Why Americans Hide in Bars

What we’re really escaping when we drink indoors

Let’s be 100% clear right up front.

Before my wife and I moved to Spain, I learned to distinguish between missing something and romanticizing it.

We’ve been here for more than a year and that perspective stands. I don’t see it changing.

There has been no honeymoon period. I’m not still in it. And I don’t miss X, Y, or Z because they don’t have it, it’s not the same, or they don’t understand it in Spain. The more I think about all of these things people say about living abroad—incessantly—the more I think it’s misplaced nonsense.

However, if you pinned me down and told me I had no choice. That I must pick one thing I miss about the United States, it would be…