Semester 2 Chapter XII: Finish Line

Okay, so we got one more week to go in school. So far, I haven’t fucked up and if I manage to keep my shit together for couple more days, first academic year spent in China will be successfully concluded.

When it comes to social shit, I spent couple of nights last week outside just drinking beer with people and watching Chinese shit happen. One of the best spot for Chinese shit is Huashan Greenland – a park across the street from Dada. You can randomly spot people practicing opera singing, playing saxophone or dancing. We even got a local engaging into a conversation with us. If you decide to waste your precious time over there, there’s a good chance some weird shit is gonna go down.

On Friday, me and my friend went to check this skateboard event close to Expo Area at the Southpark Skatepark. Not too many people but pretty chilled energy, lotta people on skateboards and longboards... The place was right by the river and it really made me feel like grabbing my longboard again... Gonna do that after I get back home. For sure..

I also went to this French bar on Shanhaihuan Road with my friend. That was kinda painful tho. It was some birthday party of a female I didn’t know and the whole shit was like a textbook definition of normcore. People, energy, place. After one beer I fled, walked around the city, got some noodles at the noodle lady and went home. In China, you can use smartphones to pay for nearly everything. I’m a cash guy so I don’t really care but if you want to, you can literally just wechat the money for night street food to the vendor. The stand looks old and dirty, the whole thing seems to be barely legal but you can pay with your phone. If that’s not cyberpunk, I don’t know what is.

Yesterday, I met up with my cycling partner again. I think we really managed to make our trips a proper weekly thing. We met at Panyu Lu, went for a long time west by the Wusong river and then all the way up north to the Shanghai University campus (which is very nice btw). We continued south-east all the way to Shanghai Railway Station and got back to Jing’an. All for all, 60 kilometers. I did like extra 16 in the morning by myself plus I went for a run… and some workout… so yeah… yesterday I felt aight. And the dinner in on of super local cheap Chinese places nearby my building tasted real good.

The next week’s gonna be little tough but I believe all’s gonna end up just fine. The summer is still on, sun is shining, we got blue sky almost every day… Can’t really complain….

Highlights:

• Bought plane tickets to Antalya for August. Can’t wait to see my second home again.
• Lil Yachty just released his debut album. And it’s dope.
• Finally discovered the perfect meal in the university canteen. Vegan, spicy and super customizable. Not that I eat there too often but this one’s a bomb.

Semester 2 Chapter XI: Centuries & Miles

Checking-in again. This past week was kind of a chilled one – didn’t do much crazy shit. I met with my vegan friend last Friday, went to some bizarre normcore Brazilian bar by East Yan’an Lu and got faded as shit. When I felt I'm baked enough, I got the fuck up and decided to take a long walk around night Shanghai. Among other things, I saw a big ass truck loading off a batch of bicycles on a sidewalk. The amount of different public shared bike companies is really astonishing. Apart from the major ones (orange Mobike and yellow OFO), we got light blue, dark blue, green (those come with little electric motor too) and just recently I noticed silver bikes in Jing’an area too. The market is huge. And the fact that you can just leave the bike anywhere after you use it is just remarkable… I tried to register for OFO bikes but for some reason I keep getting fucking error messages. Gonna have to sort it out – I mean… I have a bike but using a service like that kinda enables you to take one way rides only which would be extremely useful especially on night-out occasions…

 

When I got close to my home and again didn’t see any street food stands around, I kinda made it my mission to find my noodle lady. I really felt like having that oily, spicy shit. Took me a while but, believe it or not, I found her in one of the laneways around. She might be the only night street food vendor who survived around my place, and she still has to noodle game on lock. So yeah, everything’s perfect again…

It’s kinda hard to force myself to stay indoors lately because of the summer weather. Instead of reading and doing school assignments, I often just get out and do whatever outdoor shit I feel like doing. That’s gotta change a little though… Two more weeks to go at the university and I do have to wrap it all up somehow…

