How to Party With a South-American 101

Born to Be Wild: Latino Edition
It all started with another expat guy, Don Huán; who decided to hit me up and ask if I want to join his Birthday Party tonight, though It was the first time I would meet him.
Since I barely had any social life, I didn’t have to think twice.
What could go wrong, right?

I arrived to his house around 8, he offers a beer and introduces me to his friend, Déniél.
Déniél strikes up a conversation about our countries: Economy, school system and such.
Looking back at this point, I should’ve accepted the beer. Though because I didn’t, the events of that night remained clear; making me able to write this post.
A few minutes into the discussion the three of us quickly came to the conclusions that almost every country sucks.
Except the Netherlands, of course.
Around 9, Huán suddenly gets up from his seat, runs to the door and lets her (2) sisters in.
Now that all of us were here and we were done with the small chats, Huán decides it’s time to spark things up a little and asks her sister to give him a piece of paper.
By the time I figured out what they were doing with that paper and a scissor, they were already enjoying their freshly sliced Colombian LSD.
No cake, huh?

Not Your Usual Wednesday Night

Since it takes some time until it hits, Huán warmly invites us to his 4sqrm bathroom, where the 5 of us can comfortably sit down and smoke a carefully rolled joint without triggering the smoke detector in the living room. Even though they switched from English to Spanish from time to time, it was still quite easy to keep up with what’s going on. Until the LSD hit.
As the “Well-raised Eastern-European”, I didn’t dare to take anything; Khmm-artifical.
It’s the Netherlands, after all. You just can’t refuse a joint.
It’s the culture. You know, if you wanna integrate, you gotta follow the rules.

Huán, full of joy and acid; runs to the kitchen, grabs a bottle of red wine and takes out a silver goblet from the cupboard. He starts to pour the grape-blood with a huge smile, until it’s full. After sharing it’s content with everyone, all of us became brothers.
When we were done with the puffs, things got intense when the effects of those substances started to mix in them. LSD, Weed, Wine and Beer. Huán comes up with a sudden idea: Roam the night club and chug a shitton of booze, because it’s fucking VODKA WOENSDAG.

To Be, or Not to Be?

It’s half past midnight, I felt quite tired, but you know the “come with us“-they said “It’ll be fun“- they said scenario. Well, it wasn’t a lie.
We started to walk through the broad streets of Arnhem, with the dark brown bricks under our shoes and the night blue sky above our head, pierced by the full moon’s light. We were the only troublemakers in the entire city, since today wasn’t a usual Friday night. It was the middle of the fucking week. Or so we thought.
We bumped into a group of Gangster Guys, who really knew how to get things going. One of them did backflips on the road with a bottle of beer in his hand, then pounding his chest right above the heart: “Africa, my men. Born and raised“.
To be honest, even to this day in my life; I have never seen anyone who was this impressive.

We got into the club around half past one, immediately charmed by a 65 yo grandma on fire, who was fishing for some young, fresh Dutch D on the dance-floor.
If someone was slaying with moves that night, it was her.
Huán immediately scores 5 seats, while putting an order for 4 rounds of vodka shots and 1 shot of jäger each. I was still sober at this point, decided to stay that way in case someone happens to get wasted and a clear head would come in handy.

After a while, I recognized that the level of pleasure in this place seemed to be tied to the amount of stuff taken, which heavily reduced my ability to enjoy my time. After the drinks went down, I decided to head home, only to find out I left my bag; along with the keys- at Huán’s place. Not having the slightest idea about how to get back there, I sat down on a stair to get some fresh air and think about the possibilities, while I was texting with my gonna-be tinder date, who suddenly turned into my future wife as we ended up talking on the phone for more than an hour.
As it started to get cold, it seemed like the worst mistake at the time to leave my keys at a place where I can’t get them, but life has it’s own tricks to unfold in a way you would never expect. I found my way back to the Club, asked my newborn friends if they’re okay, when the Gangster Guy joined us and invited everyone to his place.

It took 4 minutes and 3 people to put on a single coat. The struggle was real.
Though the night was young and they had a decent amount of every substance they could get their hands on, so being clumsy was just part of the deal. On the way home with our African guide, he bought pizza and beer for everyone, just to make the night even more pleasurable.
I have to say, this guy was so full of energy, if you hit up the dictionary at the word “spirit“, you’ll see him as the illustration at the bottom. After half an hour and a great walk, we end up in his house, with a Turkish musician playing the guitar and a Russian linguist snorting cocaine. It’s the NL after all, let’s call it a night.

The house was full of handmade furniture, in African style, carved from wood. He had a huge bed facing the TV, speakers pointing at us from every direction, everything a man can ever dream of. We kept discussing life in all the possible perspectives through the eyes of our cultures, until the rising sun reminded us to get some sleep. We woke up around 2(pm), endlessly expressing our gratitude towards our man, for the hospitality and kindness, then head home.

The Colombians decide to snack mushrooms for breakfast on an empty stomach, just to decently close the day and have a great time on the plane 3 hours later, since the girls had to go back to Colombia.
Luckily the shrooms would only hit around 4, while the plane took off at 5, so they were about to get high right before the check-in.
We picked up our stuff, walked out to the train station to say goodbye, I wished them a safe trip (and a nice one 😉), then they depart.
We wave at the train for a while, until it disappears in the distance, then I turn to Huán, give him a hug along with a bro fist and say: “Man, what a night”
-Indeed, Brother. Welcome to Arnhem.

20.02.2019 – Day 30