KTV‏

Hey, Dudes,

So, yesterday afternoon, we had our karaoke party with Maria and Summer. Their karaoke is situated much the way their restaurants are - every party has its own room, with its own attendant. remeThere is a computer touch screen, and when you first get there, you scroll through and select the songs you want to sing. Then the songs are ready for you and just play continually as the party goes on. And, surprisingly, there were tons and tons of English songs. And not all of them were cheesy! I was surprised that there were no Carpenters on there. So I selected some, and Ben selected some, and then Summer and Maria selected some Chinese ones. It plays the music video, along with the words on the screen, which is cool. I really enjoyed watching the music videos for the Chinese songs.

There were some songs sung by Chinese performers that were in English, which I thought was interesting. One of the songs said, "I love you like the mice loves the rice..." I laughed so hard. Mice love rice? I guess so? Hahaha!

Maria's friend came, too, and she was super-nice. I can't remember her name, but she spoke English really well. She loved Gage. I felt badly - he totally barfed on her. It's not a pleasant experience. But she didn't seem to mind.

The Chinese take their karaoke very seriously. They don't act silly when they're doing it - they sing very seriously. I had to take Micah to the bathroom a couple of times, and I could hear snippets from the other karaoke rooms, and people are very serious about it. A lot of the people I heard were off-key, and that made me giggle. Summer really seems to love singing. She's adorable.

The attendant brought currant juice, dried kiwi, popcorn, and some kind of chips. Despite our best efforts, Gage got grabbed a cup and spilled currant juice all over the place. Then he slipped in it and fell into it. He was a sticky, stinky mess. I forgot to bring a change of clothes, so I took him to the bathroom with me and took his wet clothes off. Then I set him by the sink and kind of started giving him a little sponge bath with water and soap. This lady came out of stall and saw what I was doing and just started YELLING at me in Mandarin. She was gesturing to the sink and to the baby and just yelling and yelling. I kept telling her in Mandarin that I didn't understand what she was saying, but, as is usual, she just kept on talking, like suddenly I would miraculously become fluent in Mandarin. I think maybe she disapproved of me washing the baby near the sink? There were two other sinks, so it's not like I was hogging the only sink... Maybe she felt like the water wasn't good enough for the baby? I don't know what her issue was, but she kept yelling and yelling, and she wouldn't leave. So finally, I said, in English (might as well talk to her in a language that SHE doesn't understand), "Listen. I don't know what you're saying, but I'm going to leave now, even though I'm not done washing the juice off my child." And I went back to the room.

We only lasted two hours there at the karaoke place - Gage kept barfing all over me and all over everything, and he was fussy (probably because his stomach was upset), and Dylan kept playing rough with the maracas and the tambourine. The music was over-loud and it was just frustrating. So we took off. It was sweet of the girls to invite us; it's just that kids sometimes ruin things. :)

I went to the supermarket yesterday, and took Dylan and Sadie, per their insistence. It's so stinkin' crowded. I swear I get claustrophobic. I got a little plastic drawer thing for the boys - the one dwardrobe they have doesn't hold very many clothes. And I got a few more things. There was a lady in another checkout line that was screaming at some dude behind her in line. Just yelling and yelling. . She was so mad. She was just shaking and red in the face. I was really glad I was in a different line.

So I guess yesterday was Angry Chinese Person day. :)

I still can't find line or a way to hang it up in our room, but I came up with something to dry our clothes - I'm using the PVC pipe Professor Han gave me, but instead of putting the clothes outside, where they blow all around and get dirty again, I prop the pipes on two chairs, then hang the clothes from hangers on the pipe inside, where it's nice and clean. Ahhh. Much better. I still want line and clothespins, though.

Alright, the kids are fighting and screaming, so I'd better go.

Kissy, kissy,
Kar