End of the Year Company Party

The Chinese New Year is coming up so the company had a big party tonight to close out the year. Everyone that works for the company was included. We all arrived and were seated at the typical round tables with all the food on the center circle. When we arrived everyone was playing a game on their social media (WeChat) called Red Packets. Red Packets are the standard way they exchange gift money. With this game you post money that anyone in the chat can claim. Fastest finger wins it. Think white elephant exchange type atmosphere. The amounts are very small (It ranged from about 2 cents to $4) They went crazy when Stephen posted one. They weren't expecting that at all. Then the President of Aloong spoke on the end of the year progress and encouraged everyone for the year to come.

Abraham, President of Aloong

Then we ate. It's hard for me because I'm not very fast with the chopsticks and the table starts moving before I'm ready at times. There was something new tonight. The smallest baby shrimp ever. They were fried and crunchy. You eat the entire thing - head, shell and legs. They were really tasty. They're smaller than my pinky finger. And we drank steaming hot Coke with sliced ginger in it. Bless.

Our hosts for the evening did an excellent job keeping the party going. At one point we all reached under our seats and found Red Packets with a cash bonus! (Keep in mind the exchange rate is 6 to 1, still $50 each is very generous!)

Lollie and Sam, our emcees

Lollie, who serves as our interpreter

The famous Red Packets

Not too shabby!

And then...the entertainment started. Karaoke. Some of our co-workers can really sing and sadly some can not. They started requesting us to sing in English. When we realized that our two options were to duck out or pick a song, we relented. We chose "Open Arms" by Journey since it's what we danced to at our wedding. They announced it and why we chose it and everyone went CRAZY! It was hilarious.

23 years later we're living in China singing our first dance song

And finally Stephen and Rambo (Senior Manufacturing Engineer) closed the evening with "We Will Rock You". It was epic! I wish you could all have been there.

Head engineers bringing the house down!