There are very rarely lessons to be learnt on a drunken evening in town. Stellenbosch, whilst being home to one of the best universities in Africa, has a night life that is not exactly beneficial to one’s intellect. Sure, some off the pubs do quiz nights but other than that there is not much to be learnt. And as for life lessons, the only one Stellies can offer you is that there is no such thing as going out for ‘one drink’.
Well, that’s how I felt up until Friday night. Not only did my horrific hangover inform me that, whilst starting to gym is beneficial for my health it is not beneficial for my alcohol tolerance, but my complete lack of regard for consequence whilst drunk has taught me that no matter how much you believe on the night that you are a complete legend, you always have to face reality the next morning.
Suddenly you go from hero to zero and as if that wasn’t bad enough, the pounding in your head is only slightly more enjoyable than the nauseating churning of your stomach which allows you to be hungry but doesn’t allow you to eat. And if you’re really lucky then you won’t remember the memories from the night before, because if you do remember them you almost instantly regret them as they play back in your mind like some horror film.
My sister started drinking at nine o’clock on Friday morning when she headed to the nearest wine farm for a wine-tasting, this was followed by several cocktails and a beer. Needless to say, when Heather and one of her long lost mates from school got back to the flat they were well on their way. This required some catching up on my part which involved making what we call cum shots (formerly Melktertjies).
This also involved a drinking game known as ‘Give and Take’ which I decided to play with neat vodka. I was at least decent enough to chop up a lime into it but it was still a recipe for disaster. As Heather ensured that I got the majority of the drinks as well as the cards I started to realize that I was making a huge mistake. Luckily for me, Heather’s friend soon allied with me and we decided to take her down. We were all going down, in a BIG way.
As more people started to arrive and the drinking games continued I started to feel the ‘slight’ dizziness informing me that the alcohol was starting to take over. But with my new found, alcohol induced braveness I decided I could handle more booze. Well, I was wrong. The drinking games are a blur and leaving my flat is a complete blackout; although it should be noted that I remembered to lock the door this time.
This was followed by even more fuzziness as we headed into town, which included many a bar and many a drinking game as well as ‘my favourite,’ a tequila. This allowed me to make some pretty stupid decisions such as going to a random guy and telling him I was invincible, tripping up a flight of stairs because I decided the queue for the downstairs bathroom was too long and just to put the icing on the cake I decided it would be ok to hook-up with a close friend.
Well, I’m sober now and my brain is fighting the urge to hate myself but after many an unhappy hour of being wrapped around the toilet bowl I am finally cured of my hangover, which is probably the only bit of good news I have to offer. Now it is time to make amends.
So this was my lesson and I have learnt it well; the consequences are far more severe when you wake up in the morning.
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