My first "alcohol" experience
             I always loved New Year's Eve. Opposite to Christmas for Canadian kids, for me it was tons of gifts from family and friends, the most scrumptious food and my favorite cartoons on TV. Each year I started to dream about it in October, and for three months my life was passing in a fairy tale. Now, I am almost 19, but my most memorable moments are still related to New Year's celebration. One of them got stuck in my head so hard, that even if I lose all my memory in a car accident, as it often happens to TV shows' heroines, this "experience" will definitely not be forgotten.
             It happened when I was only 3 years old. Generally, we celebrate New Year's Eve only with the family, me, my mom and my dad. However, that year my father had to go away for work, so my mom invited her best friend, Maria. I was as happy as if somebody gave me all the toys from "Toys r us" in one day. This woman was adorable. She did not have her own kids, so I was like a daughter for her. The most amazing dolls with bright, blue eyes, blonde curly hair and boxes of chocolate, as sweet as mom's kiss, could be only her gifts. And my imagination was telling me that this time it would be something different and exciting again. By the way, I forgot to mention that she always made funny jokes about my mom and it must have been my turn in this cold January day.
             At 11.55pm we all settled around the table covered with all sorts of food and drinks. I knew that in five minutes my mom and Maria would drink champagne for New Year and then I would receive my presents. Suddenly, they gave me a cup with something dark in it and told that it was a new sort of Coke, which Maria brought from France. For sure, it looked like Coke, though it was not as carbonated as normal Coke. I smelled it carefully and felt that there is a bunch of cinnamon, roasted almonds and some other unusual spices in the cu...