Saturday was the MOX (company I'm working for over here) annual general meeting. Normally, an AGM would be something to show up to and sleep at. However, this one was a bit different. They started the day with a massive presentation (300 staff from around China came to Shanghai to be a part of it) and gave out awards to best employees etc. Then we went to a restaurant where we booked out almost an entire floor and had a very large lunch, which was thankfully alcohol free (given my efforts two days earlier). We had a short break afterwards, and then it was time for the talent show to begin.
Yes, I said talent show. Turns out that the big event for these employees for the entire year is for them to get up on stage and make fools of themselves in front of the rest of their company. There were singers, comedy acts, dancers, even a magician - who made me part of her act even though I didn't understand what was going on. It was actually quite a bit of fun, and went for about 3 hours. I got to act as a singing judge, and enjoyed proceedings immensely.
After the talent show was over, we had another short break, and got into dinner. This was much like the previous dinner on the Thursday that had messed me up, except this time instead of 50 employees, there were 300. And everyone wanted to come up and toast our table, as I was sitting with the high level managers/CEO type people (being an honoured guest and all). This time everyone else was drinking beer, so things were a lot more even, but I still ended up consuming an amazing amount. I didn't really eat much at all throughout the night, as I was too full from all the alcohol I was drinking. After about 3 hours of steadily draining my glass, my body decided I needed a rest and it directed me to the toilet, where I emptied the contents of my stomach. Repeatedly.
I was greeted with a resounding cheer when I made my way back out to the restaurant area (obviously one of the other guys had heard me in there and filled everyone in), and I weakly waved my hand in acknowledgment. I then sat back down at the main table, lifted my glass...and started drinking again, to the sound of more cheers.
We continued on until about 10:30, at which time the restaurant kicked everyone out. By this time there was only a single hard-core table left of about 10 people...and of course, I was one of them :) We got outside and flagged down some taxis, where I promptly informed everyone that I was going out to a bar to keep drinking since it was not even 11pm yet. I got into a taxi and gave the driver directions, but another co-worker sneakily got in with me and told the driver (in much better Chinese than mine) to take me back to my apartment.
This was probably a good move, because we got to about 100m away from my building, and I threw up...out the window of the moving taxi. Embarrassing! The driver quickly stopped and got me out so that I could finish in a stationary position, and I walked the rest of the way to my building (after giving him a big tip). Got home with my phone still in my pocket - awesome.
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