Semester 3 Chapter VIII: Halloween Shit & Sleep Deprivation

Time still flies like a motherfucker. It’s incredible that I’ve been back here for almost 2 months now. There’s shit happening all the time, new situations and people popping up, overall, it’s quite fun. The only thing that kinda bothers me that the weather is really going south. It’s getting colder and it’s not getting better anytime soon.

Last Wednesday, I met up with a friend of mine, we hung out for a bit and cooked some vegan dishes. Got stuffed, got baked, got home around 1am on an OFO bike, one hand on the handlebar, a can of beer in the other. Fuck me.

On Friday, I got invited to this psy trance thing close to Hongqiao Airport. I didn’t really know what to expect but I assumed we’re talking some house party or some shit. However, after a subway ride to Shanghai Zoo and a following cab ride, we ended up right by the fence of the airport next to a river where a guy had this sound system installed. It’s was a really small event – like 10 people just hanging out, drinking and dancing. I managed to spend some time preaching socialism to confused Chinese girls too. Cause this motherfucker know how to partaaay. It was super fun though, the sound was loud and clear, people were cool. It got shut down by cops around 3am and after that we took a cab back home.

On Saturday, it was Halloween. Now, I’m not really into any of that shit so me and my friend eventually decided to pass on all potential Halloween parties and costumes and all of that shit people enjoy for whatever kinda reason. We were just meeting up in a park for a beer and chat. Before that, I got a text from another friend of mind saying she’s at a house party at my compound. Literally two buildings away from mine. So I started my night there. And boy, was I out of place. Everyone was rocking a super advanced costume, body paint, face paint, accessories. Grease, Incredible Hulk, Robin Hood, fucking everything. Showing up in a hoodie and some sweatpants, I didn’t fit in at fucking all. They forced me to put some fake blood on my face, cause that’s what normal people do on Halloween. I drank a beer and some Ballantine’s, hopped on my bike and was on my way to the park across Dada. Oh, by the way, the apartment was insane. It looked like money, smelled like money, it had a big ass living room with a view at Pudong. Visibility was good so Shanghai Tower was flashing in the background, one of guys played a set using this big ass Native Instruments midi controller – some upper echelon shit. I continued drinking at the park and eventually ended up in Dada for a bit. Since I had to wake up early on Sunday and since I was kinda sleep deprived from Friday already, I didn’t really push it and wrapped it up around 1am.

On Sunday, I met with my journalist friend after some time and we had a great dinner in our regular restaurant. This time, I actually managed to get back home before midnight to have some rest before going to campus early morning today. So there we go – I’m in the library again trying to get some work done, being responsible and shit.

Highlights:

• The party next to the airport. Drinking and watching airplanes taking off and touching down is just nice.
• Migos – Motorsport feat. Cardi and Nicki. This is a solidified banger.
• I dedicated vast majority of Friday to reading a book. Just relaxing and reading. I forgot how amazing that shit feels. Gotta do this a regular thing.

Semester 3 Chapter VII: Family Mart Drinking

Okay, can talk my shit again? I feel like things are becoming quite stereotypical… It’s not a problem though – I consider myself being kinda routine type of guy so having some sort of schedule, I can more or less stick to, feels quite alright. When you got all these assignments, deadlines, stuff to read and papers to write, it kinda works out anyway. Can't wait for some travelling over the winter break to switch it up again though.

I spice this responsible lifestyle up with workouts, runs and occasional beers. And music. Lotta fucking music. The amount of the great albums and mixtapes dropping is still incredible to me. This year is amazing and we still have shitload of dope releases ahead before it ends.

Last Friday, I went out to kill some brain cells, ended up and this random bar, drank some beers outside and after couple of months actually drank one inside of Family Mart too. The culture of 24/7 convenient stores in China is fascinating. Spot, where you can get beers, spirits and tons of junk food and sweets full of chemicals. Everything colorful, everything wrapped in excessive amount of plastic, everything just the way they like it around here. Because fuck health and environment.

