D-I-E Spain

1. Describe:

To be honest, there weren't any situations that made me feel confused, since everybody speaks spanish in the Basque Country. I can say, that what had me quite interested was the basque "Txikiteo" or "Poteo".  I have not seen anything similar elsewhere.

Txikiteo is the act of hopping from bar to bar, and having a couple of Pintxos and a drink, and then move on the next bar. what did get me a little confused once, was that this is done at a great scale on every Thursday; "Pintxo-Pote". The first time, I was wondering why on thursday. Although I do not regret anything, what was whirring in my head was: "how do you do this every thursday and then go to school on friday?"


2. Interpret:

The way I interpreted the fact that "Pintxo-Pote" is done every thursday, is that the students who live in other cities leave every friday bo go back to their homes and their families, so the parties are made on thursday. Although this could be interpreted in many ways, including religious ones, I did not think of any other way to think of this.

But I do have to say that even though I had though a logical explanation, It still was wandering in my mind.

Regarding the bar-hopping, I had no idea. The only thing I thought was that this was merely a cultural thing, and that this is what people are accustomed to.


3. Evaluate:

Once I asked some colleagues why Pintxo-Pote was always on thursday, I confirmed my theory. So, once that happened, I thought that I was quite similar with the student parties here in Finland (although, here they're on Wednesdays). On the next Pintxo-Pote, this was no longer wandering my mind, and everything became normal to me.

Also the bar-hopping is great! You get to know different bars around, and you get to meet great people, as this is one of the biggest things in Basque Country.

I really cannot think of anything negative of these situations, except for the facet that Pintxo-Pote Thursdays can become a little uncomfortable and inconvenient, either because you have something really important to do on the next day, or some other reason.

If I'd have to evaluate this from the Mexican perspective, I'd say both things are a little strange, as usually we never have parties on weekdays, unless it is a national holiday, something really important, or just vacations. And the bar hopping, it isn't weird, as we do something similar, sometimes.

Anyhow, I don't regret anything from my trip. Everything is very interesting, for as weird as it can be.