EL Club

Sooo.. more partying this weekend. But don’t think I’m only here for the party! I did some serious Spanish learning the two weeks before the semester started and since Monday I am busy visiting classes. More about that in the next blogpost which won’t take as long as this one to be published. Pinky promise!

But anyway! On Saturday I went to the season re-opening of THE Club in Montevideo. Now, how do I know it’s THE Club. Easy! It is actually called “EL Club”. So that makes it pretty obvious that I had to go. I was a little afraid that the place would be packed, since it was the season re-opening but it wasn’t half bad.

I went there with two Uruguayan friends of mine, Pablo and Mauro, and upon arrival I found out, that there were two lines to get in. That there were lines was kind of odd in itself because we got there super early (12ish?) and inside there weren’t a lot of people at all. Anyway, there were two lines: one for the ladies and the other for the gentlemen.

Usually being a lady has its perks here because that line moves a lot faster. But that night I couldn’t care less about such special treatment because it meant that I would have to wait in line alone and then get into a Club I’ve never been to and wait for my company to get in as well. Now, I’m usually all in for an adventure, but since I don’t think my Spanish is any good and it’s even worse understanding anything when there’s background noise involved (now try to avoid that in a club!), I wasn’t too keen on that.

But luckily my friends are awesome and I am German. Said friends talked to someone behind the fence, mentioned that I am the stupid girl from Germany that doesn’t understand any Spanish and is completely lost without them, yada yada yada… – et voilà – just a couple minutes later all three of us got in. No waiting in line involved.

Once inside I found that the Club itself was pretty sweet. There was an indoors dancing area where the air was pretty stuffy and then there was some sort of terrace with palm trees (and palm trees make everything feel like a vacation). And since the Club is right across the street from a beach we had quite a nice view of the Ramblas and the beach and the Rio de la Plata. The latter of which is so far stretched out at that point that it might as well be part of the ocean. Spectacular view… check!

That said, I really enjoy going out here in Montevideo because it’s so different to clubbing in Germany. They play way better music here, a lot of which is in Spanish. And even though that means that I don’t know the songs, they are still very danceable. And people actually dance here. I mean in Germany there’s a lot of guys who don’t dance at all and just awkwardly stand around. And if they actually decide to dance, most of them quite frankly aren’t any good because they lack some serious hip motion.

Another thing that caught my attention was the way the people dress. Well the way the girls dress. The guys pretty much all wore checkered shirts. Now to be honest, not all girls dressed odd and you will probably find oddly dressed girls in any country. But the degree of oddity just seemed to reach much higher levels. One thing I noticed was that many of the girls wore some sort of Birkenstock platforms which looked like something my mom wears at home every day (but without the plateau soles). Second thing is that they seem to have a quite special sense for combining clothes. A lace top with (extremely short!) silver sequin shorts and cheetah-print wedges? Well,… whatever floats their boat!

So we enjoyed ourselves and the party for a while and at some point in the morning, Pablo and I decided to leave the party and go to McD’s so he could get something to eat. And since they have Dulce de Leche flavored McFlurries here, I obviously had to get some ice cream (so good!). Later we went back to the club to pick up Mauro and drive him home. Which was quite fun because he was tipsy to a degree where he wouldn’t stop talking about anything and everything. I found it quite entertaining.

I guess that’s about it from that night. Bottom line? Being foreign has its perks. Clubbing in Montevideo is fun. German guys can’t dance. Uruguayan girls can’t dress. Best of both worlds? German girl in Uruguay ;)

…and just in case anyone doesn’t understand the whole sarcasm thing: That was meant to be a joke and I am not absolutely self-indulgent and vain!

Pablo, Mauro and I (the three handsome ones in the top-right corner)  with some other exchange students from País Vasco (Picture courtesy of Pablo Maceiras)