Wine. In Spain. For lunch.
You know what I can do now?
I can drink during lunchtime. Legally. At school. In the cafeteria.
Jealous much?
Probably very much indeed. Now every Penn student will want to work their way over to Spain for this opportunity. This semester, I’m studying abroad in Madrid, doing all the things you wish you could do.
Be prepared for a rude awakening. Students at my university, ICADE, have a cafeteria complete with a fully functional bar. That’s right — a beer tap and everything.
However, few students utilize this amenity in the capacity that American students might. We can all imagine a Penn student ordering beer after beer before heading off to their afternoon classes totally incapacitated. However, the native Spanish students usually just have a glass of wine to quietly accompany their lunches.
As you may guess, there is a very different attitude toward alcohol here (as opposed to the United States). People young and old take their alcohol as a means of quenching a social thirst rather than fulfilling an undying desire to get smashed.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m sure there are people who drink themselves into an ethanol-induced stupor every night here too. However, university students here do not have the disease which causes Penn students to overdrink, black out, and end up in foreign beds every week.
At night, American students are easily identified — they’re the ones that are drunk out of their minds while the Spaniards sip away at their screwdrivers. Coincidentally, these same Americans are also those that have their belongings stolen right off their backs by the petty thieves of Madrid.
We should view alcohol as a given in our society in the States rather than a vice to covet and indulge in. The Puritanical and other religious views that have been handed down over the generations have outlawed alcohol to some age groups and have not taught young people to use it wisely.
So next time you get into Smokes with your fake, at least give some thought to drinking like a European before getting absolutely wasted.
Besides, it’s cheaper, right?
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