Oh yeah, we had parliamentary election back in the Czech Republic couple of days ago. Let me sum it up for y’all who missed this. So we got this winning party that got about 30% of votes and thus is the only significant political body. Ran by the second richest motherfucker in the country, who also happens to own two of the biggest newspapers, like 60% of agricultural companies, has been convicted of tunneling state and European funds, lying, and cooperating with secret police during the Soviet Union times way before the revolution in 1989. There are additional 3 parties at around 10% mark. Conservative, right-wing, free market happy capitalists fighting against social state, minorities and immigration. Then we got straight up nazis led by a Japanese immigrant (I shit you not) and a Pirate party. I have no idea what to expect from them tho. Left-wing parties totally flopped and Green party sank deep into irrelevance. So it’s all fucked. The only thing I’m trying to figure out is how low we have to go in order to fucking wake up. Distribution of wealth is fucked, planet is fucked, rich get richer, poor get poorer, we are exploiting the weakest segments of population and countries who are powerless against the West corporate forces. And it all benefits like 0.1% of cynics who are untouchable. And our solution? Basic income? Progressive taxing? Environmental measures? Nope. We go for Trump, we blame other races, we blame people running away from countries we totally fucked up, we blame those with no voice… Using white privilege in the worst possible way imaginable. I’m done being done with this shit. Let me just issue a big FUCK YOU to all homophobic, racist idiots out there. You are the reason we’re in this shit and you are the reason we won’t get out. The more power and money you have, the worse.

Speaking of corporations, I had a chance to pay visit to Shanghai HP offices last week too. Had to do 10 km run and spend like an hour doing pull ups to shake that shit off. In my previous life, I used to work in an office and I sincerely hope I’m gonna die before I get back to that 9 to 5 shit again. This whole thing, this whole environment, this whole non-sense… It just does something to people. Mentally, morally, it goes deep. It’s crazy.

Highlights:

• Ozark – just watch it.
• Future and Young Thung got a joint project out. And it’s flames.
• Street food. If you ever come to Shanghai, just make sure you have as much as that as possible. Especially during the night. Even though they do random raids trying to shut that shit down, it’s still here and striving and I do hope it ain’t going nowhere.

Semester 3 Chapter VI: Arts & Research

Okay, here we go again. Last Tuesday, I paid a visit to the Powerstation of Art – first time this semester. There was an exhibition of Li Shan and Balkrishna Doshi. As usual it did not disappoint. The pieces dealt with environment, ecology, human vs. nature etc. They continuously manage to pick dope artists and place their work very carefully into that industrial background… I honestly don’t recall a single case of a bad exhibition over there.

At the Xuhui campus, they closed up the track I use for running, along with the bars I use for outdoor workout until the end of the month. I had to resolve the situation, so I went to check out a venue called Jingan Workers Stadium which is couple of hundred meters away from my place. It’s a win. The set-up is very similar. Football field with athletic track around and some bars by the side – open free of charge for public. So yeah – for further purposes I don’t actually have to go all the way to the campus…

I also met with my supervisor for the first time after summer and we discussed some papers I should start working on. So that’s what I do now. I developed a routine – read at least one journal article per day and hand write notes for every single one. So far so good. I focus on fake news in Central Europe and hopefully, I’ll be able to deliver something by the end of the year.

Besides of drinking outside and wandering around, I stopped by at the Czech festival at Sinan Road last Friday. One of my friends texted me about that and I got curious. It was total shit. Couple of stands with overpriced Czech beer and sausages, some Czech clothing brands and super weird cultural program. When I arrived, there was a Chinese guy singing American songs. After like 3 minutes, I was on my way.

I also went to a housewarming party of a friend on Saturday. She has an amazing place big enough to fit about 30 people. So yeah, it was packed, I met some new people, I ate tons of awesome vegan food, including some happy chocolate, and around midnight I wrapped it up.

So yeah, that’s what’s been up. You can tell that the weather is slowly switching to the Autumn mode. It’s till aight, but not really for a tank top and short anymore. Let’s hope we still have some weeks to go before it goes south.

Highlights:

• Gucci Mane – Mr. Davis – just a great project.
• Mr. Robot – new season. God damn, I love that show.
• The Kindle, I ordered a while ago, arrived. So now I’m fucking ready to read anywhere.