Tuesday, May 7, 2013

China & My Audition For "The Voice" or 中国好声音

I'm in China again!!!!!  It's still a bit surreal, but I'm loving every second of it.  Chinese people are so much fun!  I'm making friends wherever I go.

View from my current apartment
Once in China I met Ee Chien, another intern at the company I am interning at.  He is way cool!  We're together 24/7, so I've been calling him my 同伴 (companion).  He's from Singapore.

Me and Ee Chien.

I'm interning at the company called Micro Benefits.  They do lots of stuff, but in a nutshell I do this:  Work on smart phone applications that are fun game-like learning activities that will allow factory workers become educated in a certain field enough to leave the factory and find better work.  There's a lot more to the company, but that's the part I work on.
Me at work.

Just after they made the new interns do push-ups.  The two young guys on the right were doing a job-shadow thing.  They're from a local international school.

Tina is a very tall Chinese girl.  She is also a model.  She works at the front desk in our office and does a lot for us.  Ee and I have spent a lot of time with her riding bikes all over the city getting this and that.  She doesn't speak English, so occasionally Ee will turn to and tell me in English how much he wants her all while sitting right next to her.
Tina and I somewhere.  Apparently she has a huge following on Chinese social media.  She posted a few pics of us together and the comments underneath them were many.

She buys flowers for the front desk.
At Micro Benefits we only have about 20 people working or so, and they're/we're all pretty tight.  I absolutely love my co-workers.  They're all Chinese, with an exception of the three interns.  Friday night we went out to karaoke.

Micro Benefits interns and employees.


























After finishing karaoke we were leaving the massive shopping center, we saw a large sign:
Me in front of "The Voice" sign, or "中国好声音“的海报。
It was a sign advertising for auditions for "The Voice", (中国好声音).  Ok, something you must realize.  I discovered the Chinese version of the show last year and watched EVERY episode.  I love LOVE it!  Auditions were the next day.  I didn't think much of it.

The next day came.  I'm still getting over jet lag, so I'm waking up at ridiculously early hours.  I woke up and went running around the lake.  I listened to Kelly Clarkson the whole time, it was awesome.  Ee was still asleep, so I set off to do stuff.  I ate breakfast at the bakery, walked to get a bike card, but after waiting in line for a while left because I was bored and I had no money.  I went to a bank, withdrew money, then ate lunch at a mall.  It was the same mall I saw the sign for The Voice.

It was then I decided to audition.  'What should I sing?'  I pulled out my phone and started memorizing the lyrics to David Tao's 暗恋,but quickly realized I didn't have the time to memorize them.  I decided I'd sing Hallelujah.  Most people know that song, and it's a song you can do all sorts of fun things to, so I chose it :)

Auditions started at 1:00, but it was 10:45 and people began lining up.  I jumped in line too.  Behind me was a very cute Chinese girl named Angie who spoke great English because she studied abroad in Georgia.  She hates Georgia.
Angie and me getting ready to audition!


The place began to fill up very quickly.  I had several people taking pictures of me.  I was the only non-Chinese person there.  I honestly didn't care at all about the audition because I didn't see myself making it.  Despite such a mindset, I started getting a little nervous.  So did Angie.
People waiting in line for auditions.  This is but a fraction of all who auditioned.
You would stand in front of two judges and sing.  You would sing until one of the judges held up a sign saying "Yes" or "No".
One of the judges holding up the "No" sign.  This guy through a little fit after he didn't make it.  I have it on video.

So I auditioned and got the good sign.

While filling out the necessary paper work after getting through I was told that I was the first person to get through that day.
I have another audition on May 18th, but that's all I know.

Things are great here in China!  I'll post more later about my work and my living conditions.  I'll edit a video of the footage I've gathered so far, so watch for that.  I'm going to bed now.  See ya!





7 comments:

  1. Good luck!! I hope you make it!
    I've never stepped foot outside of the US so this is fun to read about your adventures in a different country. I'm blog friends with your sister Christy, if you were wondering in the world I was.
    Carry on.....

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  2. Awesome. Glad you are enjoying it! Can't wait for a video!

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  3. wow! Thats so exciting!!! You'll be amazing! Good to see you and ee chee having so much fun! btw, I became friends w/ Kei! We met on tinder. I knew who he was because of your blog so because of that Thank you! ♥

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  4. We are so happy you auditioned for The Voice and made it through the first audition! Congratulations! We loved listening to you sing in Australia! We wish you the best! We are happy you are in China right now! We love China!!!

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  5. 祝你好运! (I don't think "break a leg" sounds right in Chinese.)

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  6. That's awesome! Congrats on making it through the first round! It sounds like you're having a lot of fun out there. Enjoy!

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  7. Haha, I love it! I especially love that you were the first person to get the "Yes" at The Voice! The TV producers will LOVE you -- even if you sucked, they would probably let you go through because you're a young white guy who is fluent in Mandarin. Add that you're also a great singer, and WaBAM! Shoe-in.

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