my first gokon

gokon (聯誼) refers to an informal date where equal amount of single males and females engage in certain group activity, in hopes to develop a further stronger "friendship". such activities normally include dinner at restaurants, drinks at bars, outdoor events like BBQ or sightseeing, or like in my case, karaoke.

so yes, i went to my first gokon last friday.
for those who know me, i'm sure u've heard bout my skepticism towards blind dates and meeting people for the sake of finding potential candidates for future relationships. it's not natural, nor right in my opinion. i mean, how desperate are you to get yourself involved in that?
not to mention all those scary stories that they show on tv about gokons: weird people (ie. nerds, geeks, perverted old men), selfish people, rude people, arrogant people, one-night-stand minded people, etc etc etc...
bbbrrrr.... me shivers...

yet, i went anyway.
claire: hey claudia, are you doing anything this friday? wanna go out?
me: huh? what's going on?
c: uhm... there's a gokon, and i needa find girls. it's with some TI guys
m: ... (frown) how many have u found so far?
c: 2. just... you and me...
m: ............................... let me know later if you really cannot find other grls...

my first and foremost gokon didn't turn out as bad as i had in mind. it was a total of 4 grls and 4 guys, and on our way to the karaoke, claire said it was ok for us to leave if we feel that the situation was getting uncomfortable. when we went to our k-room, 2 TI (Texas Instrument) guys were already there, singing and eating their dinner, the others were still in their office. and so we started talking, trying to get to know each other, and of course singing.
here's what i like and don't like about karaokes: the music can get so loud that you can't hear your conversations. so it's good if you don't want to talk, but it's not that good if you want to know each other better.
well, anyway, those guys were cool, and since it was a bit hard to chat, we mostly sang and ate food, and some random chitchats and jokes around. later the other guys and another girl joined, still all pretty nice and friendly. no sense of awkwardness at all, but a very happy friendly gathering.

hehehe, so yes, i don't think it was a gokon in the end. felt more like a friends' hangout than any informal date; gender representatives were not equally distributed, and some were not single. so yeah~ i'm glad i met new friends and we all had fun in the karaoke place~
hahahaha, now if all the gokon were like this, wouldn't that be sweet?!

gillian, alice, jasper and andy

and a pic w/all the pretty ladies (elsa, gillian, alice, claire)

i have to admit that it was fun, we didn't leave the place till 11pm. nevertheless, i still refuse to go to gokons if given the chance. =P