30th Birthday Bash

We’ve gone totally local!  What did I do to celebrate my 30th birthday…nothing other than party at a KTV (Karaoke Club)!  Whenever locals want to hang out somewhere other than a restaurant a karaoke club is the place to go.

April seems to be a popular birthday month as I had two other friends celebrate their birthdays this month as well.  So I decided that a good ol’ silly girls night was in order.  I thought about having a party in our home but there would inevitably have to be a curfew with Jaden and all so the next best thing…a KTV.

Let me explain how a KTV works.  You usually rent a room by the hour that has couch like seating, a large table and a TV.  You can order all kinds of finger foods, snacks and drinks.  Usually, popcorn and tea are included with the room.  They also provide a couple microphones, a tambourine, maracas and an incredible speaker system.  You can choose from a ton of different songs including popular English songs.

Now, that is the basic.  Due to our neighbor’s generosity we were able to get the VIP treatment.  Josh had asked our neighbor how a KTV works and what to expect in prices.  When she found out that I wanted to rent a room for my birthday and a few of my friends she insisted we go to one of her friend’s place.  So I texted my friends the address and time without any clue as to what to expect when we got there.

In preparation for this “all in our 30’s” birthday bash for 3, I decided to spice it up with a few games and a cake.  While the icing kind of flopped (I hand beat that thing for like 30 min. and I still ended up just pouring it over the cake!)  I am proud of the final appearance.  I used the last of my powdered sugar (I’ve been told I can find some here though) to make a marshmallow fondant that helped hide all my mistakes.  I also prepared a couple games and due to the generosity of our friends in Dallas I was able to provide some highly coveted prizes (choc. chips, baking powder, vanilla extract and American chocolate).  ;o)

My neighbor helped me pick out an outfit to wear and then actually drove me and a couple of my friends who live nearby to the KTV.  Since it was all expats with limited Chinese, I am sad to say that she didn’t stay to party with us but went over and beyond to make sure I was taken care of.  You should have seen all of our faces when we walked into the KTV. She had gotten special permission to allow us to bring in our cake and prizes and led us to one of the VIP rooms.  This room was quite large with three tables.  There were two karaoke TV’s and another TV for ads.  We had a standing mic and two handhelds.  We even had our own bathroom!  They blew up balloons and threw glow-sticks all over the floor.  They even took a few of the sticks and spelled out “Happy Birthday” in Mandarin.

There was a total of 12 of us that night and we partied for 5 hours!  Before, I had asked the Father that it would be a night of joy and laughter.  Many of us had been dealing with sick babies, the stress of language learning and culture shock and the coming and going of a holiday that we weren’t able to celebrate with family, so we all just needed a night a laughter…and the Father totally provided.

Since many of my friends are those from all different companies and tms they didn’t all know each other.  So one of the games we played was similar to “Two Truths and a Lie”.  Whenever I have played that game, I always forget which was the lie and in the end I don’t really remember anything about anyone.  So I tweaked it.  I had everyone right down one “secret” that others may not know about them that was true.  I mixed up the secrets and then had everyone wear a name tag.  They had a list of names and as I read out the secrets we all tried to guess which secret went with who.  The game jumped to a whole new level when one of the secrets was “I’m pregnant”.  I must say the girl who wrote that one played very well as everyone was trying to figure out who it was (it was NOT me ;o) ).  After a round of guessing we went back through the list and they were able to claim their secrets one by one.  I loved it because it gave everyone an opportunity to tell the story behind their secret and helped everybody remember who was who.

We then ordered spicy chicken sticks, french fries, spicy green beans on a stick, spicy squid on a stick, spicy mushrooms on a stick, nuts and fruit (there were no non-spicy options).  And the singing began.

Everyone was a great sport and soon we were all singing and dancing.  By 1 am we were worn-out with glad hearts.  I felt so blessed being able to have a party with the women who have reached out to me the most.  While I continue to struggle without a tm, I cannot deny that the Father has provided me with fellowship.  Slowly, I am getting to know these ladies and I am truly grateful.  Perhaps if I had come here with a tm, I would not have had the time to get to know them and so He provided a need that would bring me into each of these woman’s lives.  And for that I am truly grateful.