Mecca of beer parties
Daniel Boonstra (20) is a self-proclaimed passionate lover and is unanimously agreed to be a 7.5 maybe a mid-8 at a push when he wears “those jeans”. He studies IBCOM at the Erasmus University and enjoys long walks on the beach. Every month, he visits a student event to shed his light on what’s hot on campus.
Beer. The sweet nectar of the gods. The hope the ugly. Juice of joy. Ok, maybe I’m being a little dramatic but if you think about it: is there anything at this university that unites more people than the love of beer? I mean, aside from utter distain for Monday morning lectures.
Lately, I paid tribute to a wondrous tradition by joining our very own student bar, In de Smitse, in its homage to Oktoberfest. On this most sacred day of the year, people from all nations put aside their differences and gather in peace, in the name of Oktoberfest. Many make the pilgrimage to the Mecca of beer parties in Munich but for most of us humble students, we must be content to stay at the local pub, drink beer and maybe even wear some discount lederhosen.
All the ingredients of a good party were apparent at the Smitse: nice people, slightly dated music, beer and of course silly outfits. Now I’m not one for intolerance. I fully respect our German brothers and sisters and their traditional lederhosen and dirndl, but the outfits I saw that night were clearly not traditional lederhosen and dirndl! As one German student I met said: these outfits were more like ‘hot’ Halloween rip-offs for those who want to look like a ‘sexy German frau’. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining – I’m all for holidays that inspire people to dress up like ‘sexy German frauen’, especially when the ‘sexy frau’ who wins the best dressed competition is a man dressed in dirndl.
As the evening progressed, I saw student part-taking in the classic German game that tests a Man’s heart for truth and a for mind steel: Beer Pong. Shamefully, the game was a little neglected by the masses but it was clear that those who did play, were having a damn good time.
After the best dressed competition, the DJ played something I had never heard before. Something Majestic. Something beautiful. Something that sounded like the German version of the YMCA. Now I have no way to confirm that it was definitely this song that they played, but I had never been so excited in my life.
Having never spent time in Germany, let alone, Munich, I feel more than qualified to comment on the success of In de Smitse’s latest cultural (I use this word very loosely) event. The night did feel a bit like an ordinary night at the pub with a few obligatory German references. This said, the beer was cheap, people had fun and there were even some sexy man-frauen. What more could a man want?
