Okay, so I’m back
to the city I’ve been calling home for the
past year and a half, and fortunately, these days Shanghai is getting all nice,
warm, sunny and generally optimistic. Before I go any further, let me sum up
the rest of my bizarre Oklahoma stay. I did super long walks to get the vibe of the city and man... I can't imagine living there for a week. In
addition to the absence of sidewalks and pretty much any kinda outdoors life, the place is way too far from anything I expect from a city.
There are these huge areas covered only by small households – no cafés, no
shops, no parks. All is private, “no trespassing” signs (and you best believe all those motherfuckers are armed), no benches – nothing. They got crazy amount of
churches all over the place with signs in front of them calling against
abortion, trashing anti-Israel viewpoints, and of course praising da lord. All
these big ass cars, all these burger and tacos joints... There’s like drive thru versions of pretty
much all businesses so people don’t have
to leave their vehicles at all. This one time, I bought a beer in a liquor
store, found these remains of what used to be a house, sat on a piece of wall
and just wasted time to see how it feels to do that shit over there. Now, besides me, there were only homeless people
hanging out across the street. Spending time outside, drinking and just walking
around is one of my favorite things. In Oklahoma, it’s an activity reserved to homeless and
criminals. It was a great experience but honestly, I was kinda looking forward
to get back China.
As for the cool places over there, I like the city
underground, which is this small network of tunnels underneath the city center
with art exhibitions and info on city history. The memorial of 1995 city
bombing is nice, the park across the street from the Devon Energy Center
building is also pretty cool – with swans,
lake and lots of green. They have one 100% vegan restaurant called The Loaded Bowl
which is quite amazing, and also this Holey Roller joint where they do delicious
vegan donuts. So yeah, there are spots. But seriously... Like 2 days and you’re straight.
The way back was kinda shit, cause I had an overnight
layover in Chicago. Oh well. The flight back to Shanghai was aight as
stewardesses were willing (again) to provide me with some complimentary liquor.
Couple of tiny bottles of Jack, some beers and acceptable food made it
bearable. I got to Pudong Airport last Thursday (March 8th) around
2pm, hopped on a subway, dropped my shit home and went straight for this dinner
thing organized by my supervisor. It was like a meet up of students responsible
for the school’s social media, but we didn’t really talk about that for long. In
the evening, my bro had this b-day party in Papa’s which
nice. I got shitfaced with beers and Johnnie Walker and headed back to my bed.
Which felt really good.
I had lots to do over the weekend but I managed to drop
by at another birthday party of one of my classmates and I also booked tickets
to Hong Kong. I’m doing this little
spontaneous trip over there this week and I’m
pretty excited about it. Gonna tell you all about it (well, some of it) the
next blog. So yeah, I’m back
on my routine here – gym, runs, cooking – all the basic shit I enjoy and I didn’t really get to do over the past
couple of weeks. And the weather... Wherever I end up after China, it’s gonna be somewhere tropical. I’m done dealing with cold.
Highlights:
- Lil Wayne – Vizine & PRhyme 2.
- Oklahoma sweatshirt I got in this hipster shop to commemorate my epic trip. I also managed to lose my uni hoodie tho. You win some, you lose some.
- Got tickets to Zhangjiajie for me and my dad who’s coming in like two weeks. That’s gonna be dope as hell.
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