On Feb 6th 2012 Kerry Parkside hosted the biggest Super Bowl party in Shanghai, with a confirmed 450 people attending.  11 Guy-Tais bought a table together and attended this once a year extravaganza.  The doors opened at 6:30 and Kick off started at 7:30.  Ronny and David were the first to arrive and went straight for the Mimosa's.  Chris strolled in just before 7 and the rest arrived between 7 and kick off.  There was a great breakfast spread offered with protein: eggs any style, bacon with and without clenbuterol, sausages, cheeses; the ever popular carbs: pancakes, waffles, a variety of breads and pastries, all sorts of cereals, a variety of potato dishes, and lots of fruit choices; and last but most important free flowing beverages: lots of juice choices, mimosa's, and craft beer from the BREW, you had the option to buy mixed drinks.   The Kerry did an excellent job setting up the food stations, and everyone at our table had seconds and some went up for fourths.

As the New Yorkers at our table said, "The F'ing room is uge!"  They used two of their side by side conference rooms and opened the divider between making one ginormous room.  Along the back wall they had 3 huge TV screens: one was a huge flat panel HD LED, and then two other screens with images projected onto them.  The smallest screen was probably 10m x 15m.  There was not a bad seat in the house.  At one side of the room the NFL set up the "NFL experience zone".  This is where you could could go out and catch a pass thrown by a football throwing machine called a "Jugs machine".  This was a great place to hangout if you needed a laugh, because you were guaranteed to see a few guys twisting ankles, stumbling, falling down, and generally not showing grace or coordination.  In addition to the mathletes, there were also many athletes including two NFL players Marion Barber (Chicago Bears), and  Jack Brewer (NY Giants).  The kids who attended the party had a great time and spent most of the game running wide receiver patterns.

On the other side of the room they had a beer pong table.  Yes you heard me, "beer pong".  That brings back high school and college memories!  They also had a silent auction benefiting underprivileged children in China.  The kids attending could also come to this area and get a signed autograph from the NFL players.  I think that a few of the Guy-Tai's turned this event into their own money making opportunity - with all the other guys in the room working full time they were asking us for autographs and telling us how much they longed for our situation :-}

The Game was close and pretty well played for the most part.  It is always more exciting when the game comes down to the last few plays before you know who is going to win.  We had both teams represented at the table, but it seemed like there was a slight bias for the Giants.  With so many expats in the room many of us knew people at other tables so there was a lot of walking the crowd and chatting with people at other tables.   The Kerry plans to make this an even bigger event next year, and hopefully the Guy-Tais will be there in force again.

I think that everyone was waiting to see if Madonna was going to have a wardrobe malfunction.  Thank god she didn't.