Strawpedo?!.doc

You know you’re getting older when younger ones are teaching you new bar tricks probably dreamed up over one too many vodka-cranberries back in residence. This past Saturday I had a big night out on the town (the Coventry town of all places) with a new friend named Reece who I met at Warwick. He’s an undergrad doing Creative Writing – we met through one of the societies at the uni. He’s a super chill guy, and it was nice to be introduced to a group of new Warwick friends.

We started at an event on campus with a free buffet! You know how much I love free food and this didn’t disappoint. The group is Warwick Pride and has events throughout the term – it relates a lot to my thesis interests so I may check out more. They’ve got a stellar library of interesting books (so much to read, so little time). We mingled with the crowd and (like MAIPR) I met interesting students from all over the world. We even managed to purchase a few beers from the student union bar and bring them over to the buffet.

From there we hit the town at a bar in Coventry called Bows. That night they had a singer performing whom apparently is fairly well known here in UK. I can’t remember her name, but she had some really good pipes. It was nice to see some live music again. There is another spot here in Leam called The Clarendon that has live stuff, but we haven’t been recently. The rest of the night was spent chilling out downstairs and then heading upstairs for a bit of a dance. Hinckster and Talia sent a couple of messages from London – it was really nice to hear from them.

So, a strawpedo. Reece introduced the concept and said it was something I just had to do. Basically, all it is is a surefire shortcut to chug a bottle of beer or cider (not necessarily something I’m use to doing anymore). See, the idea behind it is that you place a straw into the bottle and instead of using it, you bend it downwards so air can leave the bottle as you drink. This counteracts the vacuum problem that tends to happen when you chug from a bottle. I’m guessing this strategy originated from a group of bored physics majors. Disclaimer: I’m presenting this information to you not as an endorsement to try it out, but rather as first hand evidence of the types of rituals currently entrancing the youth culture I find myself in. Like an anthropologist in the bush, I’m just reporting the strange and exotic behaviour.

So I strawpedoed one cider and apparently was quite adept at it – I think it’s the Canadian genes. Instead of heading back to Leam (since it was after two and the buses had stopped) we crashed in the living room of one of Reece’s friends. Couch crashing for one night was a nice change of pace. It felt like I was back in undergrad (probably because I was partying with them!) It was great to meet a group of new friends. Coventry is not as pretty as Leam, but we had a great night out.

The last few weekdays have been spent back at the routine. It continues to go well, but as usual, is far too uninteresting to blog about. This week, Joao, one of our fellow program mates from Portugal, is visiting! It’s great when visitors come to Leam – they provide a welcome distraction from school work.

Doc’s Prescription of the Day: Avoid the strawpedo at all costs. There are reasons why alcohol should not be consumed that quickly.