Many years ago I was in JFK airport waiting for a flight to Madrid. A guy walked up to me and said something like "Erkeetat ruggamerdfriopaoaia." At least, that's how it sounded to me. Turns out, he had sized me up as a fellow Basque and spoken to me in Basque. He was really surprised I wasn't Basque - apparently I look Basque. A couple of years later I was driving with some friends from Madrid to Paris and we made a stop at a gas station in the Basque countryside. The gas station attendant spoke Spanish to my friends, but addressed me in Basque! Last night, on the way to Au Bascou, a Basque restaurant in the 3rd Arondissement in Paris, I told Pingle these stories. She just looked at me like "whatever, silly American."
