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Onati, Spain
A little town in Basque Country, once famous for its university, has preserved its 16th century building with its sculptured plateresque facade. It’s wondrous to look at, but could you spend six months living in it?
As the plane descended upon Bilbao Airport in Spain I was having mixed feelings of excitement and nervousness. I wondered if I had made the right choice and what the next six months would hold for me. These were serious concerns considering I had no prior knowledge about the community I was going to be living in. I've made hasty, almost irrational decisions about my travels before, and luckily for me, things always turn out pretty good. I once flipped a coin to decide between traveling to Hong Kong or Sweden for four months. I ended up in Hong Kong and it turned out to be the best trip of my life. I've driven to the airport and bought a one -way ticket at the counter to Las Vegas in order to meet a couple of friends for an evening. I flew back eight hours later with more money than I started with. Those were great moments in my life. Considering the precedence that had been set by my previous travels I shouldn't have been so concerned about my next adventure. But I began to regret my current commitment.
My final destination was Onati, Spain, where I was to get a Masters degree in Sociology of Law. Onati Spain is a place you can't even find on any map sold in the United States. Ironically, the only map that did show the town was the one my University included in my introduction packet. I think there were a total of 20 Google hits when I tried searching for information on Onati online. If anything, I was able to conclude that I was heading to one heck of an obscure place.
We (me and one other fellow classmate) were told a cab would be waiting for us upon our arrival. I was hoping to see the city, lights, people or at least something as we drove away from the airport. But as the airport lights shrunk out of view we were wrapped in nothing but darkness and rain. Nothing was visible but solid black masses that were mountain faces. We had been carving our way up and around the mountains for about an hour before we saw any sign of civilization. Finally, we saw a street sign signaling that Onati was eight km away. My home for the next six months was caught in between some pretty impressive mountainsides.
As we arrived at our residence some of my original excitement I had about studying abroad again, returned. Our residence was a huge mansion that I later learned was donated to the school from an old nobleman. The door was a huge, wood and iron clad behemoth that led into a very impressive entry way- chandelier, staircase and all. Beautiful polished wooden floors, 22 bedrooms, various meeting rooms, fireplaces, a pool table, and a TV room in a medieval setting just about captures the grandeur of the place. Unfortunately the home's grand style birthed resentment amongst the townspeople who hated the idea of having foreigners living in one of their historic buildings.
Onati is a small industrial town in which most the people either work for one of the factories around or provide services to the factory workers and their families. These factories are like organizations that people are members of. All the workers own a share of the company, which has established a safety net of job security for the community. Very socialist but at the same time very nice, since this makes the community very close knit. The people in the town, I would learn, are not very open to strangers, foreigners, or things different than their own. They have their set lifestyle, think it's the best, and will let you know it too. The town has only 7,000 residents, so when 23 foreign students come in, everyone in town knows about it.
Walking to school was one of the most excruciating experiences as the townspeople stared as we passed by. They wouldn't even try to hide it or be polite or discrete about staring either. They analyzed us as if we were a different species or had blue skin. From our mansion, we could hear yelling in the middle of the night and often, found graffiti directed towards us by the locals. It was their way of displaying their animosity.
Usually, one of the great things about living abroad for along period of time is that you develop a sense of belonging in the place you're at. This never occurred in Onati. At every restaurant, bar, or shop we were outsiders and were reminded that we were. A couple locals did open up to us but most of them were South American immigrants who were left out regular society just as we were. There were only a few native Onati residents who gave us the chance. This was partly because they had been to the United States before, Boise, Idaho to be exact. They traveled there to perform some native Basque dance and upon returning, opened a bar in town they called Boise Bar, a place we would make our own with time.
The people of Onati are very nationalistic and proud. This requires some explanation because it is not Spain they are proud of but Euskadi (the Basque Country). The people of Euskadi speak their own language (sounds like a mixture of Finnish and caveman tongue) and have their own culture and history. They have fought a long struggle to be independent of Spain and live in a state of quasi-autonomy. They tax, police, educate, and care for their own and only owe the Spanish national government a percentage of tax revenue for foreign affairs, national security and welfare. In the Basque country you don't even have to learn Spanish since the schools can teach children on one of three education tracts: in all Euskadi, all Spanish, or a combination of both. Most parts of the Basque country have accepted their fate as a Spanish sub-state but not in Onati. Onati has a thriving separatist movement with political propaganda all over the walls and a high ratio of ETA loyalists amongst its residents (ETA is a violent separatist group classified as terrorists by Spain and responsible for many bombings of Spanish buildings and deaths).
This movement is real and the violence is quite a reality. My roommate and I encountered a group of them while returning from a late workout. We noticed a group of 75 to 100 young adults chanting and hollering at a police formation made up of about 30 officers in riot gear, shields and batons. All of a sudden an officer from the rear fired a shotgun round that exploded like firework over the chanting crowd and the police charged. Everyone, including bystanders, started running away, hoping not to be caught in the violence that was to unfold. Fortunately my roommate and I made it home to find out that what we had just witnessed was a separatist demonstration in front of the Spanish government consulate building.
Onati, as I have portrayed it, does not seem very appealing for a study abroad destination. It is out of the way, hard to find, small and conservative and has no nightlife. Living there is quite a unique experience for sure. The people that do open up to you will blow you away with their stories and knowledge. They will take you into their home for some traditional Basque food and show you great hiking trails through the mountains. You can also find natural hot springs all over the forest.
In my opinion it’s probably not worth living six months there. But you should swing by the many obscure Basque mountains towns because they are so disconnected from the realities of the real world that we are familiar with. So, for the ultimate escape, Onati is definitely your destination.
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