Another crazy night in Wuhan!

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Spring has sprung and the days are beginning to warm up around here. This weekend, and for the next few days, we are looking at temperatures in the high teens so summer is definitely around the corner.

Friday night found us at yet another party. This time the excuse was the fact that one of the staff couples got engaged over the holidays last month. So fifty people or so piled into Bryn's apartment for a few hours of R & R. His "penthouse" is located on the 18th floor of the building, which makes for great views of the surrounding complex and city. Partway through the night, a couple of party goers set off a fireworks display inside the main Vanke complex just below us so we could watch from the balcony. They lit the box of 100 exploding missiles and then ran like hell back into the building lol. It is a no-no to set off these things inside the apartment complex. But, for the first time, we got to look down at a fireworks show (or more accurately, across) instead of up! These boxes of fireworks never cease to amaze us and are readily available in a large variety of sizes and prices in many places.

Later we all jumped into taxis and headed for the local roller-skating arena (is that what you would call it?). Most of us had never been there before, and never been on roller-skates, or if we had, it was a long time ago. We are talking about the old-fashioned four-wheeled kind, not Rollerblades. The elevator was out of order so we had to walk up six flights of stairs, no easy feat after a couple of hours of partying. We emerged into the hallway and proceeded to the ticket booth where we all purchased tickets for 8 yuan each. That's a little more than a Canadian dollar. Not a bad deal for a night of entertainment! The "arena" was a large tiled room with a bouncy dance floor in the middle of the room. We had to pay 1 yuan for our rollerskates and then off we went. The place was smoky (you can smoke almost anywhere here), full of flashing lights, dark, and the music was cranked. We were all a little shaky at first but most soon got the hang of it. Nobody was doing cartwheels on skates by the end of the night, but nobody broke a leg either. Some of the local skaters were pretty incredible as they raced backwards around the room, solo or in groups. It blows my mind that there weren't crashes every few minutes.

As people whirled around with drinks in hand, a large group was continually dancing in the middle of the room on a large, raised springy platform. It was an experience to behold!

Anyway, the pictures and videos speak for themselves. Once again, a good time was had by all!

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Photos

The cake
Only in China do they decorate a cake with tomatoes!