Karaoke...

So the first weekend in decemeber, I was invited to a Alice's birthday party, accompanied by her husband Alex, Daniel and several other friends for dinner and Karaoke, asian style.  We started out the night with dinner at Bodegas Y Tapas, which was a delicious spanish tapas bar.  In traditional singaporian fashion, we ordered lots of food and shared all different types of food.

 The chorizo was delish!

 Then we nibbled on everything from cheese platters to bruschetta, to garlic mushrooms to lamb chops.  Just when we though would couldn't enjoy ourselves even more we heard a plate smash not to far from us, then another, and another.  All of us looked around at each other wondering what happened.  Then all of a suddent this band started playing on a hidden stage in the restaurant and the waitress and waitors started walking around the room smashing plates all over the ground, encouraging everyone to clap.  We did of course, but more out of confusion.  Then they started handing out plates to the patrons, aka the diners, and telling us to smash the plates on the ground as well.  I gladly par-took in this, whipping several plates I was handed into the ground, with each plate my smirking grin grew larger and larger.  Everyone was throwing plates on the ground and none of had any idea why.  One of the waiters then proceed to climb onto our table and stomp his feet while continuning to throw plates all over the place.  There was 15 minutes of plate smashing and to this day none of us have any idea why!  There wasn't a greek wedding, or any spanish holiday, for all we know they ordered to many plates and needed to deplete stock.  Ha.  It was a great transition to out final stop at K Suites and Karaoke bar right across the street from the restaurant.    

K Suites... words cannot describe.  Let me start by describing Karaoke in Asia and how it differs from karaoke in the US.

1. In Asia, Karaoke is done in a private room(s), varying in size, and are only occupied the people who are in your party.
2. In the US you have to request your song and hope or dread getting called up on stage once its your turn (especially if your friends leave you to do it yourself, cough cough meg/kait)  In Asia you choose all of your songs, on a screen similar to the below...and its nearly impossible to try and find a song because there is no organization
3. In Asia its bottle service only...aka no $2 beers

 The smell and the color were the first overwhelming traits of this karaoke "lounge" (haha, i'm going to call it a bar).  When we all got out of the elevator, an over powering smell of minty cool/aerosol hit my nostrils and literally made them burn.  The instinct not to breath hit me instantly, thats how fragrent this place was, not pleasant.....  The color, while not quite as intensely revolting, was almost entertainment itself.  It was a teal/mint green.  The walls, floors, ceilings, doors, bathrooms, were all the same ridiculous color.   (see below, ha).  I nearly expected all of the rooms to be this color as well, but that was just another surprise waiting to be revealed.

I  wasn't alive in the 70's but i've seen enough movies to know that the decor in the rooms was clearly 70's inspired.  Purple glossy vinyl, padded walls.  I don't know if this is normal for karaoke bars in Asia but it really felt "Boogie Night" eske.

 We managed to have a great time by putting our spin on the night's entertainment with modern games and music.  The music, which we all chose ourself, was performed loud and proud by everyone in the room.   I sang with out a mic, and I was still clearly heard (remember small rooms), yet people still felt the impluse to give me the mic.  I think the mic was for show, not sure why we really needed them.  Our room did have a wii as well (which no one played) oh well, maybe next time, yeah right.

The best part, is regardless of how new the song is, the music videos are home made and very similar to... Picture a "Fabio" like man, with a woman frolicing/rolling a field...for almost every video.  It was like soft core porn.... that might seem offensive, but trust me, all of us were joking about how unnecessarily raunchy these videos were.  In fact the inappropriate essence of the videos might have made the night that much more entertaining and gave us that much more to laugh about.

This was an experience... Those are the only words to descripe, I'm just glad that I was with good friends!

My Thanksgiving Feast

Ok yeah so I know i'm a little behind but there has been so much going on but I finally got my pictures downloaded.  The saturday after thanksgiving was when we add another thanksgiving feast a bunch of GS locals.  Below is the grill master.  

But the turkey was being cooked down in one of the apartments.  We were at the corporate housing building, ultimately hotels with kitchens.  

Below is Me, Jessica and Preeti    

The food and the company were both amazing.  We had a very large bird, with cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, steamed carrots.  Plus there was brushetta as an appetizer and a delicious sundried tomatoe spread.

The Party was on the condo's room top desk with the pool and over looked Orchard road.  Once the food was nearly completely eaten, we used the tables serving the food, for none other then flip cup and beirut.  Who would have thought that, similar to being at home over the holidays, a good old fashion game of flip cup would ensue.  It made the night!

After the feast, we all went to a club call Mink.  Techno dancing and and strobe lights, thats really all I have to say.  It was not my scene to say the least but I had a good time despite spraining my ankle...leave it me.  

After I got home I realized that I don't think I've ever had so many Thanksgiving dinner in my life.  It made me so greatful to all of the people I've met out here and have known for such a short time.

