a boat in Calcutta bound for Trinidad,’ she explains. At another time and place, meanwhile, a man named O’Leary (an ancestor of her mother) made a similar journey to the island the Irish called Talamh an Éisc, “land of the fish”, or Newfoundland, a large land mass off the east coast of Canada with strong historic ties to the Basque Country, based on whaling and cod fishing: “When I found out about the course in the Basque Country I said ‘I’m going there’; I grew up hearing about the Basques.”

And so to Euskadi…

Jess jumped on a plane bound for Valencia armed barely with a word of Spanish. But then, with a career spent both working and racing on the motortrack, she has had to be ballsy. It is an environment that requires tough decisions and quick thinking: “As a woman in the field, you have to earn respect and the fact that I’m not only a motorcycle racer, but also the mechanic of my own bike… these things work in my favour”.

Jess’s interest in motors goes back to 1999 when a group of mates “rigged it” for her to win bike lessons. She started racing in 2003 and by 2004 was only riding circuits. In 2005 she bought a Yamaha TZ 125 GP bike all the way from New Zealand and began tinkering. A degree in mechanical and a masters in motorsports engineering is, says Jess, “fine and dandy,” but it was hands on recognition that she needed, which is why she rebuilt her own motor: “I bought the bike to learn mechanics and this way gain respect for my ambitions as a circuit engineer”.  So why the switch to cars? “When I found the course in the Basque Country I realised that having education in cars as well would benefit my motorsports career in general in Europe.”

Not that that was the only factor that drew her our way: “I was fascinated by the Basque Country because of its history with Newfoundland,” says Jess. “I researched Azkoitia before I came; I had a picture of the indoor market on my computer screen for six months before I got here.

“Between the ages of 9 and 10 I lived in Libya. The rest of the time I lived in Calgary (a city of just over a million inhabitants) but all my summers were spent in Newfoundland.” Though essentially a city girl, Jess confesses to being something of a provincial soul. Something to do with all those long summers?

“Absolutely. The largest town in Newfoundland (capital San Juan de Terranova) has 100,000 inhabitants. That’s about the size of Vitoria.” To give  you an idea of the depth of the history between Euskadi and Newfoundland, thirteen of the Canadian island ports have Basque names, including Baya Ederra (Beautiful Bay) Port aux Basques and Balea Baya ,Whale Bay. (Basque whalers were recently cleared of having caused the extinction of the species off Newfoundland’s famous Labrador Bay).

Future prospects

With all these things in mind, you get the sense that Jess has discovered her spiritual home, the addition of Epsilon Euskadi (recently moved to Vitoria-Gasteiz), satisfying another important part of her ambition – working in motorsports – a dream she’s close to fulfilling:

“After completing my masters in 2008 I stayed one year more as an internship student doing race engineering with Epsilon Euskadi. Then they offered me a contract to start work this year. On 23rd December I found out they couldn’t give me the job.” (Current Government policy is to give preference to home-grown candidates where possible).

“Obviously because of the current employment situation I understand why they did it, but it was a massive blow.”

Despite this setback, she remains positive and intensely fond of her adopted hometown. On the job front, things are looking up as well: “With the contacts that I managed to make during my time spent at the circuits I have managed to find some contract work with another team based in Switzerland, racing in German, French, and Italian circuits. It’s still not full time work, but my dream of a house in the mountains and only working in circuits is on its way.”

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So says University Lecturer at HUHEZI (Faculty of Humanities and Education) and Erasmus student coordinator, Julia Barnes. Born near Bristol, with her formative years spent in New Zealand, Julia talks to EITB about learning Basque, teaching English and rubbing shoulders with some of Spain’s most famous stars.

You are teaching on a course to Basque students called “Education in Europe and the Global World: Good practice” and all your teaching is in English. Tell us what that entails.

Julia Barnes: It’s a four-year teaching degree for students specializing in various subjects. We don’t actually teach English as such; what we try to do is activate the English the students have been learning since school; we teach topics such as Europe, Education in Wales, Christmas across Europe – all through the medium of English. So essentially they learn English by learning how to learn things in English!

In the third year some students do a two-month teaching practice in Welsh-speaking schools in North Wales and it’s very successful. Although sometimes it’s difficult because they don’t understand all the Welsh, it really gives them an opportunity to compare what happens in Wales with what happens here.