Yesterday, I met up with a friend again and we did a big ass bike trip around Pudong area. Started in French concession, went to the Bund, took a ferry, randomly rode around the district and ended up visiting the Century Park – the biggest park in Shanghai. It’s also probably the only that charges for entry (10 RBM) - it's definitely worth it though. Big lakes, colorful gardens, lots of trees, small paths that let you get lost for a bit… Really a cool fucking place…

We continued up north, rode under the biggest buildings in the city in the financial center and took another ferry northern from Shanghai TV tower. We ended up in Jen Dow for a hot pot – after 40 km ride it felt well deserved…

And there you have it… Another week passed, I’m enjoying last weeks of being in my twenties and one of my bros got married somewhere in fucking Mauritius. I mean… guess we are getting old…

Highlights:

• Pudong – lot of Chinese energy in that district too. Takes about 10 minutes to get from the most cyberpunkish skyscraper area to usual Chinese side roads with all those Chinese stores, food stands and mini marts you see everywhere else. It’s surreal.
• Visibility – I stopped checking air quality a while ago just to stay sane. However, recently Shanghai really displays blue sky and decent visibility. Combine that shit with summer and all’s super gucci.
• Travis Scott just released 3 new tracks. Just saying…

Semester 2 Chapter X: More Parks, More Tunes, More Art, More Life

What’s up y’all. Let’s get right to it. Last Friday, I paid a visit to Dada after some time for a party. I don't remember much of it but it was a dope one. Taking advantage of the summer weather, we hung out in a park across the street drinking some beers beforehand – life is much better when it’s not cold. I also have to shout out Shanghai for parks. I’m sure I mentioned it before but I have never seen a poorly maintained park around here. All parks are clean, super people friendly, they have playgrounds or some fitness equipment, shitload of flowers and different kinds of trees, lakes, statues… The really do set the bar high…

 

My German friend who was here two week ago came to town once again so I joined him and couple of his friends for a dinner. We went to one of my favorite joint, JenDow by Jing’an temple, however, this was my first experience with the restaurant on the second floor. The place has like 4 stories – the ground floor is the most popular and also the cheapest one, the other floors are little pricier. It was cool as hell though – lots of mock meat, veggies… Everything on point. After that we hung out outside, drinking some beer and we followed a Swedish guy who suggested to visit some bizarre Japanese place on my street. We got this little room for ourselves, the Swedish guy ordered a bottle of some Japanese shit that tasted like weak whiskey (and it was quite good) and talked till like 3am. I loved the fact that for the whole time, they played reggae music – it so didn’t fit anything over there.

What kinda bothers me is street food trucks and stands disappearing. The noodle lady and her competition isn’t around anymore over the night and according to my peers, same goes for another areas in the city. If they try to shut the street food game down, they are fucking retarded. It adds so much soul and value to the night life, the whole idea of terminating it is just nuts. And yeah… in terms of hygiene, licenses and shit like that, it might be quite debatable but shit like that makes China beautiful. I read that they passed a law banning street food in Thailand recently and it pretty much fucks up the whole energy of their cities… I honestly hope this is some kinda temporary measure and I’m gonna see the lady back on her grind soon…

Yesterday, I met up with one of my classmates, we took bikes and did a big ass trip around Shanghai. It was like 30 degrees, sunny and overall perfect. Among other things, we checked out newly opened Expo Museum, located in the former Expo area – close to the Powerstation of Art. It’s free, it’s huge, the venue looks fantastic and had to cost millions. It pretty much summarizes history of all Expos ever since 19^th century all the way till like 2020. In 2019, they plan to do one in Beijing so I might actually have a chance of seeing that…

I’m trying to focus on school as much as possible but you know how it goes… With all the social media, with so many music releases, with so much Shanghai all around… It gets challenging. Anyways – we’ve got around 3 weeks to go in school and so far, so good... 

Highlights:

• Caoxi Park – that one is just awesome.
• The Expo Museum building. Neat as a motherfucker.
• New pieces from Island6 at M50. Those guys keep killing it.