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My university, here in Huainan, that has looked so deserted for the past few weeks has started showing some signs of life. The odd student has started returning and there is certainly more activity here than in the last few weeks. The early birds here are the ones looking for their worms of love. Apparently, unable to bear the long Spring Festival-induced separation, they have come back to school sooner than necessary - sooner than necessary as per the school's diktats but perhaps, less sooner than the necessity imposed by nature. Which means, they have borne the festivities with some sort of stoicism. Spring Festival is the time when reunions are de rigeur for families. But lovers do not qualify as family and so they must make do with a period of segregation. They walk now, hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm, smiles on their faces, homes and hearths forgotten in the fire of love.

Lantern Festival! Today, the fifteenth day of the Spring Festival, a full moon day, is the Lantern Festival when people remember their ancestors, if I recall rightly. After today, this year's Spring Festival will be consigned to the caves in the minds of the people and the hearts of lovers. Some will remember it with fondness and others, perhaps, with a little less, depending on what the festival gave or took from them. The streets this morning are deserted. The morning was noisy though, with firecrackers rousing me from my tossing-turning sleep well before fingers of light could brighten the horizon.

Xia Wu Fandian (Afternoon Restaurant, if my translation skills are any good), my head-office as I refer to it since most of my meals and drinking are 'accomplished' there, was crowded. I walked on to see more of the festivities. All I saw was unenforced curfew - or, perhaps, a curfew enforced by tradition. I imagined people sitting to a lavish spread with their ones at home, leaving the streets to be trawled by the homeless and the foreigners, perhaps, equally homeless in some sense. I returned an hour later and the restaurant was as deserted as the streets and I sat down to my small measure of baijiu (white wine) appetizer and cabbage with fried and diced pieces of doufu (tofu, beancurd) and a bowl of rice to go with it. It tasted good, as usual. It's a dish created by a student's (Chris's) pretty girl firend, Peace. She directed the restaurant's owner-cum-chef on how to prepare it and it has become a hit with me and a few others I have taken with me to sample the dish.

While I waited, I asked the owner's mother, who helps clean and wash the dishes there, where the lao ban niang (mistress of the establishment) was. 'Mama', a genial old lady, with an ever smiling face and busy hands, signalled that she was at home in bed. Why, I asked. She indicated that he, her son the lao ban, (the boss) had beaten her. I am about to call him and ask why he did that, forgetting for a moment, that men have been beatiing their wives for thousands of years, not only in China, India or Asia but all over the world. Thankfully, most women don't cower in the face of domestic violence anymore. Instead, they are more than willing to desert their violent husbands/mates. Unfortunately, in parts of Asia, women still allow that and don't raise a hand against their partners, nor their voice against the 'practice'. I wonder when this violence will end, when men will return their women the dignity they not only deserve but have earned over centuries. I believe, it's men with a huge sense of inferiority that do this, not men who are real men.

Festival times are not times to rejoice for all...for some they are times of torture!

posted by escs  # 4:35 PM 0 comments

First of all I have to say that for getting to any reasonable club in Bremen you need at least 25-30 minutes (That is, the time to need to get to Bremen Hauptbahnhof). If you turn right and you go past the Cinemaxx for about 600m you will get to Gleis 9, situated at the old Guterbahnhof. This is mostly a House Club, but it also has Hip-hop and a bit of Latino House. People are pretty select, mostly students and people with an average age of 22-25. It has got one dancing floor, stools, tables and armchairs and you can have a drink even on the top floor. The place is famous for various motto parties (Allegria, Ibiza, etc. when they also have movie projections). Usually, the club gets full between 1 and 2 oclock in the night and dancing starts at about 1 oclock. Entrance costs about 6-8 euros but you usually get a free drink included in the price.

If instead of turning to right at Hauptbahnhof, you go straight and cross the tramlines and you get to Rembertistrasse (the street under the autobahn) you will find the Tower Club (on Herdentorsteinweg). This is a place decorated in a Gothic Style with old walls and little light. It has two floors: downstairs one can also dance and upstairs one can play some table football. As I was told by one of the bodyguards, the music is better upstairs, but theres a dancing floor only downstairs. This is the perfect place for rock (softer, not very hard), alternative, new wave, crossover, and hardcore music genres fans. Sometimes it also has house parties. The place is especially popular among students because on Tuesdays it has Student parties with free entrance and Fosters beer at half price. Even if you are not a gothic fan you might want to drop by if you do not have anything important to do on Wednesday morning and have a chat with some students.

The first club on Rembertistrasse is Rosige Zeiten. This is again a mostly house club, but on some occasions they also have 70s parties. It has got a pretty impressive reddish decoration. Unfortunately in the last years the club has lost its popularity and if you go there before 1:30 you will find very few people. Entrance costs about 5 euros and it is useful to ask how many people are in (because sometimes there are quite many, especially when DJ-s from London come there).

