The Conclusions To Which We Have Jumped

I want to take a post to address a few more things that were in our welcome handbook, phrased in the form of a "Danes are like this" statement. It turns out that a lot of generalizations we were given about the mythical Average Young Dane are either untrue or irrelevant. For example:

There's a bar in the basement of the Kollegium, open Friday and Saturday nights (admittedly, that's a little different than a US dorm). I've hung out there twice, and between what Danes say and what our welcome handbook says, I've heard the following things about Danish drinking:

1) Danes can hold a lot more liquor than Americans, in part because most of them have been drinking since a younger age (like... 13). Don't try to keep up with them, they'll drink you under the table.
2) As a result of the younger start, they also are, for the most part, just interested in getting a bit tipsy and having a good time, not getting wasted. The thing that American college kids do where we show up freshman year and go "WOOOO PARTY TIME LET'S GET EFF'D UP!" is something that the Danes all did when they were 16, so the older college kids are over it.

Statement 1 is true, on average. But they're not magic. It's not like they're downing a dozen drinks without feeling a thing. They can hold their liquor about as well as my friends back home who drink regularly in large quantity. Sure, they could drink me under the table, but I don't drink much, so where's the pride in that?

Statement 2 is just patently false. They get wasted. Many people in my Kollegium, at least. I saw a group do the asshole frat-boy thing where a guy passes out, and rather than help him out, they decide that the 60-degree-and-somewhat-wet outdoor courtyard would be a good place for him to sleep it off. I also saw a girl not be able to lift her drink to her mouth of her own power (this is #2 after "passed out" on the list of signs you've had enough). So, naturally, a "friend" offered to "help" her by more or less pouring it down her throat (oh, don't worry, she was appreciative).

I'm not saying they're doing anything beyond what goes on every weekend at a US state school. It's pretty much the same stuff, and it does feel like there's less of it here, at least slightly. And yet, I'd be lying if I said that the 30 people in the bar last night went down to have four or five drinks and get lightly buzzed. One of my DIS friends and I were berated several times for not currently having a drink in hand (because they can't drink until they've clinked cups with everyone).