KTV 'fun'

On one of the first days in Lanshan we met most of the english teachers we would be working with. Here is (l-r) Susan (our foreign affairs officer - she looks after us here), Mr Lei (of rice wine drinking infamy), a lady teacher, another lady teacher (who can't really speak any english. She says 'nice to meet you' every time we pass..), another lady teacher, one more, Mr Huang with the square head, a male teacher, Anthony and Mr Sui (one of the nicest guys we work with). As you may tell by now, chinese names are not easy to remember... But there do seem to be only 3 surnames in this town, Lei, Li and Huang, so I've
got a fighting chance...

One of the more bizarre pastimes the chinese here have is that of going to KTV and singing karaoke. These two shots are of our first night in Lanshan. After a boozy meal, we were all fired up for what Lanshan nightlife had to offer us.

It had to offer...a tiny room, just for us, where we drank tea, attempted to sing the one or two english language songs which weren't from the 60s or 70s and listened to everyone else belt out chinese hits of yesteryear. Then, to really get the night kicking (once we'd completely sobered up) they turned off all the lights and turned the karaoke machine into a mini disco, pounding out some of the worst techno music I have heard since the late 80s, to which the six of us 'danced'. It really does seem that the chinese are about two decades behind us musically... You can see how much fun it was below. Guess I won't be going clubbing for another year...