To the pub!

Woooo, it is my last day in Tianjin today! *sob* Not that sad about it actually, it's been fun, but I really want to go to university and meet people to run around this country with - the last month has been pretty lonely

Haha yes! The Saturday bar trip <3 Sally picked me up about 9pm with her friends. I thought it was Emma in the car so just jumped in, yelled HELLO! then realised there were two strangers in the car They took it in their stride at least The entrance to the bar was right next to a "implant shop", thankfully I'm getting better at reading Chinese so I could tell it was a plastic surgeon's office, not a shop where they sell the implants alone, at knock-off prices.

We went down some stairs to the bar (underground is the only cool place to drink, dangran) and the walls leading down had a lot of pictures with light shining behind them (hard on the eyes), the images were all of drinks or models posing naked, who had then had liquid clothing superimposed on them -_- They actually managed to avoid sleaze quite well (suprising.)

The bar itself was dark as an alley. Basically in the UK it would be shut down for health & safety risks. Sally said it would be empty so early on, dangran this meant empty by Chinese standards, so nearly every seat was full and every seat round the bar was filled with groups of men. I say groups, turns out the bar's policy is that groups of more than two people can't sit at the bar. o_O I've tried to work out the logic of this, but all I can come up with is that the place is a dating area and groups of more than two girls are indimidating to nerds, or more than two people are considered rowdy... neither of them seems that likely though Another stupid policy is that everyone has to spend a minimum of 100元 when they arrive O___________O That's about £10, sure they want to ensure they make money, but this meant that Sally bought 12 bottles of Heineken *wretches* to cover me as well, becuase I didn't know this (I paid her back for it later). This also meant that on a lot of the tables around us there were groups of what loooked like teenagers (this is China, they coulda been 20), with a large bottle of Smirnoff, sometimes two bottles In the UK selling bottles of Vodka outright is illegal (well, in Scotland it is anyway) so this seems slightly like heaven to me ^^ Bars that force you to drink more, well if you insist ^___^ Unfortunately after I finished a Black Russian 黑俄罗斯, Sally kept filling my glass up with beer -_- I know they've been really kind to me, but since I arrived they've asked me what I mainly drink, and I have always said "I really hate beer". I know many people may not classify Heineken as a beer, but it's just as gross and the Black Russian were really good *nom*

On the bright side, the lights were really cool. Basically it seemed that someone had said "Sod lighting design, this one's cool, so is this, and-- OOOO! Let's get one of THOSE!" <- effect: pretty damn awesome. There were several macs swinging around like searchlights, changing colour all the time and one of those green-line lights from the Matrix <3 However, the music was so loud we could barely hear each other; standard in any bar I guess, but when none of us speak the same language fluently it becomes a problem.

The band were from the Phillipines (touchy at this time ) and they were incredible. I've gotten so used to UK bands attempting to stick to a certain style of music, they were quite a suprise ^^ They had 4 vocalists and the keyboard player and drummer all pitched in singing as well. I have a video of them singing, one of the girls evidently had an unnatural talent for mimicking Shakira, but I don't know how to upload it Eventually the, dare I say, "matriarchal"-looking singer came around the tables trying to get everyone to dance. She grabbed me, yelled "Where are you from?!" and dragged me in front of the stage where a slightly unsure line had formed (yep, the Chinese dance in lines XD). It was acctually really fun, I was probably the only one there who could actually sing along to "One Love" *affix the collar of shame* They also managed to fade flawlessly from "Poker Face" in to the YMCA XXD Legend. One of the singers was slightly... bent. To say the least. He spent the band's first five minutes of stage time saying "I'm just a little bit posh. Posh" the others all played along with him, which was fun. Eventually he said "Posh! P -O -S -H.. -Y" *head-desk*
He was the lead singer for the YMCA, I have never seen somebody look so in their element.

They also sang a famous Korean song called "Nobody nobody but you", which was actually really catchy <3 The guy did the dance routine for it. I was amused. Nothing more will be said on this subject. *cackle*

I also got to meet Emma's husband there. He's called Karl and they were so sweet together! He looks young, even for a Chinese person, so Emma spent a good while trying to tell me that he's older than her XD Amusement value = high.

When we left I was feeling a bit whoozy (no alcohol for a month = light-weight ) so I nommed on another Mahua when I got home, closest thing to absorbant bread I could find Urgh, I really don't like beer/lager/ale/cat piss, whatever Heineken is, it's disgusting.

Now all I have to do now is pack and get ready for tomorrow, it's going to be a long day -_- Hopefully it will all go off without a hitch, but we all know that's not going to happen <_<