Last night, we went to karaoke at KTV. Oh. My. Gosh.
Emily K., Byron, Sarah, and Aaron (aka Karen) all came over to the apartments for a little pre-gaming, dinner, and karaoke. Byron brought us all Snickers, which were absolutely amazing. My first chocolate since arriving in China.
Emily, Lauren, and I still weren't really hungry after our massive lunch with Jack, so we decided to take everyone to the hot pot restaurant down the street from us. That way, we could eat as little as we wanted. I was really excited to see if the Hong Fu that's close to our apartment was as nice as the one by the Fuhua Hotel. Not so much, but it was still a nice restaurant in comparison to most Chinese restaurants around where we live.
Before getting to the restaurant, we stopped at the store next to it to buy a bottle of bai jiu and some orange juice/drink. In China, pretty much everywhere is bring your own drink. You can show up to a restaurant with your own water bottles, liquor, or beer, and no one says a thing. Because there were seven of us, we got our own back room. Somehow, I was the one handed the menu and in charge of ordering. Since it was the third time I'd been there, I knew the good cooking sauce and peanut sauce to get, so that was nice. We ordered cucumbers and lots of noodles, tofu, and some kind of meat. It wasn't beef, but it still tasted good.
We finished the entire bottle of bai jiu between the seven of us, which may or may not have been a good idea.
After finishing dinner (which cost less than 200 yuan total), we headed next door to KTV. The KTV next to us is kind of sketch, poorly marked, and on the third floor of a building. We weren't sure where it was exactly, so we just all bounded up the stairs until we heard music and saw a door marked KTV. Two very enthusiastic men greeted us with loud hellos. We weren't sure if they had songs in English or not, and we didn't want to get charged for a room and then not know any of the music. Oh, in China, you get a private karaoke room and they bring you drinks, food, etc. We attempted to ask in Chinese if they had songs in English, and were met with blank stares. Emily just asked, "Lady Gaga?!" and one of the men answered back with an emphatic, "LADY GAGAAAAAA!"
We took that to mean that they did have English songs.
We were led back to our room, and Emily K. immediately started making a playlist. For the first half hour or so that we were there, about every staff member of the KTV came into our room to offer us things. They kept bringing us beer and telling us that it was 15 kuai -- you can buy a pi jiu for about 2-3 kuai on the street. No, thanks! Then, they brought us Budweiser. It was 20 kuai, but we went ahead and ordered four to split. Ahh, American beer. I had no idea how much I missed it until I tasted it. Chinese beer tastes like water in comparison. After those beers, we turned down everything else they brought us because we didn't want to get charged a ridiculous amount of money. They still insisted on bringing us a bucket of waters and cokes and a tray of fruit shaped like a dragon. They kept saying, "Free! Free!". We figured it was okay to take it. Then, one of the women grabbed me, Emily, and Lauren, and held us by the arms to take a picture. I guess she wanted to make sure that we didn't get away from her.
After all of the staff left, we got right down to business. We sang everything. It was so much fun, just dancing and bouncing around and yelling/singing American songs that we actually recognized.
Every once in a while, we would look over and see a little face in the window of our door. The staff members were still taking turns coming over to our door and watching us, even if they weren't coming in. We never fail to be entertainment in this country.
After about an hour, I don't think our "Lady GaGaaaaa!" friend could contain himself any more. He came into our room and asked us "Lady GaGaaaa?!" again. When we all nodded and shouted "Lady GaGaaaa!" back at him, he ran over to the karaoke machine and started to play "Bad Romance" for us. I don't know who had more fun, all seven of us dancing in a circle and yelling the words to "Bad Romance", or the Chinese staff member who I'm pretty sure video taped the entire thing.
After about two hours of karaoke, we left the building sweaty and exhausted, but already ready to go back for another KTV adventure.
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