a house party in spain is something i'll never forget in my life. 

i was couch-surfing in andalucia with a friend and we hooked up with a couple of psychology students who grew huge bushes of marijuana on their balconies. 

it was funny to see that all these university students - lawyers, doctors, researchers - were getting stoned out of their asses and still able to get along in life, at least for the moment. 

anyway, on our first night there they decided to hold a house party and invite some people over. 

having gotten used to finnish house parties i was expecting people to show up without introductions, of everybody sitting in their own corners without even attempting to meet people, of the only purpose of the whole deal to get totally shit-faced in order to forget the monotony of their lives. 

but no. 

italians, spanish, french people poured into the apartment and we shook hands and joked and laughed with everyone of them, getting to know everybody like a family. 

they'd all brought ingredients for a massive meal that we cooked together and then pulled tables together to form a great symposium in the middle of the room, and we sang birthday songs to one of the guests in all languages, finnish, french, german, english, spanish, italian, you name it...

the food was amazing, and the wine and beer warmed you subtly when you were well-fed and warm instead of chugging it down with both hands into an empty stomach back home, in an environment where nobody shared anything, food, drink or ideas. 

but this was a different world. 

people were a lot poorer than us scandinavians, but as we clung on to our treasures with paranoid despair, these people shared the little that they had.

this was a place where you held speeches, connected with all levels and brought in all sides of the table to form a comuniun of free spirits that respected and wanted to learn from one another. 

after the meal was finished we all washed and cleaned and then i was asked to play. 

and hell, even that went well. 

my dark stories didn't depress anyone, they were seen as the entertainment of the night. 

the dessert spliffs were passed around. 

the faces glowed with tender satisfaction. 

romance was in the air and at the tip of my fingers. 

i never wanted to go back to Finland. 

but there was a time for everything.

2 Worlds Apart

Thomas NoBody