Kathy & Paul's Adventures Abroad

On Friday we have a weekly lunch at our apartment and invite all the western teachers in our office to come. This week a small group arrived around 12:00 – Jeannie, Max and his girlfriend. Hamish, Mike and Henry often show up to sample the menu. Paul does the cooking on our hot plate and the menu alternates from week to week between spaghetti and beef stew. Considering the cooking facilities the choices are limited, but the food is always delicious and we enjoy having the chance to conduct lively discussions about many issues. We don’t often get an opportunity to do that at school.

At 4:00 some of the Chinese teachers came over to our apartment to visit for a while before we all went out at 6:00 to a Christmas dinner with a few of the high school teachers. After a great meal at a local Sechzaun restaurant we got taxies to the Wudaokou area for a little K TV, commonly known as karaoke. It was quite different from what we expected, as there were dozens of private rooms fully equiped for any up and coming karaoke star. There was a comfortable couch, big screen TV, two microphones and an amazing variety of songs in several languages including English. So it was much easier to get up and sing your heart out in front of people you knew, instead of strangers as is the western style karaoke. A beer or two also made it that much easier!!

We cancelled Saturday activities due to hangovers!!