Me revoilà!
Back after a Thanksgiving trip to Montreal, where we checked out McGill University for our high school senior son.
Bone-headed discovery: The Quebecois are serious about this whole French thing. Not that we had any trouble in banks or restaurants — and McGill is an English-language institution (kids have the option of submitting exams in French). But this is only my second visit as an adult, and I guess I’d forgotten that French is the default.
Other discovery: The drinking age is 18! We learned this at Shabbat dinner at the Ghetto Shul, the rollicking, Carlebachian synagogue in the heart of the student ghetto. Beautiful service, lovely dinner for dozens and dozens of kids and visiting families. And after the benchers are put away, out comes the alcohol!
I asked an American student if there is any less binge drinking at McGill than in the States, where some brave college presidents have floated the idea of lowering the drinking age and getting themselves out of the Keg Police business. “Oh, students binge,” she said. “But drinking becomes part of the culture. When a prof wants to discuss your grades, they’ll do it over a drink. And it’s a lot safer and mellower to drink at a synagogue than in a bar.”
I’ll drink to that.
JustASC is written by Andrew Silow-Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of the 