What are some of the key things about teaching people how to teach a second or third language?

Julia Barnes: If you can understand how you learned your first language or languages you’re halfway there. To the people here who are bilingual anyway, it makes sense to them.

You based your PhD on trilingualism, specifically your own children’s – How do you see the possibility of a trilingual Basque Country over the next couple of decades?

Julia Barnes: It’s perfectly possible to do. As soon as people here start being more exposed to English it will just take off. At the moment we’ve got a situation where we’re giving children exposure to English at an early age, but for a short time plus the teaching they’re exposed to is not always ideal as most nursery English teachers haven’t trained to teach English. A new degree we are giving in HUHEZI now will actually train people to be language teachers in infant education.

Tell us what first brought you to the Iberian Peninsular.

Julia Barnes: After A levels ( Bachiller), two friends and I decided to spend a year abroad so we went to Madrid; they came back and I stayed for four years teaching English. Around the same time Franco died: I remember people celebrating all the time. I got involved in the ‘movida madrileña’ and met people like (popular Spanish groups) Burning and Alaska. During the day I worked as an English teacher. But I don’t think I realized at the time just how exciting it was because everything was exciting to me then – I was 18 and I’d just left home.

You’ve lived in England, New Zealand, Madrid and here: What are the main differences between these cultures?

Julia: I tend to think I ended up here because NZ gave me a more relaxed view of life than England: Open air, love of the outside, the beach, the sea and the mountains. I was young at the time, but I have memories of doing things outside. England is more of an inside culture.

When did your Basque adventure start?

Julia: I started learning the language before I had any plans to come here. I was fascinated by it. As part of my studies at university I had to take an exotic language so I chose Basque! Then after passing my PGCE (British teaching certificate) I started working for Eurocentres who had a project with the cooperatives of Mondragon to bring teachers from England to teach English to their employees; I was part of that. I met my husband through it and ended up staying.

What needs to change to improve the possibilities of us becoming tri-lingual?

JB: I think it’s very important for people to realize that all three languages are to be equally valued for different reasons. At the moment, three languages are vying for space, but we’re certainly getting there.

So is there going to be a new generation of fluent English-speaking Basque people in the next ten or fifteen years?

JB: I think so; we are already seeing a huge improvement in the quality of English that students bring to their university studies as a result of the early English programmes, taught in the Basque Country since the nineties. On the other hand, we’re still dealing with Franco’s educational legacy and a generation of teachers educating in a very traditional way, especially in Secondary which is like the last bastion, although teachers are finally in there doing content-based teaching through a foreign language. Once the new multilingual teachers we train enter education I think we’re really going to start seeing a difference, but it’s not quite there yet.

So says University Lecturer at HUHEZI (Faculty of Humanities and Education) and Erasmus student coordinator Julia Barnes. Born near Bristol, with her formative years spent in New Zealand, Julia talks to EITB about learning Basque, teaching English and rubbing shoulders with some of Spain’s most famous stars.  

You are teaching on a course to Basque students called “Education in Europe and the Global World: Good practice" and all your teaching is in English. Tell us what that entails.

It’s a four-year teaching degree for students specializing in various subjects. We don’t actually teach English as such; what we try to do is activate the English the students have been learning since school; we teach topics such as Europe, Education in Wales, Christmas across Europe - all through the medium of English. So essentially they learn English by learning how to learn things in English!

In the third year some students to do a two-month teaching practice in Welsh-speaking schools in North Wales and it’s very successful. Although sometimes it’s difficult because they don’t understand all the Welsh, it really gives them an opportunity to compare what happens in Wales with what happens here. 

What are some of the key things about teaching people how to teach a second or third language?

If you can understand how you learned your first language or languages you’re halfway there. To the people here who are bilingual anyway, it makes sense to them.

You based your PhD on trilingualism, specifically your own children’s – How do you see the possibility of a trilingual Basque Country over the next couple of decades? 

It’s perfectly possible to do. As soon as people here start being more exposed to English it will just take off. At the moment we’ve got a situation where we’re giving children exposure to English at an early age, but for a short time plus the teaching they’re exposed to is not always ideal as most nursery English teachers haven’t trained to teach English. A new degree we are giving in HUHEZI now will actually train people to be language teachers in infant education.

