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Club-Mate and public drinking

There's an energy drink that's common in Germany and Switzerland called Club-Mate. It's a fizzy yellow drink in a clear bottle that has about as much caffeine per ounce as weak coffee. I like it. It does look a lot like a bottle of beer, but that's usually not a problem because it's legal to drink beer in public here.

With one exception: I try to get out of the apartment for a while every day. Lately, I've been stopping at the convenience store, buying a Club-Mate, and then walking to the park and finishing my drink while sitting in the park. The local drunks and homeless guys see a guy drinking a bottle of fizzy yellow stuff while sitting on a park bench in the middle of the afternoon and recognize a fellow traveler. They're normally pretty stealthy about drinking (or even being seen), but with my bottle of Club-Mate in hand, they'll raise their own bottles in greeting as I sit down. Two days ago, I had a guy who smelled like a brewery talking my ear off for nearly an hour about how he misses his family. He never asked for money. He just needed a sympathetic ear, and I must've looked like I had one. When I finally extracted myself from the conversation, he stood up and, in that uniquely Swiss way,  looked me in the eye, thanked me for listening, and shook my hand before we both walked away.


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