Social Investments

I've never invested much time in building a "gay" social life here back home. Picking one's friends based on their sexuality is beyond me, and I'm quite averse to the general gay-"scene". Moreover, I left Belgium when I'd just turned 21, so there's a 5-year hiatus in terms of expanding the home-social circle. Though I made many new gay&straight friends during my time in Lisbon, England and Scotland, the temporary return to Belgium this summer pretty much implied a return to a predominantly, if not entirely, straight group of very close friends. That suited me just fine. The post-break-up rebound phase is all too messy, so I'd no pressing urges to "mingle" with potential flings. And as every PhD student knows, the whole write up experience is in essence a time of withdrawing from society and simply directing every bit of focus you can muster, upon completing your thesis.

But now the write up has drawn to a close, the rebound phase has long passed and with the prospect of possibly 2-3 more months of waiting before I can take off travelling, I figured the time would be right to finally invest in some level of "gay" social life. And yesterday was just the ticket. A club in town was holding a gay-women-only DJ night. It was quite an eye-opener. It seemed like the entire cast of the L-word had been -badly- cloned ten times over and descended upon the club. It was hard to keep track of all the Shane, Max, Carmen, and Dana look-a-likes. I wonder if people watch this show with a notepad, writing down all the little accessories that are featured and then attempt to incorporate them into their own wardrobes. Either that, or the L-word casting directors & costume design crew did a hell of a job depicting the general trends that were already there. It's a chicken-or-the-egg type mystery. There were, of course, also the token Alex Parks copy cats and typically a whole army of cringefully butch & dyke punters.

It was all in all a fantastic night. The music was just about right to keep a slightly tipsy clubber on her toes, the drinks were expensive enough not to get entirely wasted, and I'm gradually getting the hang of Flemish flirt-language. Which, it cannot be said enough, is strangely radically different from the English chatting up bussiness. I managed to bump into an old friend, which is always amusing, especially in such "dodgy" locations. And, as luck would have it, just as I've started to teach myself survival spanish, I made an enchanting acquaintance with a pretty Flemish Latino. As a first attempt to socialise "gay-ly", it was a stunner of a night. The phone-number list has been expanded and this evening, I am off out with one of them. It has helped make me ever-so-slightly more confident that walking into clubs and bars on my own during my travelling stint, needn't be such a daunting prospect after all. Growth. ;-)



-Pictures Compiled from the club's "Image of the Night" website-