Flippy Cup

ready, set...

Americans seem to have more interesting ways of getting drunk that Brits. Since I’ve lived in China, and hung out mostly with citizens of the USA, I’ve learnt a fascinating plethora of drinking games. On Saturday, I was introduced to another one, Flippy Cup.

It was a special event, as it was somebody’s leaving do, so we splashed out and headed for one of Shijiazhuang’s pizza parlours, which does an all you can eat buffet. I managed to arrive twenty minutes early, and got a few funny looks from the waitresses when I sat down by myself at the biggest table there.

go!

The buffet includes beer, so to make the most of it, we started on Flippy Cup. It’s a relay team drinking game, with the aim being to down your shot of alcohol then to turn your cup upside down, balance it on the edge of the table and flip it over. Only when you have got your cup flipped back up can the next person in your team drink.

We all got very competitive, and were already a little merry by this time, so it was great fun and provided a lot of entertainment to the staff. Sadly, I believe my team lost more than it won, but not for want of trying.

One of the people there was Hungarian, and had recently received a bottle of Hungarian spirits in a care package from home, which he shared. It was very generous of him, although that is not what I was thinking as it burned down my oesophagus!

the results!

This paled though when compared with the horror of a strawberry jelly baijiu shot. Baijiu is Chinese rice wine, and there’s a good reason why it hasn’t caught on in the west. Even the smell of it makes me want to gag, but seeing as the girl who was leaving had gone to all the effort of making the jelly shots, I felt it would be rude to decline. It took me two attempts to consume it, and I really thought I might be sick. I nobly donated my second shot to someone else, not giving them a chance to argue with me.

Definitely one of the best nights out I’ve had for quite a while.