There's no reason, FFF, not to have a few beers in the evening while flight training! Seems from the post that the general complaint (apart from dull scenery) was a poor social life. Being as What was away from home, this would tend to be depressing and mean too much intense focus on the flying, which is not a good thing, especially if that isn't interesting. Remember the stimulation curve in HP&L?
My opinion would be that going without good social interaction for more than a week is an important concern, to the level perhaps of being a significant flight-safety hazard.