Maybe this worked out because I had a great moment with some friends last Thursday. Wonderful people, great dinner and of course a bottle of wine (and another bottle). People and alcohol are an amazing mix. My friend that I met are cute, smart, funny, sexy - a melange I like to call 'fucking fabulous'. That's how they are. Unfortunately, that was all. All good things come to an end.
On Friday, I met two AIESECers. I saw a salsa email and decided to go for the free class at some salsa bar. I met that AIESEC intern girl. The salsa was nice but also painful as it reminded me of my salsa course in Morocco. Then, the dancing part ended and we had to talk. Nothing easy with people with whom you have no connection whatsoever. A friend of hers came over a while later. He was more bearable for me. However, after a while we couldn't agree on a place to go afterwards. It's not that no one would listen to the suggestions of the others - no one would have any interesting suggestions at all (neither would I). We were wandering across the city. We ended up in a nice pub. And then the worst things started to happen. As I might have mentioned that before I hate certain things related to international experience. First one is that I avoid tourists (or I simply hate them) and any signs of them (like taking too many pictures which sometimes happens to me but I make sure it is not too often). The second thing is that I hate ordering in restaurants / bars / pubs in English. Belgium is my second French speaking country that I live in. Even tough my French is not perfect I can manage to have a conversation in this beautiful language. I always use it when speaking to people on the streets, offices or bars. I hate ordering in English because I feel as if I were a stupid tourist who can't speak any language but his native and English (which are often one language). It is not always truth but was always the case in Morocco and is in Belgium. And if you don't speak the language of the country where you currently are / live you can always learn a few words. So I was in this bar with those two people. The guy was ordering in English and the girl was taking pictures of the bottles of alcohol over the bar... Could it have been any worse? When we toasted and I made sure we looked at each other's eyes to avoid seven years of bad sex she felt really intimidated by the fact of bringing up the sex issue. Later, on the way back home she kept taking the pictures and I couldn't resist saying 'why are you taking so many pics? You're not a tourist!' She replied 'oh yes, I am! But just for more than one day!' Apparently, it could have been worse. People who know me know that I will not become friends with her. It was a horrible experience. The percentage of boring and dull expats is so sadly high here.
Today, at a birthday party of a friend, I met a Polish girl. She's been in Belgium for a few years now. She has this well-paid job at some European institution, a cute boyfriend who will probably become her husband soon. And they have recently left moved out of Brussels to live somewhere outside of the city. I asked if it was suburbs but she said it was even farther. It is definitely not the kind of life I see for myself. And I guess there would be no connection between us either.
To summarize - life can be fun here but it is very difficult. I am still struggling to achieve that.
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