At some point over the last year my drinking habits completely changed. I didn't drink in high school (bc I was sooo KeWl!!), I baaareeelllyy drank in college, well I drank but not to the extent my peers did, and for most of grad school I rarely drank. Then around June my life started to change. Interestingly, this coincides with the end of my course and the beginning of my working career. Now being hungover is a weekend tradition of sorts. As is consuming a bottle of wine a night (a weekend night, I keep it easy on weekends). What has happened to me? I blame several factors:
- Wine. I really really like wine. I don't know how I missed out on it throughout my undergrad. I mean I drank wine then but I didn't LOVE it. The problem is, I can drink wine verrryyy easily, I struggle to drink a beer, but wine I just guzzle. There were signs I'd have problems with wine. Like during my first Catz Night at Oxford (annual college fancy dinner and entz (Oxford party, blah too much lingo)) where I drank an entire bottle of wine and then basically spent 20 minutes telling poor Jonathan (who I BARELY knew) that he was a leprechaun who escaped Ireland because he drank ent (a la lord of the rings) water and grew so tall he was kicked out of his village. That's a true story, obviously not the leprechaun story, but I actually did tell Jonathan that story. I think it's a true sign of the destiny of our beautiful friendship that he didn't stop talking to me after that night and instead eventually invited me to the land of leprechaun's aka Northern Ireland. Anyways, I digress... I drink wine too easily. And wine is CHEAP here.
- British drinking culture. British people can drink and they do so casually. What I mean is, in America when we would drink it would be usually a big to do, like let's look nice and go out. Here, people just drink whenever. I know I haven't been a Y-P in America, so it may be different, but I do think there's definitely a bigger drinking culture here.
- I work with men. Men who love to drink. At happy hour on Fridays I forget my womanly body handles alcohol differently than them and try to keep up with them. Oh, and they always buy my drinks, so I drink more. Oyyyyy. Not good Hayley, not good.
