Davidson in KTV

Post by Elyse Harris.

Our time here is coming to an end and it is funny to think that just two weeks ago we arrived in this city and the culture was something so new. Now we are used to going down the street to get our favorite street food, buying bubble tea, and taking the 55 across town. It is hard to think that next week I will be in class and dreaming about some of my favorite Chinese foods and the good times we have had.
Like the time when we finally found a KTV to sing Karaoke. We found a bowling alley slash KTV place at the end of the day. And of course we couldn’t resist going inside. With some help from Patrick we got a room. Apparently Karaoke is serious here, because the place was Swank!!! There was a nice couch and large TV that played some interesting videos. The videos rarely matched the song, they were usually home video of random American families or some cheesy reenactments of the songs. We ordered some drinks and I had a strawberry ice which was pure syrup, and tasty! Then we began to sing. We stayed for three hours and sang the greatest hits like; Beat it, Unbreak my Heart, all the Backstreet Boys greatest hits, Spice Girls, songs from Lion King and Aladdin, and the list goes on. I had a solo with Toni Braxton’s Unbreak My Heart that almost brought the house down. Patrick shocked us all with Kiss Me the great hit of 1998. Jenny and I sang I’ll Never Break your Heart and got to the breakdown part then we were rudely interrupted by Jackie who wanted to sing the Pussycat Dolls. Alisha was a quiet at first, then she couldn’t resist when Black Eyed Peas came up. Colleen brought out her soul when the great songs of the 1990s were played. And Karina broke it down to some hits of the 80’s. It was a great night, and I don’t think that KTV/Bowling alley has ever heard such great soulful voices like ours. Needless to say we brought out our American loud!

Another time I will never forget occurred yesterday when we went to Suzhou, a town and hour away from Shanghai. It is described as a small town with beautiful gardens and is known for its silk. Suzhou is actually home to 5 million people, but in China that is a small town. We went to Tiger Hill first; it was home to ruins of old Suzhou. It was foggy but gave the buildings and the large pagoda a mystical look. After a ton of pictures we moved on to a small garden. The garden was like a maze and took me and Karina back to our childhood adventures at Discovery Zone. We climbed and went through caves and over small bridges. It reminded us of coral and the dwellings of the little mermaid. It took me about 30 minutes to get through the rock garden, and I am sure there are some pictures of me about to slip and bust my butt. We finally reached the main buildings and saw the beautiful scenery the owners of the house would have seen so long ago. I decided that I would build an exact replica of that garden and play in the rock maze everyday. The buildings and rooms were so pretty, especially since they were situated over a huge pond that reflected the trees and unique architecture. Even in the cold crappy weather, the gardens were breathtaking.