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.

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