Canadian Days: For Love of Drinking

A favorite past time at the hostel was drinking alcohol. After a hard day of doing whatever one did during the day--whether it was studying hard at the university or lounging around--my friends looked forward to having a few drinks to relax, especially on the weekends. On a weekend night, since many people didn't want to brave the harsh winter night, the common room would be saturated in alcohol consumption. Alcoholic beverages would be strewn all over the place, people would be indulging in drinking games and whoever got drunk usually babbled nonsense (and might not have remembered it later).

I only had two drinks while I was in Toronto because I rarely drink, so I got to see how alcohol affected my friends behavior, which was often funny. One friend that comes to mind is my roommate Billy. Billy spent alot of time in the evening drinking alcohol with a buddy from Denmark. Drinking would start around 5 PM and usually didn't stop until sometime in the morning, and as can be expected both eventually got painful hangovers. One time after a night of drinking Billy came back to the room drunk. He loudly staggered into bed, and then spent several minutes groaning and twisting and turning around. It sounded like he was drowning or choking on something and was about to die. Eventually it was too much for him, and he got up, ran out in to the hall and threw up. Me and my two other roommates woke up, and when Billy returned he informed us "If anybody asks I've got the 24 hour flu."

Another friend that comes to mind was another roommate, Freddy. Freddy was Irish, in his late 20s, and probably could out drink anyone in the hostel. Freddy's alcohol tolerance level was so high he could drink an entire six pack and still not be drunk. There were several times when Freddy would be drinking his fourth or fifth beer with ease, while someone else would be getting inebriated on their second. I remember one time when another roommate of mine, who was English, had a couple of drinks and started babbling to me about how he had been hearing American accents his entire life, and that only he was the only normal sounding person in the universe. It is unlikely Freddy would ever say such a thing after a few beers. His alcohol tolerance level is so high it would be hard for him to get drunk, even after finishing a six pack.

Then there were the issues some of them had with Canadian and U. S. drinking laws. Most of my friends were European, and the U. S. has more stringent drinking laws compared to many European nations. One night a friend demanded that I tell him why the legal drinking age in the U. S. was 21. I didn't know, but I told him I supported keeping the legal drinking age at 21 because most Americans drive. I wouldn't be surprised if the teenage accident rate went up if it were lowered. I could tell from his reaction that was not the answer he wanted to hear. He persisted in asking me why was it set at 21. I guess he wanted to know why wasn't it lower like in Britain, which is where he was from.

But the pinnacle of all the indulgence were the drinking games my friends would play. Usually whenever they didn't have anything to do on the weekend they'd organize several mugs in a circle on a table with one mug in the middle. Then they'd try flipping a coin into a mug. I don't know the exact rules but I think each mug represented how much you could drink if you flipped a coin into it. They could spend hours doing this, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of them got drunk from playing these games. I say this was the pinnacle of all the indulgence because it was truly drinking just for the sake of it. It is hard for me to imagine how they could have taken the experience of alcohol consumption any further.

But it doesn't surprise me that my friends loved alcohol. Most people in the hostel were European, and probably had been accustomed to being around alcohol for most of their lives. To them it was a way of relaxing after a hard day. Also, most people who stay at hostels are young, and my experiences at college taught me that young adults typically like drinking, sometimes too much. I on the other hand stood in stark contrast to my friends when it came to drinking, and surprisingly this may be a reflection of cultural differences. In the U. S. there are few pubs--which are places to eat food and drink--and my parents don't have a fondness for drinking. So I have never been accustomed to drinking alcohol. And like my parents I prefer clean living, meaning no alcohol--or as little of it as possible--no smoking or drugs, and I want to keep it that way.