Semester 3 Chapter XXI: I Don’t Even Know Anymore...

Okay, lotta shit happened the last week. I had incredible amount of time consuming things to take care of, my paper for this Oklahoma conference being on top of the list. I manage to finish it – it’s still far from what I would consider a solid contribution but it’s something. And after some struggling with my uni, I sorta got a greenlight on the travel. At this point, all the expenses come from my pocket but I should get reimbursed afterwards. And I sure do hope I will, cause getting to fucking Oklahoma turns out to be a very pricey. Everything about it – tickets, conference fee, ESTA, accommodation. I’m on 1000+ bucks now. I still can’t believe this is really happening.

Due to all of that shit, my social life got sidetracked tho. I got outside for a bit on Tuesday and I went to my vegan friend’s place on Friday. She's of Armenian descent and she invited some of her peers to introduce their version of Valentine’s day. It has nothing to do with the actual Valentine’s day but it’s also a love thing and it’s actually pretty cute. On January 26^th evening, they bake these cookies and they add shitload of salt into them. So they are not really good. However, the point is, you eat some of those and after that you don’t drink anymore. The salt makes you all thirsty and you just go to sleep like that. And in your dreams, the person who either offers you water or leads you to a water source is your future spouse. The whole thing was also kind of a potluck so everybody brought some vegan food and man... One great thing about veganism is, people actually care about and enjoy food a lot. Like proper, homemade food.  There were lots of great dishes, salads, sweet potatoes brownies, homemade chocolate... And even my mix of grains and veggies was a success. Overall a great night. Unfortunately, I either didn’t dream about anyone leading to me to a water source or I just don’t remember. Oh well...

Yesterday morning, I rode to the Czech consulate to throw in my vote for the second round of presidential election. With the same lack of enthusiasm as two weeks ago. In the evening, I met with the gang at Papa’s. We had our last beers this semester since this evening I’m heading to the airport, leaving another part of my Chinese life behind. It was all good and I got home around 2am...

Oh, and the winter has kicked right back in. And I mean real winter. Snow everywhere, cold as a motherfucker. Shanghai has not seen snow like this in about 10 years and it was quite entertaining watching all the kids outside building snowmen and shit... For lots of them, this was the first snow they've ever experienced. The white blanket on rooftops and streets didn’t last for long but it was there. On one hand, it was nice to witness that, on the other it makes me wanna go to Indonesia even more. I really need some warmth...

Oh yeah, and the election. I’m not gonna spend much on that but our Czech version of Hillary vs. Trump ended up with Trump winning again. So fuck all y’all who voted for him, fuck all y’all anti-refugees, racist, homophobic, misogynist, insecure idiots. Fuck all the people who made you think any of this is okay and the people who pushed you into a situation where you feel like this attitude is the only suitable solution for these times when capitalism crashes down and we still trynna act like everything’s gucci on this sinking ship. I feel bad for all of that... And I’m not gonna rant no more about this, it’s just super depressing.

So there you have it. The semester 3 is over, I’m leaving for Indonesia for a month and right after that, it’s Oklahoma for about a week. Shanghai Czech-In is gonna be on pause but I’m gonna be right back in March with brand new content. Stay tuned! And thanks for following, reading, texting and all of that. I’ve managed to keep this blog running for way longer than I expected and it’s cool to know that some people actually give a shit about it. 1 love!

Highlights:

• Lil Wayne – D6 Reloaded, Migos – Culture II – hell fucking yeah.
• Riding a bike through a snowstorm – that hasn’t happened to me in a long long time.
• Sweet potato brownies with vegan whip cream on top. That was just beautiful.

Semester 3 Chapter XX: WTF Shit...

Okay, another attempt to recollect the events of the past week. I did two interviews for my classmates. For one of their classes, they had this “create your online blog” assignment and they needed some content. So on Monday, I rode to my friend’s apartment by West Yan’an Road, we did like 10 minutes of audio on veganism and then we just smoked some, chilled, watched a movie with her friends... And I got to do a very distorted bike ride back home...

On Tuesday, I met with my Macedonian guy at Papa’s to do a video interview on music. We eventually had to do it over on Thursday for some reason I already forgot, but the important thing is, they both got what they needed. And we got fucked up too... Along with the new assets to our gang – sisters from Monte Negro. Where my Slavs at???

On Wednesday, I met with my biking friend for our regular biking/gallery/dinner thing. We went to Art Gallery Sitico for this art deco exhibition. The gallery is close to the Bund and the exhibition was pretty cool. However, the highlight of the day was yet to come. Couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon this article on local Chinese meals you gotta try out in Shanghai. I dismissed most of them (cause of my vegan shit) but there was this one place doing noodles with sesame sauce. And I love me some noodles with sesame sauce. Taking my non-existing short-term memory into account (seriously, you have no idea how much I have to struggle to summarize my fucking week for this blog), I had this bright idea of making a screenshot... And boy oh boy, thank god I did. Located on Yandang Road, you would most likely miss the place if just passing by. The area seems a bit high-end, lotta jewelry stores around, some poshy restaurants. This joint is super small, totally Chinese (no pinyin or English signs available), there’s one cashier and bunch of people working in the kitchen. It has a nonchalant vibe of a 1960s eatery. Hipsters in Europe would cream themselves. And for 10 RMB they give you easily one of the meals I have ever tasted in this city. It really goes up there with my favorite spots so far. I mean... It’s just a fast dish but the taste... Fuckin god....

