I'd point out that "social drinking" (so called), is a much better way to become a drinker rather than social, and I'd advise against it.
But learning drinking is nice : no vomitting, no hangover and you're fine till you're starting to regret it (a couple years later or more)
I do only beer and red wine (occasionally other types of wine), no sugar in my alcohol, no stronger alcohols, it's fine until it becomes daily and the quantity enormous so, sure, the warning is apropos.
If we're down into drugs I'll have to see taking MDMA a couple times maybe fixed me up in some way lol but in some places that could be embarassing and what with people who videotape themselves and other people all the time with their cell phones, sheesh.
for Cheezdoodles : are there small local concert venues, festival, interesting bands, electronic music that's not the boring shit, some nice local genre of music e.g. if you were in California I guess there's "californian punk" which is better than nothing.
Also, soon it's May, that's a nice month of the year.
Also, don't worry if at worst you come back home alone and with no phone numbers, the more you interact with unknown people the more you get used to it and then making friends is like totally random.
