Social Alcoholics Anonymous

So there was a dinner party hosted by one of my mom's post-modern Chinese artist friends, and I didn't really dress up for it, but I did have pretty decent make-up on.

We had a 12 course Chinese dinner. Nine courses of food, and three courses of dessert. The food was really really good, quite comparable to the food in China I'd say. There was a lot of seafood delicacies, which I enjoyed. With any society event, there's social drinking involved; and it is even more so when attending a party hosted by an artist. I had a glass of wine to start with, and then another glass, and then some organic beer from Mexico or something, and then a shot of some Chinese white liquor similiar to vodka. As if it wasn't bad enough, I was offered a glass of cognac and some other thing after dinner. To wash it all down, cappucino followed by traditional Chinese tea ceremony.

My mom just sat there while I drank all the aforementioned drinks. I'm a pretty discerning drinker, and I know my limits, and this was WAY below my limit. I had to act a bit drunk since I didn't want my mom to know how much I could really drink, or it'll freak her out. I mean, at some dinner party in Guangzhou I attend with my gf and her family over the summer, I drank half a bottle of Chinese white liquor, which was about 65% alcohol. The dinner party was hosted by some army general that knew my gf's grandparents, and the general was a heavy drinker. He took a particular liking to me because I spoke perfect Beijing-accented Mandarin, and the general was from some northern province in China and hated Cantonese-sounding Mandarin. He kept on filling my cup and I drank all of it in one sip, and I also drink my gf's share because she has very low alcohol tolerance, not to mention she's a belligerent drunk. At the end, the army general, my gf's dad and I drank a full bottle of hard Chinese liquor, with me consuming about half the bottle on my own. I seriously thought I was going to get extremely smashed but I didn't. Instead, I got the army general drunk; he was so drunk he almost walked into the ladies' room. My gf's dad applauded me for my superior ability to drink, and probably at the same time wondering why his daughter is dating a chronic heavy drinker. I guess Chinese people have this theory about alcohol tolerance - the more you drink, the more you can drink. So if I was able to consume THAT much alcohol, I'm probably a chronic alcoholic. After we got back to my gf's house (I was staying with her during my trip to Guangzhou), she said she thought I was a sexual drunk. Indeed, the last time I got drunk, which was back in gr.9, I almost slept with my bf back then.

Maybe I'm smashed after all, because I typed up this huge post without any reason or point to make.

Alright... off to bed I go. Must cram for various projects tomorrow.