international comparisons

Not related at all, but my friend is studying abroad in France, and this is an anecdote from her visit to Avignon...

"It was a long day…the bus pulled out at 7:30, which meant leaving Echirolles a little before 7, and we didn’t get back until midnight. Our first stop was just a rest stop, which one would assume isn’t worth mentioning, since the point was just to use the restroom and get a coffee or what have you. But you would be very wrong. For upon arrival at the rest stop, they were having what appeared to be a flash rave, with tons of people about our age dancing drunkenly in a mob wearing all sorts of costumes, ranging from cowboys to diapers. At 9:00 am. Outside a rest stop. Though nonplussed, we were at bit to groggy at that point to investigate what was going on, but after caffeinating we made our way toward the crowd. Eventually a conversation was struck up with some relatively sober participants, and we learned that apparently this is a tradition as part of med school orientation, in which they spend a couple days of debauchery…presumably traveling around a bit? The reason for the rest stop location was never fully resolved. But we left happy to know what was going on, if a bit concerned for the future of the French medical community."