Tell us what first brought you to the Iberian Peninsular

After A levels ( Bachiller) , two friends and I decided to spend a year abroad so we went to Madrid; they came back and I stayed for four years teaching English. Around the same time Franco died: I remember people celebrating all the time. I got involved in the ‘movida madrileña’ and met people like (popular Spanish groups) Burning and Alaska. During the day I worked as an English teacher. But I don’t think I realized at the time just how exciting it was because everything was exciting to me then – I was 18 and I’d just left home. 

You’ve lived in England, New Zealand, Madrid and here: What are the main differences between these cultures?

I tend to think I ended up here because NZ gave me a more relaxed view of life than England: Open air, love of the outside, the beach, the sea and the mountains. I was young at the time, but I have memories of doing things outside. England is more of an inside culture. 

When did your Basque adventure start?

I started learning the language before I had any plans to come here. I was fascinated by it. As part of my studies at university I had to take an exotic language so I chose Basque! Then after passing my PGCE (British teaching certificate) I started working for Eurocentres who had a project with the cooperatives of Mondragon to bring teachers from England to teach English to their employees; I was part of that. I met my husband through it and ended up staying.

What needs to change to improve the possibilities of us becoming tri-lingual?

I think it’s very important for people to realize that all three languages are to be equally valued for different reasons. At the moment, three languages are vying for space, but we’re certainly getting there. 

So is there going to be a new generation of fluent English-speaking Basque people in the next ten or fifteen years?

I think so; we are already seeing a huge improvement in the quality of English that students bring to their university studies as a result of the early English programmes, taught in the Basque Country since the nineties. On the other hand, we’re still dealing with Franco’s educational legacy and a generation of teachers educating in a very traditional way, especially in Secondary which is like the last bastion, although teachers are finally in there doing content-based teaching through a foreign language. Once the new multilingual teachers we train enter education I think we’re really going to start seeing a difference, but it’s not quite there yet.

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I had to write you today because seeing the sun come out again, after the past weeks of rain, rain and more rain, has made me incredibly happy. Good timing too, since I had to do a photography project for school today and a lot of the locations were outside.

We’re spoiled Erasmus students. Coming to one of the rainiest parts of Spain and still enjoying sunny, 23-degrees days in the midst of November, we must be very lucky. But it recharges our batteries alright.

After the sudden downpours of the last weeks, three of us had gotten sick and spent a large part of the week in bed, shivering under our blankets. But today was magnificent. Niké, Morten and I even walked from Eskoriatza to Aretxabaleta today, enjoying the sun and especially the drought.

Niké and Morten, walking from Eskoriatza to Aretxabaleta. © SaJeh

On Wednesday evening, one of my best friends from Belgium, Zahra, arrives in Santander. I will go pick her up in Bilbao on Thursday morning and since the weather will probably stay pretty good this week, we can take a trip to Donostia. Friday evening Niké, Zahra and I have plans to go to a festival in Bilbao with concerts of Atlas Sound and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. I’m thinking about doing a radio feature on the event, as an assignment for our school in Belgium.

To conclude, some of the pictures I took for our photographic novel. As you can see, we had fun!

Morten, Evelien, Jorge and Niké by the river in Eskoriatza. © SaJeh

Morten, Evelien and Jorge 'acting' . © SaJeh

Jorge, playing dead! © SaJeh

Talk soon, agur!

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Almost November 1th, and the weather is still amazing here. “The Basque Country? What the hell, that’s even more rain than in Belgium!”

I’m writing this post outside –using someone else his WIFI – but okay, doing a bad thing, but none the less, now I’m enjoying the sunset in Bergara, having a nice view on the town square where everybody is relishing the nice temperatures. The kids are playing football –and making a lot of noise – the parents talking to each other and sharing a couple of drinks. Southern mentality, I’ll never get tired of that.

Upcoming temperatures. Damn Sunday.

The end of October, but we can go to school in shorts, t-shirt and sunglasses. It feels like a big summer revival. Even at school that summer feelings sticks around for a while.

School building in Eskoriatza.

In the beginning of my Erasmus story, the four of us thought that we would have classes in Mondragon, our mistake it seemed, Eskoriatza it was. Instead of a fifteen minutes drive to school, we had to double that figure. Half an hour on a bus to go to class, it was something different that I was used to. Back home it was a five minute walk, so I wasn’t looking forward to that commuting thing.