In the evening, I went out again for some beers at which point, my socializing capacities were pretty much done. I decided to take Thursday easy. However... When I opened up my laptop the next morning, I found out that my fucking paper got accepted for this conference... Early March in Oklahoma. Now, I don’t really consider the paper good and I was about to throw it away... But they liked the abstract. And that means two things. One, I have to try to make the full paper little less shit before I go to Indonesia next Monday, and two, I gotta push my school to greenlight my travel grant so I can buy plane tickets. If everything falls into place this week, I’m gonna have a quite unexpected overseas trip about 20 hours after I touchdown from Indonesia by the end of February. And that’s random as fuck...

So I spent ridiculous amount of time on the paper over the rest of the past week. I still managed to get our Friday beer, to attend this farewell dinner with my journalist friend on Saturday, and to grab a dinner with the gang yesterday. But other than that, it was work, work, work, and some more work... I honestly have no idea, if I’m really coming to that thing but if I do, it's gonna be one of the biggest hacks I’ve pulled so far... And man, there’s been some...

And yeah... In a week, I’m finally turning my brain on a screensaver mode. I exchanged some more money in the bank, and also managed to get a guy through coushsurfing to have us for the first couple of days in Jakarta, we came up with some checkpoints we’d like to see throughout our journey... It’s shaping up to be a great trip. And honestly, I cannot wait to just leave my laptop behind and care only about sun, sea, scooters, hikes, beer, food (tempeh, here I come!), and the good shit life has to offer.

Highlights:

• The sesame sauce noodles. If you’ll ever visit Shanghai, it’s a must. If you’ll ever visit me here, it’s not even up for debate.
• Spring weather – it’s still on. It’s about to go south by the end of the week but since I’m leaving the country, I couldn’t care less.
• On Wednesday, we got to this small bar around 2am. Some Chinese guy was celebrating birthday over there (which was probably the only reason they were still open) and he was nice as hell. Buying us shots and beers and shit. Barely standing but super cool. So shout out to him!

Semester 3 Chapter XIX: Voting Like a Motherfucker

Mid-January is here and yesterday, the weather finally got out of the worst. The jump was quite astonishing. For the most part, last week really rough. When it’s freezing, your AC really provides only survival heat, and you are cold all the fucking time. Unless you spend lots of time in schools, libraries and places that can afford to invest into more badass heating solutions. You can also fight it with physical activity but let me tell you... doing pull-up when it’s like negative 2 degrees outside is really something. I definitely recommend that shit tho...

What else we got. Me and my classmate work on this paper together. It’s about the recent Iranian protests and this time around, we might actually have some coders and resources to make it legit. So even though my coursework is done, I’m still either at the community center or the uni library almost daily  trying to progress a little. I guess it’s only right given the fact that my 1 month holiday is approaching.

When it comes to social shit... Last Tuesday, me and my Macedonian guy hit Papa’s for some beers and also to complete the very last paper that was left for me to submit this semester. Since it was a group project, we kinda had to do that together. And we succeeded.

On Friday, I went to the Czech consulate for the second time ever. This time to vote in the presidential election that was on Friday and Saturday. It sucks tho. For those who are not informed, we have a real prick in the office now. He’s everything you expect a successful 2018 politician to be. Constantly drunk, funded by controversial businessmen and god knows who else, heavily Russia infulenced... Attacking women, homosexuals, disabled children, vegetarians, minorities, refugees... Pushing all the “fuck political correctness” agenda.... With half of the nation desperate enough to applaud him for it... That’s not the worst thing tho... The real tragedy is that among 9 white men (yes, no women or anything out of ordinary there), there’s nobody that pushes shit that’s really important to me. Social justice, anti-capitalism, multi-cultural perspectives, pro-refugees, gender equality etc. I mean they might mention it here and there but given the representative nature of the Czech presidential institution, I really need someone like Sanders or Corbyn to feel aight about it. This time, I just gave my fucking vote to the guy who has the biggest chance of actually beating the current motherfucker. Lesser of two evils. Trump vs. Hillary – Czech remix. Now, we do have a 2-round system and since the current turd didn’t get over 50%, there’s gonna be a round two. With the guy, I voted for. It’s not that important I guess, but I would really appreciate getting that arrogant piece of shit out of the public scope. Well, I’m gonna go the consulate again in two weeks with the same lack of enthusiasm to vote for nothing. Cause nothing is better that whatever we have now. I had to treat myself with an exhibition at Gallery Dumontell at Hengshan Road (Gaston Suisse) on the way back, and a vegan hotpot with a friend of mine in the evening... You know... To feel better about the whole mess...

On Saturday, I went to Hu Café to catch up with a friend I haven’t seen in a while and to get some happy muffins from her. It was some kinda super basic party and I didn’t really enjoy it but we got to talk briefly and I managed to turn my night into this trippy, blurred, beautiful mess with music blasting out my headphones. So it was a win...

And yesterday evening, we hit Papa’s again to warm up before Dada for a Sega Bodega set. Papa’s beer was great, Dada was amazing. There were those Genome guys supporting, there were insane sets, there was live performance. Even though the club wasn’t packed (it was Sunday after all), there was enough people to make it feel like a party. They planned the whole thing quite early so by 2am, I was back home.

And when I woke up this morning, the weather was like the best surprise ever. All sunny, temperature around 10... The run and outdoor workout was fucking awesome. Had the spring feeling.... I do hope this shit’ll last till I’m on my way to Jakarta.

Highlights:

• OFO bike ride from Dada back home. It might sound like nothing but that would be impossible couple of days ago due to the weather. Yesterday, it was a go.
• New Young Chop album. Or mixtape. Or whatever the shit is. Particularly the I Need a Break record with PARTYNEXTDOOR and Chief Keef. Fuckin’ DOPE.
• 1 hour in a bank waiting to exchange some money. Since there’s this awesome daily limit of 500 USD, I’m gonna have the pleasure of doing that shit once or twice over throughout the following couple of days. Yay!