Whiskey Slaps - 12/21/2012

The Bean Pod

Agreeing on the rules

GABBY - This morning we woke up damp and cold after a rainy night of sleeping.  Miraculously, I woke up before Ben around 5:30 am and read my book outside for awhile.  It was a gorgeous morning and the mountains looked radiant from the picnic bench where I was sitting.  I eventually saw movement and heard Ben stirring from the Bean Pod (my new name for Ben’s tent).  We packed up the tent and all of our wet gear and headed toward the Park’s Board to meet Steve.  He picked us up in the Land Cruiser shortly after and promptly began filling us in on the new guests that had arrived.  It’s crazy how out of the loop you can feel after being away from the farm/backpackers for just one night.  We picked up some of the Drak Gardens Zulu guys who work at the farm every Friday.  When we returned to the backpackers, we were greeted with many unfamiliar faces of guests that had stayed the previous night.  It took them awhile to realize that Ben and I were the people they needed to talk to for anything related to the backpackers.  We met 2 American girls, Alyssa and Doreh.  Alyssa is from Oregon and Doreh from Maine.  Both girls were working in the Peace Corps and had already served half of their time, one year.  We also met a Dutch couple who seemed friendly enough.  Felix and company had checked in the day before we left.  They were 4 young, kind of douchey German guys who were staying for one more night.  We went into town with Steve to get some food for dinner.  It looked like we were going to have big numbers, so we did what we always do for big numbers: braii.  We started the fire outside early, which meant that the bar was open early.  It was a nice late afternoon of socializing, drinking and getting to know one another.  I talked to the 2 American girls, who were also in their early 20’s.  They both had pretty short hair and informed me that they had shaved their heads during their first year in the Peace Corp.  So freaking cool!  Aileen (my best friend from studying abroad in Cape Town) and I talked about doing it when we were studying abroad, but never had the balls to actually go through with it.  As the night progressed and darkness fell, the younger crowd decided to play a few drinking games.  While Ben and I were doing dishes, we heard some loud cracks from the main room.  That could only mean one thing – Whiskey Slaps!  Whiskey Slaps is a camp favorite and is pretty self explanatory.  You take a swig of whiskey straight from the bottle, which is then followed by a slap in the face by another person as your chaser.  It certainly draws your attention away from the taste of whiskey and to the pain in your face.  Admittedly not my favorite game, but Doreh, Ben and I bonded over an American classic.  After a bunch of painful slaps, we settled on a freshman year favorite: Kings.  Kings is not quite such a physical game, but quickly turned aggressive and vulgar.  The group consisted of the 4 German guys in Felix’s party, the 2 American girls, Ben and me, and a Dutch guest.  It was actually a really great time filled with lots of laughter and rapidly flowing booze.  After all 52 cards had been accounted for, the game fizzled and so did the party.  Ben and I fell asleep a little worse for the wear after a fun night with some younger guests.