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Campus Life - Letters from Ohio State University
The highs and lows of partying
By Akio Iijima
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大学生のパーティー事情
アメリカの大学生のウイークデーは、勉強に追われてストレスがたまりがち。そんな学生たちの最大の楽しみは、週末のパーティーです。日ごろのストレスを発散させようと、ここぞとばかりに羽目を外します。オハイオ州立大学の学生にとっても、パーティーは週末に欠かせないイベントとなっています。
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先日、筆者宅で開かれたパーティーで行なわれたゲーム
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For college students who build up stress from studying during weekdays, the weekend is a time to free themselves from the strain of their daily workload and get wild. One of the most popular student pastimes on weekend nights is partying.
A typical party offers free beer and opportunities to make friends, find a date and dance. Even though bars and fraternities are common places for drinks and parties like any other college, the majority of parties take place in private houses. Some parties are small and closed, but as the temperature gets warm enough to stay outside, large parties where guests can mingle on balconies and in courtyards dominate the campus nightlife. Normally, these involve a couple of kegs of beer and rap played so loudly that the whole house vibrates to its beat. The number of guests proves the popularity of the host.
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こちらはちょっぴり大人のゲーム
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These outside parties are semi-open to the public. If you know the host, or his or her good friends, you are welcome. People with many connections know where parties take place, and they tend to receive a kind of respect from others, especially from freshmen who look forward to partying at college. If you have many acquaintances, you can drink almost every weekend without paying a penny all year. Even if you do not know the hosts very well, or occasionally not at all, it is not difficult to sneak into these open parties and have a good time with your friends over free beer. Openness, in terms of both being outside and having a welcoming atmosphere, characterizes the party culture of large schools in the Midwest, especially at the Ohio State University.
I used to go to these parties in my freshman year. I wanted to hang out with the new friends I had made in the dormitory and be exposed to the party culture that young Americans can get so excited about. It was fun for a while, but my interest waned because it was hard to meet people I could be bothered meeting for a second time. Of course, a lot of people make friends and find dates at parties, but on campus there are other ways to socialize. Others feel the same way. Many friends of mine stopped going to these large parties after freshman year.
The typical image of one of these large parties is a lot of people looking bored because the only reason they came is because they couldn't find anything better to do and they didn't want to feel like losers left out from the "popular" crowd. People stand around talking in monotones among themselves over beer, sometimes interrupting their dull conversations to look around for people they know or something of interest. Not that they would do anything if they spotted someone or something. And when they get tired of standing up the whole night, they just drag themselves wearily home.
I think mass entertainment, like MTV, projects the image of the "successful" college life upon teenagers: alcohol, romance and hanging out in crowds, especially with "cool" people. Many college students are constrained by these images. To me, this whole party culture seems vain, a continuation of high-school culture where all that kids crave is popularity or not being branded losers.
It is not that I do not like partying or that partying is bad. It is just that I would rather drink and dance with a small number of good friends. Recently at my place, my best friend from Germany and I hosted a party together, one that we made sure was a little different from regular American parties. We made it a potluck dinner party and prepared cocktails instead of beer. We played Eurobeat techno and popular Turkish singer Tarkan instead of rap. We played many games with randomly selected participants so that strangers could interact more easily. In the end, I really enjoyed it and so did all my American friends.
Shukan ST: March 7, 2003
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