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Tuesday night
Sep. 16th, 2010 12:03 amOn persuasive dinner companions... I was still tired Tuesday, as I only managed 5 hours of sleep my first night here. Stupid jet lag. But since a huge group was going out, I felt the correct thing to do was to join them. So I went.
It felt familiar -- a large private room, two round tables of about 10 people each. I sat between a fellow foreigner and one of the local guys I am supposed to get to know better. This setup happened in Japan and China. Asia has a lot of very social eaters. Of course we do, too....
When the beer started being poured, I didn't reject it out of hand. My first mistake: admitting that I drink alcohol. When the toasts started, I sipped because I hate beer.
And then the (local) guy next to me started explaining about local customs. *sigh* All of his explanations had this theme: Drink More Alcohol. This first one was that in Taiwan, only sad lonely people drink alcohol by themselves. And by "by themselves," he meant, not during a toast with someone else. Which did explain the paired toasting I saw randomly going around the table. I thought it was a nice lead-in by him to explain all of individuals who wanted to toast with me.
Beer. Bleh.
Which he noticed, because he asked why I wasn't drinking all of my beer -- my glass was still full, for all intents and purposes -- I said, "I'll tell you a secret. I hate the taste of beer."
Which turned out to REALLY be the right thing to say, because instantly the pressure was off of me. Well, to drink beer.
So he asked if I drink sake, and another glass appeared in front of me. And the toasts started. I did my best to only sip tiny amounts, and only drink when toasting.
...Several glasses later...
The next lecture from my table mate: "In America, when you say "cheers," you both drink. But in Taiwan, when you say "cheers!" you drink the WHOLE GLASS! You are in Taiwan, so you must do Taiwan Cheers." Oh, this is SUCH a bad idea...
To be fair, I was lucky. The fellow foreigner beside me took the brunt of the alcohol. He foolishly admitted early in the evening that he LIKES beer. The Taiwanese gloves came off, and I was really surprised that he could still speak English coherently by the end of the evening. They were giving him sake and beer faster than he could snatch his glass away. And when he tried to refuse? Another lecture from my table mate that failing to drink with your friends is just RUDE. And in Taiwan, you must behave like Taiwanese...
My thought: There must be no lonely alcoholics in Taiwan.
Toward the end of the evening, the lectures got more personal. He strongly recommended alcohol as a cure for jet lag. I tried to point out all of the literature to the contrary, but he would have none of it.
Of course, this all depends on the idea that all of these lectures were not BS on the part of my table mate. Who knows if any of it was true?
That night when I made it to the hotel, I managed to brush my teeth, drink a bottle of water and take some painkillers (preventative) before falling into bed. I'm surprised that I was able to walk under my own power at that point. I got six hours of sleep before my jet lag woke me at 4:15am Wednesday morning.
*sigh* On the good side, no hangover.
Next time? I'm going for the orange juice from the beginning. No more accepting glasses of beer.
It felt familiar -- a large private room, two round tables of about 10 people each. I sat between a fellow foreigner and one of the local guys I am supposed to get to know better. This setup happened in Japan and China. Asia has a lot of very social eaters. Of course we do, too....
When the beer started being poured, I didn't reject it out of hand. My first mistake: admitting that I drink alcohol. When the toasts started, I sipped because I hate beer.
And then the (local) guy next to me started explaining about local customs. *sigh* All of his explanations had this theme: Drink More Alcohol. This first one was that in Taiwan, only sad lonely people drink alcohol by themselves. And by "by themselves," he meant, not during a toast with someone else. Which did explain the paired toasting I saw randomly going around the table. I thought it was a nice lead-in by him to explain all of individuals who wanted to toast with me.
Beer. Bleh.
Which he noticed, because he asked why I wasn't drinking all of my beer -- my glass was still full, for all intents and purposes -- I said, "I'll tell you a secret. I hate the taste of beer."
Which turned out to REALLY be the right thing to say, because instantly the pressure was off of me. Well, to drink beer.
So he asked if I drink sake, and another glass appeared in front of me. And the toasts started. I did my best to only sip tiny amounts, and only drink when toasting.
...Several glasses later...
The next lecture from my table mate: "In America, when you say "cheers," you both drink. But in Taiwan, when you say "cheers!" you drink the WHOLE GLASS! You are in Taiwan, so you must do Taiwan Cheers." Oh, this is SUCH a bad idea...
To be fair, I was lucky. The fellow foreigner beside me took the brunt of the alcohol. He foolishly admitted early in the evening that he LIKES beer. The Taiwanese gloves came off, and I was really surprised that he could still speak English coherently by the end of the evening. They were giving him sake and beer faster than he could snatch his glass away. And when he tried to refuse? Another lecture from my table mate that failing to drink with your friends is just RUDE. And in Taiwan, you must behave like Taiwanese...
My thought: There must be no lonely alcoholics in Taiwan.
Toward the end of the evening, the lectures got more personal. He strongly recommended alcohol as a cure for jet lag. I tried to point out all of the literature to the contrary, but he would have none of it.
Of course, this all depends on the idea that all of these lectures were not BS on the part of my table mate. Who knows if any of it was true?
That night when I made it to the hotel, I managed to brush my teeth, drink a bottle of water and take some painkillers (preventative) before falling into bed. I'm surprised that I was able to walk under my own power at that point. I got six hours of sleep before my jet lag woke me at 4:15am Wednesday morning.
*sigh* On the good side, no hangover.
Next time? I'm going for the orange juice from the beginning. No more accepting glasses of beer.
