Actually Sorcha the drinking is my personal thing. I don't drink, we don't serve alcohol in our home, and that is how I raised my kids. I didn't tell them it was horrible, though they only had to look next door, my neighbors have been sober for 10 years now, and 2 more wonderful people I have yet to meet. (They aren't holier-than-thou angels, but real, vital, homorous people, and true delights. But before Allan stopped drinking we had nothing in common.)

My daughter is a member of a Dartmouth fraternity, the one the most tolerant of non-drinkers, and my son is finding out that a glass of wine with dinner in France can be very nice, but feels no need to drink. However, I would expect a Norse man to understand a bit about alcoholism, being so close to the arctic circle, which I have also heard has the highest alcoholism rate in the world.

But I just got back from going to get them at the drive-in, and they had disappeared. I was frantic, and when I got home they were there, having met another AFSer from Norway and gotten a ride home with her. Leiv had missed the fact that I had said I would come back at the end of each movie to get them... I didn't strangle them, but they did understand that they need to listen when they say OK, and English wasn't the culprit, because Leiv's is excellent.