The next club on Rembertistrasse is Neue Welt also known as nine-nine-one (on Fridays). On Fridays the main genre played is trance and other non-commercial techno genres (but not house). The atmosphere is not spectacular and there are not too many people on Fridays. On the other hand, the club seems to be totally different on Saturdays when the music played is varied (mostly charts). The place even seems too crowded and small and the people seem a bit too immature (starting from 14 year old people). Personally, when I was there on a Saturday with Akhil, Azim and Timur we felt that it was not the place for usbut maybe its not like that every Saturday From 3 or 4 oclock in the morning the place reopens for the Morning Beats trance party (Sunday morning, entrance 5 euros). So, if trance is your religion you might want to try this.

Walking further on Rembertistrasse, you will get to Woodys. They put all kinds of music, anything that is in vogue for any taste (less house). The entrance is 3 euros, the average age is 18 (it means there are also people who are 15 and people who are 25) and the drinks are pretty cheap. It has got one floor and nothing too spectacular.

The most famous club on Rembertistrasse is Stubu/Coconut. This is the club about which you will hear most things from the other pioneers. Some of us went there so many times that we are disgusted when we hear the name of the place but we still go thereI dont know why but the place is a magnet. It probably owes its popularity to the fact that it is open all week, entrance is only 3 euros on Friday and Saturday night and free on the other days. You wont believe but there are actually parties everyday there. The student party is on Thursday when the place gets sometimes as full as in the weekends (also because of the happy hour- drinks at price till 10 oclock). It has two floors: Stubu-mixed, charts, techno, German Schlagers and Coconut-hip-hop, RnB. Theres a great variety of people you can meet here: from students to factory workers, all races and different nations.

On the other side of the Hauptbahnhof if you are a trance fan you could go to Schlachthof and if you like house more you might want to try Swutch Club.

Closer to the city center, near the banks of River Weser (on Schlachte Street) there are several good clubs and restaurants with foreign food. One of the good clubs is Rio where they occasionally have Latino parties, like the one called 36 Grad (the place to practice your salsa, merengue, cha-cha-cha, mambo and rumba skills).

On the same street you may find on the Weser a boat where they hold parties: Shark Lounge. It is mostly famous for the student pa:ti-s which take place about once a month. The main genres played are house, UK Garage, Hip-hop, Latin House and some house/RnB mixes. People are also very select, clean and decent. The entrance fee ranges between 5 and 7 euros (might be up to 10 for very, very special occasions). A small advice: Check online if the place is open on the day you want to go there because it is not open every weekend.

The biggest multi-taste disco inside Bremen is Modernes. This is the place for many motto parties (Studio 54, Heartbreakers ball, Robbie Williams Night, etc.). These motto parties are guaranteed to bring more fun because people are dressed up, there are movie projections, games, live stage entertainment. The entrance costs from 4 to 9 euros. The dancing floor is among the biggest I have seen in Bremen, although there are much bigger places outside the city.

There are also two very big clubs in the Sebaldsbrck area, close to the Mercedes-Benz factory but these ones are more specialized. Their names are Aladin and Tivoli and they are right one next to each other. This is a big advantage on special occasions when the walls between them are removed and everything transforms into a huge 4-floor party complex (with a yard where one can breathe some fresh air). During normal weeks (weekends and some working days) Aladin hosts parties for rock, hardcore, alternative, hard rock, heavy metal, punk and related tastes while Tivoli hosts parties for Trance & Techno fans (entrance 10 euros). However, Tivoli does not get full during normal weekends. One can have the best time partying in Bremen at the big Jungle, Old Skool, 2step, Drum n Bass and House events. These happen about once a month or once in two months. This is when the two clubs (each one having two floors) unite giving birth to an impressive complex with floors for all tastes.

Usually at these parties there are about 15 to 20 DJs and 5-6 MCs (famous ones, from Germany and England) and also 2-3 LJs (for all the lasers, vortexes and projections). This is why the entrance price is situated around 20-25 euros (depending on the number of celebrities), but one can get a 3-5 euro rebate if the tickets are bought before the event (Vvk. i.e. Vorverkauf). Even before opening at 10 oclock one can see long cues at the entrance and the place gets full in about one hour. Dreamland and Junglemania are two famous events that take place several times a year. Personally, I have had my best clubbing time at these parties, so if you enjoy the genre you should not miss it! Remember a thing: Good parties dont take place too often! (Thats why it might be a good idea to put some money aside some time before.)

To sum up, I may say that Bremen is not a huge night-life center like Frankfurt, Berlin or Hamburg but still for a busy IUB student trying to forget for a few hours a week about assignments, study and student jobs, there are enough places to acquire new memories and experiences. I am telling you this because after you will graduate you will have less free time than you have now. We will all be preoccupied by career and then family, we will be really mature people and we will be fully responsible for our actions. And then we will ask ourselves: Didnt I miss anything from the beauty of being young and restless? So, my advice would be study hard and learn well but dont forget to chill out a bit because Bremen is not a village after all J!

So, Viel Spass!

posted by escs  # 2:04 PM 0 comments