''Red cards'' are at the very heart of the drinking culture of many University of Otago students, writes Kirsty Gordge.
Red cards are commonly associated with negativity: for example, when a referee pulls out a red card on the football pitch a player is sent off as a punishment for some wrong-doing.
Otago's version of a ''red card'', however, is very different: it is seen as prestigious, and something to be celebrated.
Basically, it's a highly irresponsible and likely unsafe drinking fest.
And if that doesn't sound bad enough, how about the fact that it is compulsory?
Every second-year student and above gets one metaphorical red card per year.
When a student ''pulls a red card'', everyone invited must attend, and bring the specific amount and type of alcohol.
There are no excuses for missing a red card - the ''tradition'' is to drop everything and go.
It's unfortunate for you, if you are planning a night of study or are doing a last-minute assignment.
Much like the university's policy of there being no exceptions for late assignments, students don't take kindly to people not turning up, or turning up late.
In fact there are often ''punishments'' for turning up late such as having to do a couple of shotguns or a funnel or something equally as incapacitating - in order to ''catch up''.
There are games at red cards which students play in teams, and as silly as it may sound, people actually try and consume their alcohol the quickest in order to ''win''.
No-one else really knows who wins (or even cares at the time) as they are too busy barfing into the nearest bucket.
Is this what we students have to come to call ''fun''?
The red card I attended recently was fairly tame - shotgun on entry, consume nine 7% cans in two hours, as well as boat-races, and numerous rules to catch you out and make you scull your vessel.
It was a lot of fun - at least I think it was - because it was tame.
However, the boys on Castle St don't see it as ''just a bit of fun'' - they see it as a competition.
There are literally flat ''initiations'' for certain popular flats around Dunedin that work on the same basis as a ''red card'' - if you have, or are planning to, sign that particular flat then you simply have to attend the initiation.
It is compulsory, but people don't mind because it is deemed ''traditional'' and prestigious - let's be honest, it's partly why they chose that flat.
These events involve head shaving, streaking, funnels from two stories, and the most horrifying has to be the ''pelican''.
A ''pelican'' is where you drink your vessel until it makes you sick, regurgitate your last meal back into your vessel, and keep on drinking until you are finished.
Yes, you drink your own vomit. Now who would ever think that was still ''just a bit of fun''?
It's disgusting.
A friend of mine from high school in Auckland (also at the weekend's red card) commented to me about Dunedin's drinking culture.
He says he finds it invigorating at times, but also kind of pointless.
Coming down to the deep South after having a gap year in Germany and travelling Europe, he says he is surprised how much peer pressure there is to drink here.
He knew it was going to be rowdy, but it seems that if you reply to a friend that no, you are not drinking this Saturday, you are immediately peer-pressured to change your mind.
If that fails and you stand your ground, people do not respect your decision, are disappointed in you and think you are a ''wuss'' or ''uncool''.
If this happens too many times, you get known as boring and you start to lose your friends.
He says that in Germany, at a party, people sit and talk to one another, explore cultural experiences, and share their travels.
If there is alcohol, great, but it is not all about that.
No-one really gets up in the morning and can't remember what happened the night before - it's all about learning from one another and increasing your cultural knowledge.
Is this so different from Dunedin?
Yes.
My friends (and I cannot exclude myself from this) frequently go out on a Saturday night and have a great, albeit messy, time.
But when we wake up on Sunday it usually takes us a few hours of us all in the same room feasting on hot salty chips (like our lives depend on fast food) for us to piece together the night.
We laugh about funny memories, we ask about what happened to such-and-such, and we regret the drunk texts we have sent.
This is normal for Dunedin - actually I know this is tame. During a typical red card, the people that vomit first are ridiculed because they can't hold their alcohol.
They are teased for being ''lightweights'', apparently something that is to be ashamed of.
But should it be?
Statistics, health programmes and mothers are constantly telling us how excessive intake of alcohol (especially sugary RTDs) is ruining our bodies - hell, the uni even gives us a quiz to take in O-week that informs everyone they are a ''moderate alcoholic'', encouraging us to change!
So what is so bad about being a lightweight?
It's cheaper and does less damage to your body, but no, that is not what Dunedin finds ''cool''.
I think all students should imagine their life five years from now, looking back on their university days.
What is it that you see?
Do you remember how cool you were at that red card when your teeth got knocked out when your face hit the pavement and you went to hospital?
Or do you look at your blood test results and wish you hadn't had so much vodka?
Look at your bank account and wish you hadn't failed so many papers?
Look at your face in the mirror, and wish you still had your teeth?
Or look at photos of your friends and wonder why it didn't work out.
Why nobody said ''no, enough, this is silly''.
Red cards, are, and will remain to be, the heart of Otago's negative drinking culture.
• Kirsty Gordge is a Dunedin second-year student