Quarter of an hour more, but for those fifteen minutes we get a really nice authentic school building that definitely is worth that time. It radiates some sort of rare peace. When the sun shines on the inner, you would sometimes even forget that it’s actually a faculty.

Post-summer days, let them come. It makes everybody more happy and cheerful.

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This weekend I had two guests in the Basque Country! Sander and Davy came to visit me. After we spent an evening and night in Bilbao, we visited San Sebastian.

After a not so good night of sleep (try falling asleep in a bunk bed when you feel every single move of the person who’s lying beneath you), the three of us headed off to San Sebastian. While sitting in the bus, my two guests couldn’t stop saying how much they love the environment of the Basque Country, and when we eventually arrived at the Kontxa beach, their amazement grew even bigger.

Swimming

Even though it was only 15° that day, the boys were determined to go swimming. Because they forgot their swimming trunks, they put on two pairs of underwear to go into the water. I decided to stay on the beach and watch them acting silly in the water.

Davy and Sander in San Sebastian

After they got out the sea, we went for some very good ice cream and strolled around in the old part of the city, which Sander and Davy also loved. They bought some cards to send to their families, and around 6 PM we took the bus back to Bergara, because we had a party to attend that night!

Party in Eskoriatza

Nathalie and Dexter, two Dutch Erasmusstudents who study Education, threw a party in their hometown Eskoriatza, and off course we couldn’t miss that! Nathalie also invited her two sisters, so their apartment was very crowded yet very cozy! My two guest got along very well with my new Erasmusfriends, so that made me very happy.

The party at the apartment of Dexter and Nathalie

Around midnight all of us went to some bars, because we didn’t want to disturb the sleep of Nathalie and Dexter’s neighbors. I thought there wouldn’t be much nightlife in such a tiny town like Eskoriatza, but I was proven wrong! We found two nice cafes on the town square where we all kept on partying until the morning.

Sander and Davy had to take the bus at 11 AM from Bergara back to Bilbao, and although I had put my alarm clock so I could say goodbye, I woke up in the afternoon and they had already left. Alas! But they left me a sweet note to say they had a lot of fun. And so did I!

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On Saturday, a bunch of Northern European friends joined us in exploring the night life of Eskoriatza. Dexter & Nathalie, two Dutch Erasmus friends, organized a party at their place in Eskoriatza. We take turns on hosting parties so that everyone can show his respective home whether it’s in Bergara, Arrasate, Aretxabaleta or Eskoriatza.

Ambiance

A lot of people showed up and although all of our apartments are relatively small, a crowded living room with drinks, food and music has it’s charm. There were some new visitors (Nathalie’s sisters, some friends of Niké, …) and we got acquainted. After a few drinks we bypassed the usual small talk and the ambiance started to outgrow the apartment.

The gang at an Eskoriatzan bar

Most Basque bars are small, and every town’s got tons of ‘em. They all look a lot a like so we kind of randomly picked out a bar on the town square. Most of the music played in bars here isn’t my thing. Although, I was pleasantly surprised entering this one. Very good music and real nice people. +1 for Eskoriatza!

As the night continued with more drinks, dancing and laughing, we went on to another bar. No city, town or village lets you down on Saturday night, while almost every bar stays open till the small hours… Other persons’ memories may vary from this point on; I on the other hand stayed my responsible self, drinking in moderation ; )

After we got home, the only thing left to do was to get some sleep and to hope the pictures wouldn’t turn out that bad the next day. Vain hope…

Agur!

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An easy stay at home Friday night, so we had to make up for it the next day. Dutch Erasmus Education student Nathalie’s sisters were in town, so what comes before part B? Part-A!

Gathering at Nathalie's place © E. Schroyen

This weekend was apparently ‘invite your friends over’ – weekend. Niké had two visitors from Belgium, Tiina was reunited with her Finish fiancée and Nathalie invited her sisters to spend some quality time with her in the Basque Country.

We went to Eskoriatza to meet up with the others in the apartment of Dexter and Nathalie. It was a lot of fun to chit-chat with new people. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not tired of the other Erasmus students, but it’s always nice to see some new faces.

After a couple of beers the volume kept rising, so Nathalie thought it would be better for them, the neighbours and our own well-being to visit the local bar in Eskoriatza.  They still have to live there for two months, so no need to have upset neighbours.

