A lot can happen in a week. After the disaster that was last Friday, life looked bleak. That all changed on Saturday when we went to not one, but two karaoke bars. The most popular place here to go for karaoke is called KTV. I cannot ascertain whether that is the name of the chain or if it is short for the Chinese name for "a place where you go to sing karaoke".
We went to the first place with a student from the college, Jimmy, and one of his friends. They hang out a lot with Tim so when they invited him to go, they invited the rest of us to go as well. Clyde was the only English speaker who ducked out, so Ben, Andreana, and I figured we would make the best of it. The KTV was a 5 minute cab ride from school. The building itself was HUGE, dirty, and smelled kind of funny. All of the rooms are private rooms that are rented by the hour. Us girls were feeling a bit outnumbered, so we called Ester and told her to come join us. Jimmy invited his sister and she brought some friends so we ended up rocking it about 10 deep.
They do have some English songs available here on karaoke, but it is a strange assortment. They had some artists we knew, but many songs by those artists weren't ones we had ever heard of. To our enjoyment, they love Backstreet Boys and Michael Jackson. Our Chinese friends kept choosing random titles that were in English and then were shocked when none of the Americans knew them (but they still made us sing). Karaoke here is a very serious affair. When it is your turn to sing, you stand up, you hold the microphone like a pop star, and you sing like your life depends on it.
After this first experience, Andreana and I had a brief shopping intermission with Ester. Ester then calls a friend of her's and arranges that we meet up with him and his friends at our 2nd karaoke place of the evening. This second place we have seen before. Or shall I say we have "noticed" it. It is hard to miss as it is Greek/Roman themed and they have a giant sign outside that has all Chinese save for the word "SEX". Fate has a funny way of sending things your way sometimes.
The inside of this place is immaculate. All of the staff is dressed up in incredible "uniforms". The women at the main door are in ballgowns! The inside is a Greek/Roman theme as well. Where at the first place, the wait staff was sleeping at the front counter and couldn't be bothered to do much of anything, at this place the waitstaff waited inside our personal room to wait on us hand and foot. There was no funny smell, marble floors, and the look of opulence everywhere. The crowd at this establishment was also older...at least our group was. Ester's "friend" is a teacher at one of the English language schools in the city and his guests included the principal of his school, other school officials, some government officials, and their wives.
If we thought the first people were serious, we didn't know what was coming. All of the songs chosen were sad love songs. Many of these songs had parts for both a man and a woman. Not only did the singers sing like their life depended on it, they sounded like professionals. I wonder what they thought of Andreana and I busting out with "Get the Party Started" by Pink. It went over well at the first place...
Of course the only way to accompany this caliber of musical greatness is by formal dancing, so formal dancing there was. Thank goodness I took those ballroom classes back in high school! We also tried our hand at such classics as "Achy, Breaky Heart", some Avril Lavigne, Backstreet Boys (when in Rome...), and goodness only knows what else. Ester, sweet thing that she is, agreed to sing on one condition: Andreana and I had to dance. So, we did. I am sure these people thought we were insane, and we are most likely giving America a bad name too, but oh well.
You are probably getting a good laugh at my expense now, but just wait! It gets better! On Monday, after class, Clyde informs Andreana and I that he got some strange call from Bob asking him if he would sing an English song with some girl. At the time, we thought nothing of it other than it was strange and went about our days. Then, on Tuesday...apparently Andreana and I got calls one right after the other from Bob about singing an English song. He, as usual, was hard to understand, but we got that some girl won an English speaking contest and would be singing a song in English and wanted us to join her. We both agreed, not having any idea what we were getting ourselves into.
Yesterday, we meet a nice girl, Lily, who won an oral English competition and has "moved on to the next round". Apparently the next round happens next Saturday, the 29th. As National Day is around that time, it is a National Day festival of sorts. The event is only for city officials and invited guests...namely us. IT GETS BETTER! Andreana and I are going to be singing Madonna's La Isla Bonita with the girl - on a stage, as a performance, for a competition. What have we gotten ourselves into? We are going to have our first practice on Sunday when Andreana gets back from Hong Kong. On Wednesday we are going to have a dress rehearsal of sorts where we do a mock run through of the entire performance with the other performers and then the gig is on Saturday. Ha! I have a gig... what is happening with the world? I think that karaoke bit really lit a fire somewhere. On Sunday we are going to work out our outfits. Since it is an invitation only event, I have no idea how we will get photo documentation of this event, but it will happen. I will not let you down! Wish me luck!
Pictures from karaoke night have been added to the "September" photo album on Picasa so check though out for a good laugh as well.
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