Immigrant looking for a job in New Hampshire

[scrappy]

I spent a year in Ireland.. I don't think the worst beer loving free stater could beat the average Irishman at that game... except perhaps an Irish free stater

Ah, before I got pregnant with my daughter I would have fiercely disagreed with you.  I used to be able to drink with the best of them.  After being sober for a year, I now get tanked after 2 beers and a glass of wine. 

[iWantToLiveFree]

When I first arrived in Ireland, I considered myself sort of a "heavy drinker". But then again, none of the girls I met (you know, skinny redheads) ever stopped before at least 5 pints, usually within a very short time, and a couple outside smokes in between. By then, I could barely pretend I was still okay when really all that went through my mind was how not to forget the way home.
(I understand lots of people can take much more than 5 pints in an hour.. I just thought that was a lot back then)
I am now much more reasonable and very rarely get drunk (happened only once in 3 years).

They have laws against public intoxication there, but they seem to be loosely enforced, and at 2am when most of the pubs close (yeah that sucks) and people are all forced into the streets at once (soon after the happy hour ritual) it's not really a pretty sight. Drunken irishmen and women everywhere (and a few drunken frenchmen too). Not that it really bothered me.. Just seemed kind of weird seeing the occasional drunk vomit in the street and a few half naked girls unable to walk straight.
Not only could one argue that it's the Law making things much worse than they would otherwise be, but even that was more of a curiosity than a real nuisance in my book.

One thing that really bothered me however was how everybody (including the smokers) complied diligently when a law was passed banning smoking in all workplaces. I was so pissed I wrote an article about it. Now it's coming to France.. well, actually it passed almost a year a go and all temporary exceptions will be lifted starting January 1st (bars and such). The smoking Nazis even managed to get something going through the NH legislature