Foggy recollections

Things I recall being questioned on by a few of the horde of international students I was with on Crescent Street last night:

*Why Americans are so overweight (a discussion with someone who had just read Fast Food Nation)
*Why the US drinking age is 21, and how American freshmen at McGill get piss-drunk during orientation week and beyond
*How it's possible to get a college degree in the US without having to learn a second language
*How I don't, in fact, own a gun
*How I'm not voting for Bush. (I really need to practice a convincing lie on this topic though, just to see the reaction from some people.)

Of course, I also spent a few minutes extolling the kickassity of the Constitution and the democratic history. But I really stammered for an explanation on the drinking age thing. (A relic of puritanism? Some kind of political thing that was popular with the MADD middle classes when it was changed in 1984? Something that could possibly be rectified if 18- to 21-year-olds actually voted or got involved?)

But a good time was had, somewhat surprisingly. I had imagined that a lot of these "international students" would be awkward Asian guys with poor English skills; instead, most of the ones I met were exchange students from Europe or Australia here for a semester or a year. Very few freshmen, and even one other grad student. And also a unexpectedly favo(u)rable reaction from most people when I told them what I study. Odd. Maybe it was the whole PhD program thing too.

I met more Norwegians in one night than I had in my previous 23 years. I couldn't pronounce their names when I was sober, and there's no way I could try to spell them. There was a guy named Magnus, though, and all I could think about was Magnus Ver Magnusson from those World's Strongest Man competitions on ESPN2 with these huge guys in third world countries doing exercises like pulling a truck loaded with indigenous people. The night ended with the Norwegians and me at Le Buone Notte, and my vowing not to endure another loud, sweaty thirty minutes at such establishment.

Tinnitus persists at this hour, as does a lack of interest in doing anything for at least the first half of today.