12 Euros? 12 EUROS??

So, I said in the last post that I love not having classes on Fridays, implying that I can go out and dance my pants off Thursday nights. Which is true, but last week Wednesday night was actually the big one.

During the day on Wednesday, my friend Nathan told me about how there was an Erasmus party that night and I should go. For those of you who haven't seen the movie L'Auberge Espangol, or just don't know, Erasmus is the program that basically everyone besides Americans uses for studying abroad. So, basically a big party for exchange students. A couple weeks before I'd gone with Nathan and Patrick to these UVA kids' apartment where tons of exchange students were kicking it and it was fun, and by Erasmus party I thought that's what Nathan was talking about this time around. Anyway, I convinced Molly and Amanda to come out with me and off we went...

I was eventually told that the party was actually at a night club. Hmm... okay... so Molly and Amanda and I took the metro where it was at. While we were waiting for the metro I heard these two British girls speaking English and I asked them if they were going to the Erasmus party. They said yes and asked if we had tickets. I said, "...tickets?" (This Erasmus party was proving to be 100% different from what I thought it was going to be). After talking to them more, I found out that yes, you needed a ticket to get in and it costs 12 euros.
...Fuck. Well, none of us wanted to pay 12 euros to get in anywhere, but at this point we were already on the metro on the way there, so I said we might as well just go check it out and see what's up.

We were waiting at the metro stop for Nathan and Patrick when a group of about 12 Erasmus students showed up. They were mostly Hungarian, Swedish, and German. We talked to them for a while and the leader of a pack (a boisterous Hungarian) kept trying to convince us to come with them to the party.
Me: We're waiting for some friends...
Hungarian: NO! Come vith us!
Me: Also, we don't have tickets...
Hungarian: NO! Vee vill pay for you!

Ho ho ho! Well, I figured we could not let this opportunity slip to get in for free. Also, I tried calling both Nathan and Pat multiple times, Nathan was completely wasted and I didn't even know whether or not they was en route, and I figured they'd call me if need be. So off we went!

Walking to the club was very strange. There were all these what seemed to be bouncers standing in the street on the way there that kept telling us to be quiet. When we finally got into the place, it was chaos. First of all, I don't think the Hungarian ended up paying for us because we were never handed any tickets. Second of all, they MADE you check your coat (and purse if you had one) which cost 2 euros. Well, somehow, I got past the guy who was checking tickets, but Molly and Amanda did not. He kept asking to see their tickets. In French, I did my absolute best to bullshit, saying how our friends payed for us and were already downstairs with the tickets, he let me in and they're with me, etc etc. Nothing was working. I desperately tried to figure out plan B. I ran downstairs into the club and found the Hungarian. I asked if I could borrow his and another guy's tickets to get my friends in. This was a bit of a to do, because once you get in you can get a free drink with your ticket... but I promised I'd give them back, and they conceded, so I ran back upstairs with the tickets and gave them to Molly and Amanda. The ticket checker saw me do this I guess, and said "No no no, that's gonna work..." I said, "Those are their tickets, our friends had them downstairs, please this has gotten so complicated...!" I was about to start pretending to cry when the guy smiled and said, "Alright alright, go on, have a good night." Success!

So, once we were all downstairs things started getting less stressful and more fun. The club was pretty cool. Big dance floor (often they're pretty small), big bar, biggish area with couches and stuff where you can just kick it, lots of cool things happening with lights and smoke machines, etc. Patrick and Nathan showed up and it was good to see them because I hadn't in about a week and a half. As more and more people got there the dance party realllly started. They played a lot of good music (Daft Punk and Justice of course, but also some Soulwax and Klaxons which made me very happy), and we danced and danced and danced. Also, I convinced the Hungarian to buy Molly and I a drink. After a while I decided to buy a drink myself. Now, usually when we got out we buy booze in the grocery store and drink before we go out because drinks at the club are just atrociously expensive. But, we hadn't done that tonight and I decided that I'd be willing to part with the 8 euros for a vodka/orange juice this one time. I didn't pay to get in, after all! After waiting about 20 minutes for the bartender to come my way, I gave him a 20, and with my drink got back 8 euros in return. TWELVE EUROS. MY DRINK COST 12 EUROS. That's the last time I buy a drink at Club Loft. Ugh.

Anyway, it was a very fun night all around. I met a bunch of new people, and danced the night away (as usual).

Much love to all! More to come soon.