Shen me?

Thus far I’ve done a pretty decent job of keeping up with my blog. Your welcome. I know your life is much improved from reading the rantings of an overambitious, somewhat sexually frustrated American girl in China. Like everything in China, New Year’s Eve was a night of unusual and WTF moments. (For those who don’t speak teen WTF = What. The. Fuck. (Excuse the language fam.) The night began with a simple and relaxing hair wash, head massage and trim. Hair dressers in China however do not know what a trim is. Either that or they just really f*cking hate me. Basically, I’m wearing a hair helmet. It’s super short on the top (4 or 5 inches long) and it gets longer and longer. Yes, I realize it sounds like a simple hair layering style. In America when you get your hair layered, the hair gets thicker as it gets longer – most of the hair is long, with small shorter layers. This is the opposite. The majority of my hair is short and then a small hand full is long. I have a Chinese mullet. ‘Nuff said.

After the anger subsided Joan and I got dolled up and headed to Tang’s restaurant. If you’ve read my previous entries you’ll remember Tang is our friend and the owner of the restaurant at which Wen Yong Ping (my…boyfri….my friend who is a boy) works. We met Wen, Tang and our friend Emma there for what turned into a huge New Year’s Eve dinner. Tang’s restaurant is amazing. Because Joan and I don’t read characters we always order the same thing: eggplant, beef, noodles, and rice. Tang decided to surprise us with some new dishes, one of which was fish head – apparently eating it on NYE is good luck in China. After dinner and many beers and shots of Vodka we headed to KTV where we were meeting Derek and Heather, our other WT buddies.

[SIDE NOTE]Derek and Heather are currently beside me reading. Derek just informed me that he reads my blog from time to time so I’d like to take a moment to get him and heather a quick shout out. They took a bus, a train, and 2 taxis to get to Youxian from his town last night. They traveled from 12 pm until 9:30 just to spend NYE with us in Youxian. J Thanks guys!!!! [END SIDE NOTE]

So, as we were walking to KTV we stopped at an extremely expensive bakery. I was standing outside when Wen Yong Ping walked out with a small box of chocolate for me. I was giddy to say the least. When we got to KTV – “mei you” rooms. Apparently all of Youxian decided to go to KTV for New Year’s. At the 3rd KTV, we went to the “waiting area” which was actually reminiscent of an American karaoke bar – one huge stage, a bar and a ton of drunken idiots. Joan and I were the first to walk in. Time we opened the doors a literal swarm of men surrounded us telling us to “SING SING SING” and pushing to towards the stage. Guess we were the entertainment for the evening. They were also shoving glasses of beer in our face (which I was not complaining about.) So, in front of about 30 or 50 Chinese people and 2 other Americans Joan and I sang “Yue Liang Da Baio Wo de Xin” (“The Moon Represents My Heart”) China’s equivalent to “My Heart Will Go On.” I must toot my own horn here and say, we rocked it! I should totally get paid for my singing skills.

Eventually we got our private room and enjoyed the night singing to Backstreet Boys, Michael Jackson and various other annoying pop singers. Wen and I are both very very shy (who knew, right?) so it was hard to get us next to each other. Towards the end of the night Tang took the initiative to grab my hand and put it into Wen’s hand. J Total high moment… Naturally, everyone in the room was staring at us (including my student’s mother.) We gave up our singing careers at 2 am and headed home. Wen and I said good night at his restaurant and we parted ways. Joan, Derek, Heather and I began the 30 minute trek to my apartment. Half way to my apartment Wen pulled up on his motorcycle and offered me a ride. Again, I’d like to reiterate the fact that he doesn’t speak English and I do not speak Chinese (especially when I’ve been drinking.) After we got to my school we walked in awkward but pleasant silence to my apartment. After about 10 minutes of practicing Chinese and English the rest of my wei guo ren friends showed up. It was now 3 am so Wen said he had to go. I walked him to the gate of my school and…..wait for it….wait for it…..wait for it…..yep…we had our first kiss. I kissed a Chinese boy and liked it.