Beer buffet

This last week I've been asked to go out everyday since Tuesday. Sheesh. Where was all this love when I was on break and doing nothing? Since school had also started up again last week I had to turn everyone down. I've come to learn that having a few bottles of beer isn't all that conducive to studying. However, since I had no classes today I finally gave in to go out drinking last night.

My cousins had decided to take me over to Bellevue Hotel in Alabang. There is a nice bar on the top floor of the hotel with a great view at night of the city lights. We managed to get there just in time for their happy hour special, which should actually just be called a 5 hour beer buffet. For 250 pesos you can drink all the San Miguel you like. I'm not sure how long they will be keeping this offer though if my cousins continue to head out there. We drank a lot of beer. It didn't stop there either; after the beer buffet was over we went to another bar called Cable Car in Alabang Town Center. We had a few drinks there and then we went to another bar on the other side of the mall for a few more drinks. I'm not sure what time we got back to the dorm or even how we actually made it back alive because in the Philippines there is no such thing as a designated driver or a DUI. So no matter how many beers you had for the night 1, 5 or 20 you're still perfectly legal to drive.

Maybe I'm just getting old or maybe what I've been learning from these health courses I've been taking is finally starting to settle in but this kind of binge drinking isn't really for me anymore. Taking in to account the history of alcohol abuse from both sides of my family it may really be in my best interest to abstain from these types of weekly activities. However, when you are stuck with the option of either staying in your concrete cell for the rest of the weekend or a night out drinking with your cousins, the choice isn't that clear. Everyone needs some r&r. I may lack emotions but I'm not a robot. I hear you saying "you can just say no to the next round" but after you had a few beers in you and everyone is bitching at you to drink more, trust me you don't always manage to get your way. It's not like I can just get up and leave the situation either, since I'm only a passenger. It would be safer for me to ride home with a driver who has had 15 beers to drink that night than trying to find my way home on a jeepney with half my brain working.

Well, I would say it's about 50/50 right now that I'll either end up dying from sanitary reasons or from an alcohol related incident before my stay is up in this country. Do I have any takers?