Didn’t think I’d be naming a post “Beer Pong,” but there’s really no better way to describe this one, so here it is…

Last night was one of “those study abroad experiences.” One of those things you never thought you’d be saying actually happened to you. Until it does. What started with just a few Americans playing a bit of beer pong to pass a slow Friday night soon turned into a multinational debaucherous event. The cast of characters:

• Dima, a Ukranian. Note to self: Ukranians hate being called Russians. Especially when they are very, very drunk. Sorry, we were drunk too.
• Paul, a Brit. And his friend Al, also a Brit. Moment of the night with them: walking down the side of the interstate with party kegs in hand because we ran out of beer and had to go to the gas station for more. Al dropping one and watching the thing roll down the side of the interstate. Sketchy hitchhiker girls laughing at this. Keg almost exploding when we get back to the dorm.
• Alejandro, a Spaniard. Not the most outspoken guy, but we had a fun discussion about how big the USA is. This, or Bush, seems to be the most common conversations to have with Europeans. If you want to have a long talk with a European, bring up one of the two.
• Gerard, an Austrian. I’d hung out a bit with this guy before. Pretty cool character. Has these huge tattoos on both arms. And a lip ring. Looks very much like the “modern” German youth.
• Kiel, Karen, Julie, Cameron, and Markus, all Americans–or Canadians. Same thing.

Anyways, proceed to the Europeans wondering what this strange game was. We quickly explained, while playing a “demo” round, and then started to play two games on the same pingpong table. The Americans started out winning, but they caught on real fast. Sorry, we tried to represent, but they weren’t having it. There were several impromptu wrestling matches through the night, generally involving the Brits. And at some point, Kiel tried to give someone a highfive, but that person missed and smashed him in the face, giving him a bloody nose. No problem, stop it up with some tissue paper and keep on going–while lighting the tissue hanging from his nose on fire. Hey, Blackbeard-style distractions are legal.

Anyways, good times were had by all. It’s a lot of fun to hang out and drink with so many people from different places. It’s definitely a good experience, meeting and talking with so many different people. And while I don’t normally like to get drunk like that, it was worth it. Besides, how many people can start of a conversation with “So this one time, I was playing beerpong with this Ukranian guy, this Spanish guy, and these two Brits…”

I posted more pictures on Flickr. I’m trying Flickr as an experiment. I don’t want to flood my proper photolog with poor, random shots, but I know a lot of people want to see these random shots anyways. We’ll see how it goes.