Ho Ho Ho!

Holiday Season Recap, Episode II

The first weekend of December, we rented a car with some other European friends and drove to New Jersey. Back in summer (when temperatures rose through the roof), we decided that it would be an excellent idea to witness a real American college football game in New Jersey... in December. Unfortunately, we didn’t put much thought into the fact that football games take place in open air (no roof!) and that December in NJ tends to be rather cold… We drove down to the Rutgers football stadium and I started to worry when I saw everyone dressed in about 10 layers of sweaters, coats and rainproof plastic. The game started out great – until it started raining and then even snowing very badly. The Americans kept cheering but for me and my Euro friends, wet and cold, one quarter was more than enough. After hiding in the warm restrooms, we decided to abandon the game early.

Plan B: drive to Atlantic City. Atlantic City is the Las Vegas of the East Coast – not as spectacular – but still a gambling paradise. We arrived around 6 pm at the Borgata Casino and split up – some of us trying their luck at Blackjack or Roulette, others at Poker and me… at the casino stores. I’m not the gambling type and never will be, it just doesn’t make sense to throw away your money on luck games while instead you can throw it away on shoes and clothes. After gambling, we met up to have a cocktail before dinner. Unfortunately, one of us didn’t bring his passport and was denied service. You probably know that in the US you need to be 21 to be able to drink in public. Normally, a regular ID will do the trick but casinos tend to be a bit stricter, I guess their policy is to only rip off adults. Fake ID’s are very common in the US; I’ve only been here a year and I already saw a lot of American kids trying to get into a club with a fake ID - and in about 80% of the cases they get away with it. Since Americans are not familiar with our Euro IDs, it is harder to check for fake ones. So, no passport means no gambling and no booze for foreigners… unless you pass the casino’s local security test: they will compare your national ID to examples in their database (well, just a book with pictures) – if it matches, you get a stamp on your hand reading “21 – legal”. You got to love American practicality (although, I’m not sure what is easier to fake, an ID or a stamp). With a “21” stamp, they allow you to keep gambling and drinking and throwing away your money – wouldn't it be easier to put the stamps directly on our dollar bills?

Next Holiday Episode: Philly! (I told you we've been busy!)