My actual Thanksgiving

Well as to be expected my actual Thanksgiving was spent working.  But the unusually hot weather made it feel more like the first day of summer instead of the beginning of Holiday Seasons.  Despite being thousands of miles from home I managed to drag myself out of bed at 5 in the morning and say a Happy Thanksgiving to all the family.  I also went out for, by far the most unique, Thanksgiving dinner ever.  A delicious all you can eat mussel and fries dinner at a restaurant call BrusselSpouts.

Jessica introduced all of us to this amazing restaurant and it gave us Americans a great Thanksgiving at a home away from home.

  

...I hope all of my food pictures are making you hungry, because all of the food is definitely making me fat :-P

Clearly I don't know metric beer sizes yet.  Just like me,  I ordered the larger of the beers...I wasn't expecting a JUG! Literally!  I had to hold it with two hands.  I guess thats a way to make you drink slower (drink like its a sippy cup).  While I may not have been with Family and my besties* for Thanksgiving, I definitely spent it with friends :-) 

*Bestie - An "Allison Bestie;" is everyone! from my roommates (both during and after college), to party harty colleagues, to country club crashers, to High School partiers, to alive at 5 locals, to Geneva rock stars, to golf fanatics, to Project Adventure enthusiasts....everyone, I've smiled, cried, joked, laughed,and partied with...you know who you are, and I hope you know how much I miss you,  and how much I can't wait for you to come visit!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Well Thanksgiving seems to have come and past very quickly and for some odd reason it doesn't feel like its the Holiday season.  It might be because the temperature hasn't dropped below 80 degrees since I've arrive in Singapore, or it may be because this is my first Thanksgiving not surrounded by family, but regardless of the obvious difference between this Holiday season and the last, I have still been making the most of this amazing city and of course still having a Thanksgiving dinner.

The saturday before I went over to Jenny and Jessica's condo for the first Turkey day feast.  This Thanksgiving went from Turkey feast to Brazilian dance party.  Below is Jenny and myself and two girls whose names I can remember, they were just visiting

Pedro Negro, the bar that we went to on Arab street, happened to be hosting their annual festival, of what I don't know, but it sure was a lot of fun.  They had dancers parading down the street and loud Brazilian music!!  

 All of the Dancers were wearing large feather head dresses, haha

 Chris, Jessica and myself, having fun as usual :-) This was like my typical "night before thanksgiving shenanigans" but in a tropical climate.  Can't complain.

That night flew by of course and one might wonder how I managed to be productive the next day but somehow I managed to roll out of bed and go to a play...A Shakespeare play, lol, who would have thought.  Its amazing the things one will do to see Kevin Spacey.  He was performing in the Shakespeare  production of King Richard the 3rd.

 For not knowing any of the plot or understanding and of the Shakespearean language, I very much enjoyed myself.  Kevin Spacey is quite an amazing actor, and I must say I'm very excited to see him reenact my former job in the new movie Margin Call.  haha

The Show was at the Esplanade, a beautiful bubble shaped building right on the water.  The architecture is the most unique and progressive that I've ever seen.  This is just one of the many unique looking building in Singapore, but what makes this building more impressive is everything that you can find in it.  It is not just a "theater by the bay" its a giant mall, and a major transit center.  

 While my mom was here we actually went to go see an authentic Indonesian dance during a dance festival.  We had tried to see a Thai dance later that week but we ended up seeing the "Beyond the Dance" a detail explanation and break down of the dance, not exactly the most riveting event.

More Touristy things

So I've time doesn't seem to be slowing down at all.  When Vera and Lars came back for the tail end of their vaca, the gang met up and we all met up at the Lao Pa Sat for dinner, a famous Hawker center in City Center.

The hawkers bar basically like newsstands in a subway station except these serve food and there all designed to be cafeteria type food courts all over Singapore.  It's the definition of local food, and the great thing about local food in Singapore, is that it can be from anywhere in the world.  And yes there are really venders that sell Pig Organ soup.  I haven't had the guts yet to try it yet. :-) Maybe some day

They're all open air, so as long as you can stay cool with a nice cool beer, or a traditional ice fruit juice, they're a cheap place to grab a bite with a big group of friends.  As you can see from above, we started with 5 or 6 main courses (all 4 SGD each super cheap), and then kept getting more small and large dishes depending on what we liked most.  This is one of the best ways to try a little bit of each type of food to learn what you'll really like.

 After Lao Pa Sat, we ventured over to Ku De Ta, the ultimate tourist attraction.  This is the bar on top of the Marina Bay Sands (the three hotels with the boat on top).  Taking in the view from up there was even better then Singapore flyer.  Its a upscale bar and we almost didn't get in because Dan was wearing a T shirt, good thing it was a Monday, phew.

The views were unbelievable, an amazing way to spend a Monday night.  One unique phenomenon about Singapore is the weather.  You can really see when a storm is coming and you can look the other way and see crystal clear skies.  When we were on top of the Boat, we could see the lighting from a  distance storm on some unknown island not far away.  It made the skies light up like their were fire work.
I can't wait for people to come an experience the crazy changes in the weather.  Ha ha The picture below is definitely taken on a different day but I can definitely testify that the weather can go from beautiful and sunny to torrential down pour, then right back to suny again.