I'm going to try to write as much of this as I can, while I'm still in the moment and before the excitement wears off.
Adam insisted we go and celebrate New Years Eve by going to a bar. We went as a group of seven – Adam, Will, Alexis who is a good friend and is a senior English student, Allan who is a freshman German major with very good English, Mary and Sally who are Adam's students, and myself. We arrived just after eight pm. The place had a black and white floor, a series of booths with white cushioned seats, and tables with plastic bar stools. Heart balloons decorated the booths and bouquets of pink balloons decorated the walls. There were at least two different screens showing two different American music videos, neither one of which matched the song the DJ was playing. We sat in a corner, and Adam treated us to beer and some fries. We were given an extra set of fries and popcorn for free. We were also invited to come again to parties the bar was planning to throw latter this year which we were told we would be allowed to go to for free.
The first portion of the evening was dedicated to people watching. There were a number of young men with hair styles which, had we been in Japan, I would have said they were Yakuza (gangsters who tend to have very gelled and bleached hair). The booths and tables slowly filled up. Most of the people I spotted seemed to be young men and women and middle-aged men, though latter I saw middle-aged women as well. There were a number of different people working for the bar, each job with a different style of outfit. Waiters and waitresses had blue and white stripped shirts, and tended to be young, probably in their twenties. Older women who were probably fourty or fifty at least wore khaki belhop jackets and occasionally swept the floor. At least a dozen young women wandered between tables, each wearing white furry boots coming up to at least halfway up their thighs, a short white furry skirt, white furry arm warmers, and a sleveless shirt with a hood with cat ears. They tended to go to tables that were filled exclusivly with men, but they did also attend mixed gendered tables. I can't tell exactly what they were doing, but they talked and socialized with patrons. My own guess is that they were a bit similar to Japanese hostesses.* Our neighbors played a drinking game with cups and dice. And occasionally the waiters would carry to various tables a bucket filled with ice, a bottle of liquor, a lilly, and a sparkler. The ceiling was covered with lit up plastic tubes, and a giant disco ball hung above the dance floor. At one point several people sang live – I'm not sure if the volunteered or if they are hired by the bar. Then, two dancers came out a guy and a girl. The girl was wearing a black bra and the guy was shirtless, but both were wearing black hula skirts. After they finished, the tiny dance floor was open and peppered with dancers.
At some point we moved out to the dance floor. I really enjoy dancing, and had been dancing in my seat almost since we arrived. However I was a bit apprehensive about going to the dance floor. I have been warned before that foreign women usually get swarmed by Chinese men who've had a little bit to drink and don't want to give the girl much personal space. I will say though, I experienced very little of this myself. The first time we went out about half the people dancing were a circle of women in their thirties, which probably helped. The only really weird thing that happened was one guy who was trying to get Will to poke my breasts. But by that point we had danced quite a bit, and I had enjoyed myself.
Adam was in his element. He walked around and got treated to beers, wished everyone a happy new year, and patted people on the back.
We saw the tail end of the New Year's Gala the school threw, and Adam and I walked Alexis back to her dorm. On the way back he shouted Happy New Year, or Xin Nian Kuai Le! To nearly everyone we passed. It was by far the most memorable new year's eve I've had in my life. It was quite a rush of adrenaline.
*Hostesses are women in evening gowns employed by hostess bars. The women are basically like human icebreakers. They compliment patrons, tell jokes, encourage them to drink more, and the men who come in can bond over their common attraction. If a group of men come together, for example several businessmen who are planning a transaction together, they can identify themselves as part of the same group – men who tease each other about the women around them. In a number of respects, hostesses are like a modern version of geishas. There are also a number of variations of hostess bars, including maid cafes where each woman wears a costume fitting the cafe's theme, and host clubs in which young men compliment and flirt with female patrons. Though some hostess bars are fronts for brothels, generally no actual sexual contact takes place between hostesses and their patrons.
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