By Alina Chen
I know that by the time this article actually comes out, Carol is probably as irrelevant as the dying Christmas tree dumped in your front garden. But good God, that was quite something.
Buying my ticket on that fateful Friday, I had no idea just what I was getting myself into. I was definitely not picturing downing my second shot of tequila at 8am exactly three weeks later… Abiding the captain’s dictatorial rules, only two lucky people escaped gulping a shot first thing in the morning by being dead on time. With only two pieces of toast in my stomach, I could feel the alcohol spreading through my veins like a warm dangerous wave. Oh dear, steady on my girl, you knew you had a long day ahead of you.
When we stumbled out of the flat all “reasonably” intoxicated at around 11am with an inflatable palm tree (I know…), the broad daylight made everyone cringe. God, look at the state of us! But queuing outside the Venue whilst our fellow LSE students went about their day looking completely sober was something else. That was a guilt trip that we did not deserve… Okay, shhh, perhaps we did. After all, we were bunking classes to get hammered. But not all of us of course – shout out to our beautiful and committed captain, who claimed she was sober enough to go to her class midway and then was nowhere to be seen afterwards. Where did you go, Ana??
The Venue was surprisingly good given the mixed reviews. However, the first couple of hours at Zoo made me feel like I was melting into a boiling pot of human porridge. I could barely budge let alone dance. I was not drunk enough for this. All that half squatting, chugging that bottle of pink wine in the queue (so as not to be spotted by the security, of course) did absolutely nothing. Luckily, it did pick up as the crowd “thinned”. Despite all complaints, it was bloody fun. It always is – dancing, sweating, shouting and jumping to some basic and perhaps cringey tune with everyone else doing exactly the same stupid thing.
I must say, my night took a surprising turn after Zoo, so technically I can’t say that I actually “completed” Carol. But I was pretty chuffed that I made it through the day without throwing up. Little did I know, that would not be my last chance to experience the beauty of puking on campus on a wild night out. Would I do it again? Check in to see how much cheer I need this time next year, when I’m eventually struck by the impending doom of graduation and perhaps never finding a job.
