After a horrible Friday in which I took a test written by Satan himself, we decided to head on over to Koreatown participate in some karaoke in order to blow off some steam, as well as celebrate Nat’s birthday. We took off around 9 p.m. and began to navigate the Los Angeles freeway system, thinking traffic must have died down by that time. We were right, for the most part, however as always, there were a couple pockets of traffic that almost made us turn back and go home. When we arrived in the strip mall complex off of Normandie that housed the karaoke studio, we weren’t quite sure what to expect. We were lead to our own private room, complete with a pistachio green booth, an orange-red table and a television set. Two microphones and tambourines, as well as three song books (mostly all in Korean) sat on the table.

Although it is now a Koreatown staple, karaoke is actually a Japanese word, with kara meaning “empty” and okesutora meaning “orchestra.” It took a couple minutes for us to get used to the set up, and navigate the t.v., but once we got going, we just couldn’t stop.

Our set list included such classics as “Unbreak My Heart,” “Super Trooper,” “Devil Woman,” “2 Become 1″ and many more cheesy pop songs, including my absolute favorite, Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana.”

Excuse the shoddy photo quality, as these were taken with my iPhone. And also excuse the shoddy appearance quality, as I was exhausted by the end of an incredibly fun night. My test didn’t go too well. In my opinion, tests like these have no measure on how a student performs in school whatsoever, and they’re a complete waste of time. I might try again, but after more hardcore studying perhaps. Either way, karaoke in Koreatown took my mind off it, and as Martha Stewart would say, that was a good thing.