This is Shanghai

Day 14
So it has been two weeks now that I’ve been in Shanghai, and the day wasn’t at all the special. I woke up, did my daily devotional, caught the bus for work, got to work, played Sudoku, went to lunch and almost ate eggplant, and “worked”. One cool thing happened at work. Terry came to me and asked me a question about sun angles and shading and just orientation of buildings. It was really cool to teach him something and to know that I’m also a reference and I’m here to help and maybe teach them too. The day was pretty ordinary, but the night wasn’t. This night the company was having a dinner party to celebrate Spring Festival, or Chinese New Years. We walked to the restaurant (which took about 30 minutes!) and it was called: Homelike Restaurant. What the heck does that mean?! We sit down and there is food already on the tables but no one is touching it. We are all eating tiny oranges and these awesome pistachios. I’ve never had real fresh pistachios, and boy do they make a difference. So we eat all of that and basically wait until the boss, Issam arrives, which is about 45 minutes after we arrive. He says a toast in Chinese and then everyone just bull rushes the food. It’s tasty, but I’ve had better. Duck, chicken, fish, shrimp, soup, vegetables, everything. And then someone breaks out the wine and beer. People start making toasts and walking around to people they know and toasting to them. It’s crazy. I’m just merrily drinking my sprite and cola and just watching 85% of the people slowly but surely get drunk before my eyes. Terry tells me that I need to drink to be a man, so I oblige and he welcomes me to manhood. It interesting because he tells me that I need to drink more. And I just ask him, “Why? I don’t want to.” He has no response besides, “because you be man. You drink!” he’s drunk. Some people start sneaking out of the party, and as I’m about to the HR lady, Amy stops me and orders me that I can’t go. I need to take care of Terry and I need to do KTV.
KTV: karaoke. I don’t spend much time around drunk people or people that smoke. I usually go home and sleep and don’t stay out and experience the night life. I say what the heck and tag along to KTV. Terry and I wander around the building trying to find our room and eventually wind up back to the entrance where we see people from our party about to fight other people. Amy is cursing and yelling and it’s all because we might not get a room. This is Shanghai. They LOVE their karaoke. Beers are back, cheers are back, smoking is back, snackies are back, and bad singing has now just entered. I go to the bathroom and start using the urinal and all of a sudden I feel a really warm towel on the back of my neck and then it starts to “massage” me. I’ve never felt so awkward in my life. Here I’m relieving myself and there is this guy just rubbing my neck. This is Shanghai. Terry want me to do KTV and I say ok, and tell him to choose an English song that he knows, but he never seems to understand me. He just nods and keeps on asking me to pick a song. We eventually pick “Lean on Me” and “Billie Jean”. Our songs eventually come up and I don’t recognize it at first cuz the background singer is some lady. So we grab the mic’s and I start singing. It’s cool to be applauded, but I know that it is just a customary thing. They have no idea what I’m singing, they just want more drinks and more time for them to sing. Lean on Me was fine, except Terry doesn’t really have any rhythm and pretty soon I was singing by myself. Billie Jean comes on and he just stops singing, he said he knew the song, but he doesn’t. Choosing Michael Jackson was a lose lose situation. He sings to high, and he’s too good. The night finally ends after I try to leave, but Amy stops me again, so I wait til Terry feels like leaving. We catch a cab and head back home. This is Shanghai. Pictures soon.