Thursday night fever

Thursday night out is almost like the Sunday service. You feel bad and disturbed when you miss it (well, at least I do!). That is the end of the similarities. When you go to the church you usually do not care at all which one to choose and if you go to any of them you will feel fulfilled. It is not the same with Thursday nights out. You have too many options to choose from and even if you decide on one you will always miss not going for another one. You do not have the feeling of fulfillment.

Havana – a standard Thursday evening / night. There is the ‘Happy hour’ until 8 PM, nice ambiance, good and cozy atmosphere and the fabulous expats all around you. I am lucky to be known by many members of the staff who are responsible for the Thursday after work concept there. Until some time ago they always asked to show the friend card once you are at the door in order to find your name on the guest list and make sure you are ‘a friend’. Some Thursday a few weeks ago I entered and was struggling to find my wallet in the pockets. Before I manage to get it I was already said ‘you are Kamil, right?’ And since then I have no problems with being ‘identified’ by the staff.

Last Thursday, we actually tried to have it all. Verena and I went out to Havana. The party was already starting to kick off and everything was as usual – good music, a mix of interesting people and nice atmosphere. Then Ronny showed up (our dear Ronny – a funny guy whose sense of humor makes me laugh to death). The three of us had a conversation with the manager of Havana after work concept. He was telling us a lot of plans and ideas of what kind of events to organize in order to attract people. Then Ronny shot ‘maybe think of something like the Eyes Wide Shut party?’ I burst with laughing. The manager did not get that. He is a nice guy but he just does not understand our sense of humor. A few weeks ago, a lot of people I know (including me) was invited to join a facebook group called ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. The mysterious creator of the group keeps sending messages about the upcoming party. If you do not understand what I mean, just watch the Kubrick’s movie.

After a while, we decided to break with tradition and tried going to Mirano – an old but still fancy, great and widely known club in Brussels – a kind of a club who plays being hard-to-get. Soon, we were at the door. Although the club did play hard to get, we managed to enter. One thing I love it for is the interior design and the configuration of all the rooms, bars, dancing places, staircases etc. It is pretty spacious, has a few bars in different places and several floors. It actually used to be a theater before. It is not as cozy as Havana though but has its own unique atmosphere that makes up for it. At some point we were dancing in the middle when I suddenly felt I was about to fall on a guy next to me. I managed not to lose the balance and then looked around to see whether people laughed at me or thought I was so drunk (and I wasn’t… that time). Everything around me was spinning so you might think that I was drunk. But what in fact happened was that suddenly the huge dance floor in the middle started spinning around. That is why I almost fell. The dance floor was a huge circle and it started moving. For most of the rest of the night we were literally spinning around on a literally spinning dance floor.

Last night, we also went out to Havana. Although Verena left Brussels for good last Sunday and moved to Maastricht, the Netherlands where she started her masters, she came back for this one Thursday night just to be in Havana. Yesterday, everyone was there – all of my fabulous friends and party-mates. While we were dancing to the music of the cool DJ and the twin brothers playing drums and sax I thought to myself – how many things about Brussels will I miss when I leave the city? Great people I have met, the places I have discovered, the conditions of my work here, the convenience of the life, the proximity of other European cities like Paris or London – quite a long list, isn’t it? Once I am gone from here will I start missing it as much as I miss Morocco? Will I be extremely nostalgic and wishing to be back as often as I can? Or most importantly – will I want to move back here?

There are many similarities between my life in the Kingdom of Morocco and in the Kingdom of Belgium. Both countries provided me with the great lives, some great places to go out, many great ways of spending my time but as well with the moments when I was pissed off, furious or simply cursed it and wanted to be far away. I am going to be the same person anywhere I will live. I will eventually meet the same kind of people and do the same things. I will enjoy it the same way and I will hate it the same way.

I start to think that it is not about Morocco or about Belgium or about any other place in the world – it is in fact about me.