Party in Chenzhou

I've been thinking recently about drinking. I don't mean I'm considering it; I mean I've been thinking about how much I have consumed in the past and how much I'm currently drinking. In the past year, and I mean the pandemic here, I cut back drinking quite a bit for obvious reasons. I didn't go out so much. Because of my unique situation, I wasn't even close to friends or family who I might hang out. When the year started, I did do a good bit of drinking; I think everyone did, but as the months were on, it became less fun, and I became less interested in doing more of it. I just as soon continue forward with this pattern of only drinking on special occasions. That seems like the best policy to me. But this has got me thinking about how much I drank the first year I was in China. Now I'm not one to throw around the world alcoholic, but that year was pretty well soaked in alcohol, if I'm honest. And I don't think I'm the only one who feels that every Foreigner I knew in Chenzhou did precisely the same thing. I think there's a couple of reasons for this, only one of which applies to me: most foreigners who come to Asia to teach English are doing it their first year out of college. They don't have a career yet to abandon. They want to see the world, so it's actually a great thing to do at that point in their life. For that reason, many people end up doing this the first year out of college, so people are still doing a college level of drinking. Still, the other reason I think is the stress of a new culture; it's a little challenging to adjust to a new culture. It's made a lot easier by drinking because drinking socially anyway is a great way to meet people. You end up with a group that tends to go out and drink pretty constantly. And honestly, I don't think this is actually a bad thing. I wouldn't want to spend my whole life doing it but to have one year where you really cut loose and just party all year it's probably something everyone should do just once just one year by the end of that year you'll be finished with it and ready to move on to another part of life but that one year will be pretty fun