My Experiences with Drinking

I was never a party person.Starting from the school days,I always maintained a safe distance between the party guys with their regular get togethers and myself.This trend continued in high school and then eventually college.One more reason for my dispassionate viewpoint was the deep reservation I had about drinking.Somehow I always felt myself more educated by my decision to reject liquor.The justification behind my teetotaller status being the numerous examples quoted in the temples of knowledge and wisdom about alcohol related excesses and its harmful effects on the body.

But like many other things,my opinion about this 'vice' too changed in IIT and I started drinking occasionally but only socially,always promising myself never to make it a habit and never to enjoy those sips of beer.. You see my philosophy especially towards beer was simple,

"If u just wanna drink,why drink something which besides leaving a bitter taste doesnt even get u high enough."

I was quite sucessful in my planned detachment until my sudden change in fortunes in fourth sem.I found myself in the midst of all kinds of parties-parties thrown by me,parties thrown by newly selected secys,parties thrown by passing batch etc etc.From 'occasional' drinker I took the form of a 'social' drinker but still the enjoyment and the high factor never came into picture.

So it was with this rich experience that I boarded the flight to France.And the rest as they say is history.Well my first drinking experience here was when I was offered a glass of wine for lunch on the first day.For the first time I saw people consuming alcohol without any reservations of nation,language and especially gender.I have some friends who get excited just by the prospect of seeing a girl drinking.The French truely believe that drinking wine keeps you healthy.I made this my new mantra and launched myself into this new phase-drinking for enjoyment.Occasionally.people ask me about India's national drink but my dodging answers all pointing towards a non-alcoholic drink make them hang their heads in disbelieve.This session normally ends in my getting congratulated on escaping such a forbidden land,envoking in me the same kind of exhiliration that Andy must have felt on breaking through prison in Shawshank Redemption.Needless to say exchanges like this further encourage me to undo the toll taken by all those non alcoholic years. But as the observer I am(Yes it can be fun observing drunk people),I made certain observations about the drinking habits of people and made a classification according to different languages(yeah for its language which makes u a part of group and not national boundaries):

French: start behaving strangely after 1-2 drinks,havent seen anyone else getting drunk as fast as them.
English: Have an unmatched capacity for drinking matched

only by the Germans.Both have a deep penchant for beer.
Germans:They drink beer,beer and then more beer.Have all kinds of festivals and sayings related to beers.
Brazilians:They like partying but are restricted by money
considerations.Normally drink in big groups with lots of song
and dance.
Spanish(my favourites):Well they are just,for dearth of a better
word Machau.Havent seen ppl more dedicated to partying

than spanish.They are easily the heaviest smokers and hardest
drinkers among all of the above with the females mostly
outdoing the males.Their parties are wild with what we call
heady flow of 'wine and women'.And their typical dance 'salsa'
makes it just better.

You must be thinking of where does yours truly fit in.Well the idea is to constantly navigate among the above categories depending on the place and event.Nowadays the weekends are characterized by another phenomenan-party hopping.Most of students celebrate their birthdays during weekends.Its natural to have overlapping parties on some days.So a weekend starts normally with a person alternating between 2-3 parties and finally returning at abt 4 -5 in the night(or morning!!)The knowledge of these parties spreads like wild fire among the exchange students and normally it doesnt matter whether u know the person throwing a party or not.For example the other day we went for a house warming party of a German,the sole motivation being the fact that his other 2 house mates were French girls.I think after a customary 'Bonjour' our paths never crossed.

The other exchange students justify these party binges by stating that the sole purpose of an exchange program is to learn French which involves socializing and thus the need for parties.Lately I started asking myself this question if all these indulgences have finally made me a party person.The answer is still no.I normally hang out in group of 4-5 people who normally take part in this party hopping.All of us have some similar characteristics- we are single,we still speak english among ourselves,none of us can dance(which can lead to a lot of frustration esp in Latina bars)and an undeniable jest to have fun inspite of our above mentioned handicaps.
Anyway lately my attitude towards beer has started changing too.My philosophy now being,
"Why should one drink other non-alcoholic cold drinks when they dont even get u high!!"