Euskolegas

I hardly ever talk about the TV shows I watch because a. I really don't think anyone cares, b. fandom has never been my thing, regardless of how hard I've tried, and c. I don't really care if people know what shows I watch or don't watch.

Except in some instances where I will talk about my shows, because I'm pretty sure that no one else in my circles watches them for no other reason that they've most likely never heard of them.  This is one of those instances.

The screencap on the top of this entry is from a TV show called Euskolegas, which aired for two season on ETB2 in the Basque Country in Spain from 2009 to 2010.  It started as a series of skits on Vaya Semanita, also on ETB2, and became a full-length sitcom in 2009.  It revolves around Álex, Pruden and Patxi, three friends who live in an apartment in Indautxu, a district in central Bilbao who come from different parts of the Basque Country --Pruden is from Vitoria, the capital, Álex is from Donosti (San Sebastián), and Patxi from Bilbao.  A girl named Leire moves in across the hall from a small town in Navarra, and shenanigans ensue.

One of the main reasons I love this show is because nearly 80% of the dialog consists of Basque cultural references.  Characters call each other "ama" and "aita" (Basque for "mom" and "dad"), they say good-bye with a quick "agur", nearly everyone has a Basque name or a Basque-ized version of their Spanish name ("Patxi" is the Basque version of "Paco", short for "Francisco", and another character is "Juan César", nicknamed "Xixario"), and there are references to places that no one outside the Basque Country has any clue exists.  San Sebastián is always called "Donosti" like it is up there...among many, many other things.

This show keeps me in touch with my "Basque" side, the culture I made my own for two-and-a-half years and that, eleven-and-a-half years after moving away, I still can't shake.  Every time I pull a marathon I'm reminded of how "Basque" I actually am.  I get all the cultural references, the slang, everything makes sense.  I find all the references funny.  I look at the scene-split shots of Bilbao and it reminds me of home.  There's one moment where one of the characters says to her father "Aita, si tú te pierdes en Barakaldo, ¿cómo piensas ir a París?"  (Dad, if you get lost in Barakaldo, how do you think you're going to go to Paris?) and I crack up because I've been to Barakaldo and I know how much people who are not from any particular city in the Basque Country complain about not knowing where anything is.  There are jokes and digs at Donosti (Bilbao and Donosti have an almost amusing rivalry.  I am forever team!Bilbo.), Vitoria, and Navarra.  Even the interior design of the houses is so totally Basque that it makes me want to do some of my own redecorating.

Just about everything about this show makes me nostalgic for the "innocent" time in my life when my family lived in the Basque Country.  It makes me feel like I'm back there again, it gives me the chance to relive everything I felt when I lived there, even though I was nearly 15 when we left and all the characters are over 25.  The culture is still the same, and it's like having a little piece of home with me.

If anyone's interested in watching it (in Spanish), it's up at ETB's webpage here.  I would also suggest Vaya Semanita to get a humorous perspective of Basque culture (only on ETB and on VS can they make fun of ETA and get away with it...barely) in the form of five-minute sketches all revolving around live in Euskal Herria.