So this weekend I was Italian...
Trip Start
Jun 10, 2008
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3
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Trip End
Dec 15, 2008
Harbin, China
Monday, June 30, 2008
Karaoke
Some of you may remember my Korean roommate from freshman year and the painful karaoke nights he had with his buddies. I like to think that my experience here redeems said friend, as my karaoke nightmares have not returned. The letdown of the club is that instead of having one big bar where everyone can get up and sing as the spirit moves them, there are about 50 separate rooms with couches and karaoke equipment. So about 10 of us crowded in for our renditions of such classics as N'Sync's 'Bye Bye Bye' (which in Chinese became Zai zai jian!!), 'Country Roads' (every Chinese person here knows this song and loves yelling MOUNTAIN MOMMA), some Chinese song which roughly translates as 'why are girls so frustrating? i don't understand' (yea, no comment), and so on
before the underground
. The pictures speak for themselves--my favorite is the pic of my roommate, who really really rocked out for one of our final actsRoller rink/disco tech/stand up comedy club
This place was.... interesting. Think of the sketchiest roller rink you know, take away the 'safety features' such as... I don't know... a DEFINED skating path and perhaps decent lighting, add a comedian in the center who's telling jokes and doing acrobatic tricks, and then throw in some disco.... yea it was weird, but a good experience. Big groups of dancing foreigners attract quite a crowd, which is ironic because originally the club didn't want to let us in (they wanted to charge us extra, which we informed them was racist). So yours truly showed off his best moves, ranging from the 'water sprinkler' to the worm to, o yes, the electric slide.
Post roller rink/disco tech was even better. After leaving we stopped and hung out next to a foodstand whose owner is from Xinjiang (way way way out west). The meat on a stick was indeed beef--no mysteries, and eventually some locals came over and started chatting it up with us. At this point someone thought it would be a good idea to tell them that we were all from exotic places, including France, Germany, South Africa, and Italy
before the underground 2
. Yea, try faking an Italian accent on your Chinese sometime and see how that goes.So the positives: I mingled with the locals, decided that Chinese people having a good time reminds me of the 90s for reasons I cannot quite explain yet, and I got to sing a country song in the middle of China
Negative: Apparently my feet are enormous by Chinese roller rink standards, meaning that the size 10 1/2s worked wonders on my size 12... 12 1/2 feet.
Enjoy the pics! This weekend I'm going to Inner Mongolia, so hopefully some more good pics will follow.