Eskoriatza, not the biggest place in the world, but last Saturday night it certainly wasn’t just a ‘middle of the road’‘ town. Some say that Eskoriatza is a really boring place. Well, not everybody has to share the same opinion I suppose.

Local barbershop

Although so many things have changed in the last two months, there are always some points that will never change. We all need our beverages, we still have to buy clothes and our hair will keep growing.

You can delay it as long as you want, but in the end you just have to pay the hairdresser a visit.

I normally even have trouble explaining what he or she has to do with my hair in Dutch, so now that I have to talk Spanish – I don’t even bother to ask if they speak English – that promised to be a lot of fun.

In advance I translated some standard sentences; you never know that it might be helpful. Lost effort it seems, I clearly have to work on my pronunciation.

Back to the good old hand gestures; pointing at a picture of some kind of model/actor and she basically knew that she just had to cut it ‘corto’. So no Basque mullet for this guy, even if she asked it a couple of times.

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My first Belgian visitors are on their way! No friends or parents yet, no, it are my 80-year-old grandparents that have jumped in their car and have driven all the way from Belgium to here.

A plea of insanity maybe? They have called me today and they are staying somewhere close to Biarritz at the moment. Tomorrow they will take the final drive up here, so this week I will probably be the most spoiled Erasmus student ever. Gotta love those grandparents!

I’m quite excited about their arrival, even cleaned the apartment just so it at least seems that we are living somewhat responsibly. I suppose that my blogging habits will therefore be a bit less extensive in the upcoming days. I’d like to spend some time with them and still get my schoolwork done (it’s piling up).

More visits
In the previous weekend we also had some Belgian visitors. Sander, a very good friend of Niké, and his friend Davy arrived in Bilbao on Friday. They stayed there for the night, but joined us to an Erasmus party in Eskoriatza on Saturday evening and thus they stayed at our place for one night. Our apartment got very crowded all of the sudden, but it was a lot of fun to have them around!

Erasmus gathering in Eskoriatza, with two Belgian visitors present: Davy & Sander (both in gray T-shirt). ©Sajeh

I don’t have many other things to tell you about the last few days. You’re probably sick of party reports and well, I didn’t do that much else this weekend. About the short film course, I seriously doubt if I will continue. Not that I don’t want to learn or don’t find it interesting, but I will just be there for two hours every week listening to instructions in Basque that I won’t understand. There are more useful things to spend your money on…

Anyway, I’ll let you know how the reunion with the grandparents went!

Agur!

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Today we gathered around in the lovely chapel of the faculty of our university in Eskoriatza to meet the other Erasmusstudents. Those are the ones who study at the faculty of Oñati and Mondragon.

It was a lot of fun to meet some new faces who are experiencing the same thing you do. In ht chapel we first got a general introduction, and afterwards we did some sort of speeddating. In that way we could get to know everybody a little bit. In the beginning it was quite uncomfortable, because I think social interactions are better when they are spontaneous instead of nearly forced upon you. But after I put my skepticism on the side, I actually chatted with some nice people whom I have a lot of things in common with. Hopefully we’ll see them all on Maritxu, a big event in Mondragon on Friday which I’m really looking forward to!

In our smaller Erasmusgroup from the HUHEZI-faculty, 75 percent is Belgian or Dutch, so it was refreshing to meet some people who are from France (a good opportunity to practice my French!), Italy, Poland and even Mexico. It really made me feel like an Erasmusstudent, and I loved it!

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After two months of studying and travelling in the Basque Country, I have to say that the studying part isn’t so bad at all. Granted, I’m not that much of a study type, which means that sometimes there’s secundary things I would care more about than on the actual content. Well, I happen to be studying in an aboslutely awesome faculty, one in the small town of Eskoriatza. At least two ceinturies ago, it was used as a hospital and a convent znd it still kept a bit of that atmosphere. This makes it easy to imagine yourself, walking around back in the days with your books, studying theology, Latin or medicines…

However, another town, about twenty kilometres up north, has an even more stunning one. Onati has the oldest University of the Basque Country. Walking there didn’t just give you the idea of walking around 300 years ago, I think we actually were! All these details they used in the architecture and design are simlpy incredible.

Now I really don’t feel like returning to my study factory like university in Holland!

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