Semester 2 Chapter VIII: Presentations & Beers

Time flies like crazy and April is almost over. Cannot believe that in two months I’m gonna touchdown in Prague and have my first proper Summer holiday since I was like 17… Shanghai is still good to me. I haven’t closed the window in my room for days now, I spend lot of time outside and there’s really not much I could bitch about…

There’s a new hangout place I recently discovered cause my dawg lives just above it. Located close to our Xuhui campus, it’s pretty much a beer shop with countless different brands from all over the world and a pretty big seating area outside. Very DYI, very street, pretty cheap...You can get a bottle of Leffe for 18 RMB. Takes me about 15 minutes to get there by bike so yeah… We got another one.

One of my friends from the Czech Republic who studies in Beijing visited Shanghai for couple of days so we hung out yesterday. Got some fruits, got some beers and spent most of the day outside. All my Slavic motherfuckers stand up! Gonna have to do a Beijing trip sometime in June…

 

A guy that was my Couchsurfing host in Shanghai about two years ago had a layover in the city too. I met with him and couple of his peers last Thursday, we got a dinner and ended up drinking in a student apartment. Now, when I say student apartment, I don't mean a shithole like the one I live in. This was some expensive shit with a fucking ping-pong table in a living room and a kitchen about 3 times as big as my bedroom. Oh well... 

Me and my bro also had to a presentation for a class two days ago. This led to one of the most student evenings I have ever experienced. We met at the campus in the evening and stayed there until they closed pretty much everything at 10pm. We wrapped it all up with a Family Mart beer and two days after killed it in the class. Not exactly sure why, but this whole thing felt like from some kinda cheesy teenage student movie…

When I said time flies, I really meant it. I feel my days are packed. It’s school, work, running or some workout and when I have some extra time, I just go to Jingan park and read a book. I’m on some Bruce Sterling now. At the moment, I’m sitting in the library at the Minhang campus, drinking coffee and listening to new Rich Homie Quan. I’m about to hit a gym and meet with my supervisor.

Highlights:

• I got an official hoodie of my university. Fuck yeah!
• Chocolate happy muffin from a friend of mine. She just kills this shit.
• Summer’s here and I wear short sleeves so my tattoos are visible again… And that means that from time to time I get randomly approached by people asking to take a picture. Or I spot people taking pictures of me secretly… Same old story…

Semester 2 Chapter VII: Family Business & Heights

Looks like summer is here. We kinda skipped Spring though… Temperature went from around 11 to 25 in like two days and it seems it’s gonna stay like this. And I have absolutely no objections…

My sis, her boo, my dad and his friend came to visit me for couple of days on their way back from Thailand where they had spent about two weeks. They really didn’t have luck in terms of weather for the first couple of days, but eventually, it got gucci. And I’m talking really awesome. Before they left, we experienced probably the best visibility I have ever seen in this city... 

I showed them around the city, took them to Qibao, some bars, introduced them to veggie places I enjoy… My sis made a dinner one day plus they brought me like a shitton of chocolates, coffee, some peanut butter... You know… All the shit that makes you look beautiful. Oh yeah, and on the rare occasions, when I had to deal with my school responsibilities, they kinda went ape shit on shopping at the Science & Technology Museum fake market. I’m super glad I missed that…

When the good weather kicked in, we went up to Shanghai Tower. This was my first time too. 2^nd tallest building in the world with the highest observation deck. It’s 180 but the nice lady believed I’m 22 so I got a student pass for 120… Lovely. Shanghai Tower might be my favorite skyscraper. I have seen some all over the world but the way this one’s designed… It’s just amazing…

Me and my pops also paid a visit to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. Since my dad’s an urbanist, this was a no brainer. Also my first time… Located right on the People’s Square, it has 4 floors and on the top one, there is a huge model of the whole city center covering area from Century Park all the way to Xuhui. Quite impressive…

After they left, I met with a friend from France who was in town and went to Le Baron where we partied until like 6am when they pretty much kicked us out. Overall, it’s awesome that we finally got to a point when you can sit outside in a t-shirt feeling comfortable. Makes hanging out much more pleasant…

 

When it comes to school stuff, I’m on track with everything. Got about two more months to go and if I don’t fuck up, everything should go quite smoothly. It still requires regular work so I do spend some time in libraries but it’s all good. The weather makes it all better anyway…

Highlights:

• Views from the Shanghai Tower – no doubt about that.
• Kendrick’s new album!
• Monopoly + wine evenings with my fam. Back in the days… I guess some things just gonna always feel the same no matter what…

Semester 2 Chapter VI: Breathe In, Breathe Out

The last week was crazy. I submitted my first paper for a conference (although I don’t really think I stand any chance), I passed one midterm exam and did a presentation for another course. After that, I slowed down on the school stuff a little bit and enjoyed myself.

So after a couple of months, I rode to Madein Gallery to check their current exhibition which was dope (He An: Dark Purple) and for the first time, I checked the Shanghai Film Museum. Located on Caoxi road, it covers 4 floors of one of the modern ass buildings in the area and it’s quite impressive. Lots of history, technology, movie posters, interactive elements, prizes etc. It made me wanna find out whether there are still some old-school movie theaters in town… I also went to a party in Dada (organized by the Genome guys) which was awesome too…

My Macedonian guy got booked for a set at the C’s bar for couple of hours and he asked me whether I’d like to join him and do like an hour of djing. It’s been a while since I’ve done that but adding “playing in a club in Shanghai” to my resume felt like a pretty cool thing to do, so I went for it. It was a great night, the place was kinda packed, I did some fresh trap shit and even though I fucked up couple of times (not really used to Serato), it was a success. There’s a chance we might do like a proper back to back gig the next month…

Temperature continuously rises and my winter jacket is becoming redundant. That’s good news for my fam which is about arrive this Saturday. I want to sort out most of my school stuff till then so I can switch off again. Gotta say, those past couple of days has definitely regenerated my brain. It was fucking needed.

Highlights:

• Kendrick’s Humble. Just beautiful (btw, I played the track during my set like 1 day after its release).
• The film museum. 30 RMB well spent.
• First comfortable outdoor beer drinking. That’s a milestone!