Karaoke with the Coworkers

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Last night we went to karaoke with our marketing department, and you can't imagine how crazy it ended up being!

We go to the place expecting a regular, small karaoke room. Instead, we are taken to this place called Party World, and the elevators open on a gigantic...BUFFET. It was Chinese heaven. They had do ban and dan ta (egg custard-my favorite Chinese dessert) and the shaved ice station with condensed milk and mango custard and free-flow milk tea (which I'm now addicted to) and tofu and a make your own soup station. But that was only the first attraction.

Our karaoke room was quite plush, with disco lights, two leather couches, and a flat screen TV. I go in with a full plate (here you eat in the karaoke room!), and one of my co-workers named Taylor is already at the head seat singing. Apparently karaoke in China is more about solos and the guys are totally open with singing. They are so good!

I met a fellow intern from the Hunan Province named Crystal, who was too shy to ever introduce herself to us at the office! She is an English major, so while we conversed in English, she would teach me some Chinese words...and then introduce me to the stories of Chinese pop stars that we karaoke'd to hehe. She actually lives in the hotel complex with us, and she's only 2 years older than us...so I invited her out to party with us tomorrow. I guess we'll see what she says!

So the party started to loosen up when us Trojan Interns rocked out to classics like Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, Avril Lavigne, and Britney Spears. Actually, many of our coworkers knew Britney Spears hahah. One of my fav guys is named Murphy, and he's this totally polite, proper Chinese guy who knows a fair amount of English. He's sort of our advocate here at the office, and he was encouraging us to sing American songs...then he joined us HAHA.

But the party REALLY got swinging when our boss, Eden, joined us with our translator Angela. DAYUM can he belt out those tunes. And the secretary Shelley was telling me that he won 2nd place in college for his tunes. Can we say Chinese Idol?

Then came the beer. I thought that we would have to avoid alcohol at all costs in front of our colleagues. To our surprise, they ordered 3 cases of beer, and brought some small kegs. For 20-ish people. It was INSANE how much they can pack away! Our boss was laughing and dancing like a maniac, and taking photos with us.

Kim and I learned a couple songs in Chinese, so we got to perform for everyone. I, however, didn't learn all my lines in time, so I had Lynn and Lu help a sista out. My song is called Lao Shu Ai Da Mi, which means Mice Likes Rice...basically about how this man loves someone as much as mice likes rice. I love China.

Then at the end, they revealed the prizes. The whole thing had been a contest haha. And it was basically prizes for just the interns...I got best dancer 😊 One of our coworkers, Taylor, who we've eaten with a couple of times before got pretty dang drunk. He wanted the prize for Best Drunk, but he's a newbie and the rest of the office wasn't quite so keen on that. So they made him chug a couple extra beers, and then he had a chug-off with another guy named Marty. These Asians can friggin pack it away. The women, too, held quite a bit in.

So Taylor makes a drunken thank-you speech where he tells Bryan he's the handsomest guy in the office and he tells me that I'm the prettiest OY. The funny thing is that when our office gets drunk, they have this strong urge to speak to each other and us in English. So half the office can't understand and are laughing at him, and the other half that do understand are STILL laughing at him.

We had a BLAST! =)

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Photos

Shaved Ice!
The glory of buffet

Karaoke is the name...
...singing is the game.

Gambei!
Bottoms up

PRIZE TIME
I win

Comments

[Steffi]

Mmmmm my favorite dessert is dan ta as well! I love Chinese bakery food...I'm working in Chinatown for internship so I get to get cheap cheap bakery food everyday. And you WOULD get best dancer! Because you are an awesomely sensual dancer, I think.