Cutlureshock!

I made a minor error of judgment last night. It was the first night the on-campus pub "Rogers" was open. It's named for a tee-totaller who once stood for president on a temperance platform which I find amusing. We thought we should explore the pub though, and with echoed sentiments of "just the one" we set off...

The campus has been pretty quiet but the undergrads have started arriving back this week. When we arrived at the pub at 9:45 it was empty - which we thought was a bad sign. There was some ski team fundraiser on so we had to pay $3 to get in, and the "Campus Police" checked our ID to prove we were over 21. The officer in question had a crew cut straight out of the eighties and a kind of skin-tight black jumper with the police badges sewn on. Oh, and a big nightstick. It was a bizarre ensemble that reminded me of the sorts of uniforms the agents of totalitarian regimes wear in (slightly camp) sci-fi movies... Very surreal!

Once we got in the $3 cover charge was offset by the $1 beers. We've been used to the bar in the exec ed center stinging us about $6! OK so it was mediocre lager served in a plastic cup of about 3/4 pint, but still - it was a bargain. 6 of us sat and chatted for a while then suddlenly noticed that the place had filled up. Woah. The undergrads are a pretty culturally distinct from anything I've encountered before! For a start, the girls of the ski team turned up in their skintight skiing catsuits, unzipped to reveal push up bras and substantial cleavage. As for the guys, I have never seen so much plaid. It was like a Pythonesque lumberjack convention with hip-hip tunes. Several times we wondered if we were hallucinating the whole thing.

Too terrified to try and push our way out to the front door, we were forced to dig in and drink $1 beers until closing time at midnight. Wow, was that whole experience a culture shock!

This morning I was up early (6:45) to go to see local entrepreneurs pitching to a group of Business Angels. I made sure I had plenty of time to walk across in the cold crisp air to wake myself up. Fortunately $1 beers don't contain enough alcohol to cause a hangover (even after 5 or 6) but I didn't get the early night I intended... The sky was absolutely amazing as the sun started it's slow journey up over the horizon, so I couldn't resist grabbing a snap. It's been another busy day so this is the first opportunity I got to post it.