I figured this would be a fun recollection exercise for me and who knows, it might give people some interesting insight.
I'll start saying that I started college in Venezuela in 2008ish. (public education is free (at least students don't pay money for it), only way I could have done it)
A combination of labour strikes, training for a sports college team, traveling the country for fun and a lot of "parties" made me spent 10 years in what should have taken 4 and half or 5 max.
I feel obligated to define what a party was for me when I was in college, because it could be two things: one, an ever-growing bunch of people buying a couple of bottles of rum/vodka/lots of beer and then meeting up at someones place(or -interestingly- right on campus) to drink talk and very likely dance -location permitting-. When I say dance I mean Merengue, bachata, salsa, reggaeton. Those two-people-very-close-to-each-other-dances types.
two, the same bunch of people agreeing to go out to a bar or local where alcohol is served and then people drink talk and very likely dance. Frequently, we would go to the nearest beaches instead, and we would do it by bus (buses there are the main transport and therefore are somewhat reliable and go everywhere you need, as a relatively small % of people can afford cars (for example no one in my family could) (some people do motorcycles)) or carpooling with some of the well-off friends. Once in the beach, we would drink talk swim a little and tan a lot.
No matter how much money your family had, you were bounded to party this way. Of course, add a fancier thing here and there, but the same template.
Consequentially, you can imagine how, in average, college boys used to find girlfriends.
Go out with your ever-growing social circle
Get group-drunk
Talk and dance with a girl you like (and probably likes you back if you are dancing, as you have to invite her) while both of you are drunk. Proceed to kiss (as a point of interest, this, usually, did not lead to one night stands. In fact, I dare to say that was almost never the expectation.)
Drink more, dance more, get phone number, leave.
After that, you would arrange a second meeting over the phone(call/txt), this time only the two of you, kind of a first date, but you already kissed or at least flirted an awful lot, if that makes sense.
Now, this is not to say that you couldn't meet a nice girl in the street. call it daygame or cold approach etc. But funnily enough, ~75% of the time you would invite that girl to.......... go out with your ever-growing social circle and take it from there.
Over the span of 10 years I did not see that dynamic change one iota. In fact, I bet it must be pretty similar nowadays. Pandemic and OLD permitting.
If somebody is wondering what is the legal age to drink in Venezuela, is 18yo. However, if you go to college at 16, you would be just damn fine. For better or worse, you are culturally expected to drink and go through this cycle.
Notice how I tried to left wealth aside, because in college it almost did not matter. As long as you had enough to go through the steps I mentioned, you were bound for some success.
I'll start saying that I started college in Venezuela in 2008ish. (public education is free (at least students don't pay money for it), only way I could have done it)
A combination of labour strikes, training for a sports college team, traveling the country for fun and a lot of "parties" made me spent 10 years in what should have taken 4 and half or 5 max.
I feel obligated to define what a party was for me when I was in college, because it could be two things: one, an ever-growing bunch of people buying a couple of bottles of rum/vodka/lots of beer and then meeting up at someones place(or -interestingly- right on campus) to drink talk and very likely dance -location permitting-. When I say dance I mean Merengue, bachata, salsa, reggaeton. Those two-people-very-close-to-each-other-dances types.
two, the same bunch of people agreeing to go out to a bar or local where alcohol is served and then people drink talk and very likely dance. Frequently, we would go to the nearest beaches instead, and we would do it by bus (buses there are the main transport and therefore are somewhat reliable and go everywhere you need, as a relatively small % of people can afford cars (for example no one in my family could) (some people do motorcycles)) or carpooling with some of the well-off friends. Once in the beach, we would drink talk swim a little and tan a lot.
No matter how much money your family had, you were bounded to party this way. Of course, add a fancier thing here and there, but the same template.
Consequentially, you can imagine how, in average, college boys used to find girlfriends.
Go out with your ever-growing social circle
Get group-drunk
Talk and dance with a girl you like (and probably likes you back if you are dancing, as you have to invite her) while both of you are drunk. Proceed to kiss (as a point of interest, this, usually, did not lead to one night stands. In fact, I dare to say that was almost never the expectation.)
Drink more, dance more, get phone number, leave.
After that, you would arrange a second meeting over the phone(call/txt), this time only the two of you, kind of a first date, but you already kissed or at least flirted an awful lot, if that makes sense.
Now, this is not to say that you couldn't meet a nice girl in the street. call it daygame or cold approach etc. But funnily enough, ~75% of the time you would invite that girl to.......... go out with your ever-growing social circle and take it from there.
Over the span of 10 years I did not see that dynamic change one iota. In fact, I bet it must be pretty similar nowadays. Pandemic and OLD permitting.
If somebody is wondering what is the legal age to drink in Venezuela, is 18yo. However, if you go to college at 16, you would be just damn fine. For better or worse, you are culturally expected to drink and go through this cycle.
Notice how I tried to left wealth aside, because in college it almost did not matter. As long as you had enough to go through the steps I mentioned, you were bound for some success.
