As I mentioned in my previous posts, we had very little time to adjust before we were thrown into the grinder that is Chinese class. On top of all this, CLI arranged activities for us pretty much every day. These varied in nature from hiking up some of Guilin's Karst mountains, visiting a dental equipment factory, to ping pong tournaments (more on that later).
On most of these activities we were accompanied by CLI's interns, collectively known as, "the pengyous," which means friend in Chinese. Most of them are students at the local university where I attended classes last year. It is always great to meet new people, and they were all very helpful and welcoming, but I did feel a little overwhelmed the first week. Maybe it was the combination of jet lag and the mental fatigue associated with shaking the rust off of my Chinese, but during the first week of activities I felt absolutely exhausted. Making things even tougher was the fact that I could converse with the pengyous in Mandarin, which, while awesome because it validates all the hard work I've put into the language, and a great opportunity to practice, was mentally grueling. But hey, if it was too easy, it wouldn't be fun, and looking back, it was definitely beneficial.
At the end of week one I was very tired and ready to cut loose a bit. I was also excited to see my classmates that are of a legal age sample the local Chinese fare.
In addition to a general consensus that everyone could use a little fun, our first Friday, a student, known in this blog as Rainman, was celebrating his 21st birthday. To celebrate we hopped into cabs and headed to a local KTV, or karaoke joint.
Chinese karaoke is much different from American karaoke. For one, it's a much more intimate affair, as each party rents out individual rooms with individual karaoke systems. From this room, you can order drinks and food, select English or Chinese songs to sing along to, and just generally have a good time.
The going rate for the KTV's drinks is pretty steep however (and by steep that means $2USD, per beer...ridiculous, I know) so me and another student, who I'll call Snake decided to bring our own, more economical supplies into the KTV.
As I may have mentioned on here before, the Chinese liquor called bai jiu or, white alcohol, is incredibly strong, and incredibly off putting. That being said, for the money, it is damn efficient.
With our bottle of bai jiu in tow it was time to officially kick off Rainman's birthday. Shots were poured, tears were shed (literally, this stuff doesn't mess around), and off we went.
After a few rounds of drinks pretty much everyone mustered the courage to sing a few songs. The highlights of the night were probably Snake's rendition of Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean," or every girl in our room collectively absolutely belting Shania Twain's "My Heart Will Go On." Heavy stuff.
After a few hours of drinks and embarrassing ourselves in front of our friends and teachers, we headed to Guilin's premier night club to keep Roger's party rolling. After an hour or so of dancing, watching a bizarre performance, and drinking a little more, we decided to catch a cab and call it a night. We had to wake up early to head to Yangshuo after all...
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