Are you still having fun?

Hello there!

I am writing these words after along weekend. There were lots of skiing, studying watching movies and...going out at night.
Rena isn't the biggest place in the word, therefore, this small village it is only possible to find two pubs. Usually, most of the evenings, I go out, I visit the students' pub. It is cozy, all the students gather there, it's the people you know!
This Saturday, I changed my live! I went to the other pub, down the same street! Meeting some friends and stuff.
when I arrived to the pub, it was overcrowded! So many people, it was hard to walk in there! After meeting my friends, which some of them had had few beers more! It was cool to chat with them and still, I like drunk people, in a way, when they are friendly and smiling all the time!

The strange thing is after a while, I just had some baccardi with coke and I was satisfied, I didn't need nothing else to drink! I was totally ok, ready to have fun! I didn't want to get wasted, because I felt I didn't need to... and then, there were so many people asking me: "aren't you having fun?", "don't you like it here?",etc. I felt really strange, because I was having fun, yes! but I didn't want to drink! That's it! I don't need to get fully drunk to have a great time! sometimes it's cool to have some glasses more than one should, but...it is not needed! It's not a rule "whiskey+wine+beer = guaranteed fun"!

I realized it must be cultural! It has to! Because, like I said previously, this people is shy, they aren't capable to show their feelings in a easy way, therefore, they cloak themselves under the alcohol spirits, in order to have some more fun they would ever experience if they were sober. It's the weekend drinking culture... Drink to have fun!

Of course this is nothing new for me! In Portugal, of course we have a drinking culture. In fact, I believe even deeper in our roots than this one, since we have wine everyday, during meals - white for fish, red for meat - beer when it's hot, "agua ardente" with espresso coffee, etc etc etc. It is normal for us to get drunk, it is common to go out and see drunk, wasted people! it is!
However, people tend to drink because it's a social process. I buy one to this person that person buys another round and then arrives the other dude and suddenly comes that friend and people get drunk that way - not drinking my own booze, as fast as I can, to get drunk as fast as possible to have as much fun(??) as I can get.

I must also say that the shock wouldn't be so big if they were outgoing people like us. Because Portuguese people tend to be outgoing and when they drink, they are a little bit more outgoing. Here, people tend to be closed within themselves and when they drink, they suffer a fantastic metamorphosis which makes of them the nicest, friendliest most talkative people in the world.

It is also something that makes this Portuguese a little confused in this far far far away country!

Hadet bra!