where the beer chases my blues away...

I spent the majority of my Tuesday this week at the radiology clinic/hospital, despite the fact that I was only in the presence of medical professionals for a total of about 20 minutes. You see, the bus schedules are just crazy. They only go to the hospital once an hour, which means, when I finished talking to the doctor 5 minutes after I got there, I had a nice 55 minute wait ahead of me. And I had to do this twice in one day, because the first time I went, the doctor wasn't even in. Sooo exciting. But at least I was able to finish a book that I had been reading.

But this post isn't about hospitals or waiting, or even about books. It's about what I encountered during my wait. Oh, and PS. I am fine. I'm not even sick. I was sick, about 2 months ago, and we're just now getting around to making sure everything is okay. And it appears that everything is, in fact, okay.

So anyway, what did I encounter?

Well, during my wait, and since I had to forgo breakfast before my stomach x-ray, I decided to grab a bocadillo in the hospital cafeteria. It was nothing special. Just you're typical, run of the mill, hospital cafeteria -- except for one thing: BEER. Yes, my friends. They do indeed serve beer in the hospital cafeteria. Which means that I have to add this to my list of craziest places to find beer in Spain.

CRAZIEST PLACES TO FIND BEER IN SPAIN
1. Any store that sells food/refreshments is likely to sell beer (which isn't really all that strange, unless you were born and raised in Pennsylvania, (and I was) -- where beer only comes from a distributor, and liquor only comes from the "state store")
2. The library cafeteria. (What?)
3. McDonalds (I mean, really?)
4. Teachers' lounge of an elementary school (in the shared community refrigerator... fortunately it isn't for sale in the cafeteria) (this witnessed by my roommate, in her school. My school is only lucky enough to store bottles of wine in the teacher's lounge.)
5. The refrigerator of the Catholic charities (where I did an internship 2 summers ago. Maybe I'm just so used to the Protestant views on drinking, but I would have never expected to find it at a religiously affiliated organization!)
6. The ice skating rink that was set up in the plaza during Christmas. (Don't mind that the covered tent was tiny enough as it was -- they could only make the rink half the size of the tent, to save room for a bar, which obviously had beer on tap.)
And now, of course, adding to our list.....
7. The hospital cafeteria
Am I missing anything?

While I was originally caught completely off-guard by finding beer at the hospital (I mean, it does seem a little counterproductive, doesn't it?), I actually find it rather endearing now. And oh, so typically Spanish. Seeing beer in crazy places just makes me love Spain even more. It's like seeing your crazy uncle do something so typically "crazy uncle", that you just can't help but love him more, in spite of his antics.

I might even miss this about Spain when I go home for the summer. I'll miss seeing the old men drinking beer in the cafes at 8am when I am on my way to work. I'll miss being invited to beer at 11:30 on a Saturday morning, by a totally respectable working mother. I'll miss going out for cañas on lazy afternoons, just because.

The truth is, I could do all of the aforementioned things in the United States as well, but it just wouldn't be the same. Beer is so much more enjoyable for me here. Maybe it's the relaxed attitude that the Spaniards hold toward it. Or, who knows, maybe it really does taste better at 8am, and we wouldn't know, simply because we've never tried it!