Rugby and Karaoke

Over the weekend, our extended group of Aussies and Americans spent some time on the town. We took in the annual rugby match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies at a pub called The Den Mark. All along the wall hung rugby and soccer memorabilia, and the crowd was definitely excited for the upcoming grudge match.

I sat with two older Aussies, Leo the professor in charge from the students from QUT and another gentleman who worked in China and had a membership at the club that got him cheaper drinks (always a good friend to have). I have only a passing familiarity with rugby as a sport, so I relied on the other men at the table to fill me in with the specific details. However, there was no need to explain the hitting, which was far more vicious than I ever gave rugby credit for. Also, I found that I had always seen rugby and football as similar sports, which they really aren't. Football features harder hits, courtesy of the protection that its players have, and the athletes are trained for quick bursts of athleticism. Rugby features hard collisions, but always with the thought in mind that the harder the blow, the more it will still hurt the tackling player. Also, rugby is an endurance sport much like soccer, with the ball constantly moving and the players rarely leaving the field.

It was a trip for sure to get to watch a big-time rugby match with an enthusiastic crows, but the night still had one more shock for me. We decided to go to a karaoke bar after the match, a trend that we find very Chinese as karaoke is far different in China and also far more popular. Karaoke bars are designed with many rooms filled with couches, microphones and TV's. You select the songs on a screen and the words appear on the TV, but only the friends you have come with are forced to hear your singing voice, which is a much friendlier crowd than most karaoke nights in America.

We've already been to one karaoke bar near our dorms, and putting this as nicely as I can, it was a dump. The one we went to this particular night, a place called Party World, was something completely different. It looks like a five-star hotel from the lobby, and each of its floors keeps up the idea that you are in a fabulous resort, except all of the rooms are karaoke rooms. It's unlike anything back home, literally something that would never stand a chance of making business in America, but I found myself thinking that was a shame, as it was really a fun place.