after a nice dinner on lygon, a stroll through the bookstore and a chocolate-buying spree at safeway, you'd think I'd at least be in a state of satisfaction right now. But I'm not. I have just witnessed the scariest thing I've ever seen and the image of it is still imprinted in my mind.
Picture this: walking up the stairs to your apartment to see a small crowd gathrered around a limp body sprawled on the ground, rag-like. Small clumps of redness are scattered around him. Visions of all possibilities immediately flash through our minds - his head cracked open, he got shot, stabbed, etc etc. But it is in fact none of those things. We asked, "What happened?" And the guys tending to him look up, smile reassuringly, and say "Nothing." They dont want us to worry. And they say chivalry is dead. Nevertheless, we hover around him, until two of his friends remove his jumper, shake his lifeless body and call his name, trying to rouse him so that they can get him up to his room and in bed. He does not respond, and someone suggests carrying him. So they lift him, two of the guys, an arm on each shoulder, and drag him to the lift. It is then that I see his eyes, and I wish I hadnt. He is obviously drunk. Yet I never knew drunk people looked like this. His eyes were open, glazed over and staring zombie-like into space, his face frozen in an eerie expression of lolling bliss. He was comatose, yet in his drunken head he is still euphoric. He looks possessed, an empty body inhabited by a foreign soul who is learning how to smile.
Lurching into the lift, the two guys ask, "what floor?" someone replies "five" just as the doors close, and the unmistakable sound of puking causes us all to grimace for the poor helpful, good samaritans. Minutes later is comes down and it turns out they didn't press the button for level five. While the interior of the lift remains unchanged, a large, dark red pool of vomit, chunky and alcoholic, is splattered on the carpeted floor of the lift.
Apparently he was at a pub night with his lecturers and fellow coursemates, and had been carried back from uni - yes, melbourne uni - by his friends. He is an honours student.
I am still scared. How could anyone drink that much?? I know it is possible to drink till you collapse, but the graphic obscenity of seeing it up close still preys on my mind. Please, friends - I never want to see any of you that way.
3 pixie potion(s):
yes, they drink beer like gulping down water...I was living in a hostel at university, and one very late night as I was taking the lift up to my floor, this guy who was so drunk walked in straight and faced the wall of the lift. He started to unzip his pants and pee right there...then he collapsed. I was like...eeew...i'm getting off at the 2nd floor and taking the stairs (I was living on the 5th floor). btw, nice blog :)
hey mel, i know, i cant stand drunkards like that and i shudder to think of the infamous college scenes in frats at US, but i promise, i shall never be like that! -lyn
yeah i know.. having come from Malaysia where drinking hardly warrants any saying apart from drink driving, and then coming to Dunedin, where drinking Speights or Tui is actually part of the student culture.. Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights out.. drunk students knocking on everyone's flat on Castle Street.. next morning u see the puke and broken bottles everywhere.. welcome to the white world.. - dave lim
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