Basement party

Concerning my last days here before Christmas, I was out every night (what a surprise). Monday, Santana night. Started at a table with Spanish/Catalan people and one Greek, ended with Maja, the Serbian girl. Funny night; some crazy Italian guy who got very excited with every song (every song was his favourite, so it seemed), people singing and saying goodbye.

(David for the president of Catalonia)

(Remy in his fancy blouse)

(crazy Italian guy)

(Double facepalm)

(The Greek guy)

(my roomie and her friend)

(In the middle of conversation with Bojan; damn papparazzi, they never leave me alone)

Tuesday, the Sangria party and Dan's last night in Brno party. I went from one to the other. In the end, everybody got together in Dan's and Mate's room. Sangria, wine, vodka, rakija, you name it. Weed? No problem. I met new people. Even after three months here, there are still new people to meet. Erasmus without limits. Wonderful. Later, going to 2faces. The way back home: blurred. Pictures as proofs of my presence there.

(Shani, my roomie and me)

(Dan wants to be in the picture as well)

(The magnificent four)

(Mate and the curly Portuguese guy)

(no comment needed)

(Dan trying on my roomie's sweater)

(Manly Dan)

(2faces crew - two girls, my two saviours of the night and mr. Cocaine who took some nasty photos of the way back home)

Wednesday, the day of extreme hangover, going to the Christmas market with my roomie to buy some presents for my folks. In the evening, basement party. Sticking to beer only. 2faces again, dancing all night long. Colin trying to teach me some dance moves, not successfully. Completely his fault.

So, basement parties what to say about it? Not much can be said, yet something must because they are one of the essential parts of the whole Erasmus life in Vinarska 5, block A1, Brno, Czech Republic. Long story short, this is how it works: every Wednesday (occasionally it can be some other day) there's the drill of buying some drinks, getting ready and going to the basement pre-party. The basement is situated in -3 floor, next to the laundry and drying room (which reminds me that I have to pick up my clothes from the drying room). It consists of the corridor, the little vestibule and two small rooms, one of which is almost always with the lights turned off, the other completely opposite.

So, basement party people have three options:

to spend time in the corridor where it can be chilly sometimes;

to out voice with others in one room;

to try to dance in the dark room which is usually packed with the number of people twice bigger than it can fit there. It's all up to you.

(Jesus, Fran and me in the vestibule)

(David, the crazy Spanish guy)

(In the corridor)

(ah, basement parties)

Yesterday, at a pretty lame basement party (due to the fact that a lot of people already left for Christmas) I discovered that the wall in the dark room is covered with signatures and drawings of Erasmus people. Of course, I had to put my stamp.

By the way, if you see the words Up, up follow, I'll follow you u pičku materinu, that's Tomasz's piece of art. He wanted to write just the other part of the sentence, but he failed in the spelling (apparently he doesn't know the English alphabet either, not only the Croatian).

(Tomasz, the sweety)

(the piece of art)

(Poland sucks! )

(the wall of legends)

After the party, which means when the drinks are gone and the time of the bus approaches, everybody leaves for the bus station, five minutes by foot. There are always some people who stay home, but they are not numerous. There is a possibility that you miss the bus; don't panic, buses go every half an hour during the weekend and every hour during the week. There will always be 2 or 3 groups of people that go at different times. In the bus, it is a tradition (according to Spanish people) to sing loudly and hitting the roof with hands in order for the bus driver to stop and refuse to start the bus again until you calm down. This must be repeated at least two times, otherwise the trip to the center is too short and the party is no good.

(at the bus station)

(mon cheri)

(it was cold, we had to keep ourselves warm)

My God, I'm gonna miss those parties so much. So many people already left and are not coming back, some are returning in January. I'm leaving tonight, 3:20 am, to spend Christmas with my family. I'm coming back for the New Year's Eve, but there are people who will not return. Tomasz left this morning. I'm gonna miss that guy so much, he's different from anyone I met here. It's so sad to think about it... 90 % of all these people I won't see ever again in my life. And I will stay in touch with just a few of them. Ah, goodbyes, this is the only bad side of Erasmus that I found so far. Well, it's still not completely over, so I'll give myself in to the post-Erasmus depression in February, if I don't stay here.

Till then – happy face!

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