Semester 4 Chapter XVI: Cocktails and Rocks

Okay, since most of my responsibilities, deadlines, assignments and all the other fun things have been successfully dealt with, I’ve had plenty of time and space to catching up with people I haven’t seen in a while, as well as hanging out with the usual suspects. I had one last chance to meet up with my girls from Montenegro on Monday, we drank some beers at Jingan park and then moved to My Place. They left two days after, so now I’m the last one standing out of our Shanghainese gang.

However, the week still turned out to be quite eventful anyway. On Tuesday, I got invited by my Lithuanian friends for a hangout at their spot. They’re like the perfect couple. Apart from the fact, they’re great people, the girl is involved in movies and the guy has recently picked up a new hobby – mixing drinks. So we talked for hours, watched a movie and enjoyed plethora of really well executed cocktails. Now, I’m not much of a cocktail guy – in terms of alcohol, I’m really good with beer or straight whisky. But all of the shit he was making was real good. Like real real good... We gonna do volume 2 of that this week.

I also caught up with another friend I haven’t seen in weeks, and since she bought a new DVD player (I know, fucking stone age, right?), we went to one of the local small fake DVD stores to pick up a movie to watch at her spot. It’s been ages since I actually purchased a physical copy of a movie so the whole thing felt more like a cultural experience... We got Jackie Brown for 13 RMB. These stores are way more solid than I expected tho... All movies are packed properly, wrapped in plastic, they contain booklets and when you put them on, they have menus with scene selections, languages and all. I really thought they sell some kinda burned out bootleg shit made on the spot, but those copies seem nearly like originals. And there’s really something about browsing through hundreds of movies with your hands... 

I actually met up with my Lithuanian people once more to show them arcades and My Place, I also met up with some other friends at Papa’s on Friday... And on Saturday, me and my biking partner went to try out the rock climbing thing at Shanghai Indoor Stadium again. This time it was open so we were on! The whole area looks incredible. Besides the fact, it’s huge as fuck, there are lots of statues of muscular Chinese people performing all kinds of activities ranging from different kinds of sport to posing with guns. The bright future of this amazing country! One day pass for the climbing is 80 RMB, and you pay additional 20 RMB for renting out the equipment (10 for straps, 10 for shoes). I saved 10 tho, cause Chinese don’t really do size 47. Ended up climbing in my fucking gym shoes. They have like 15-20 meters tall walls of different difficulty levels. For the easier ones, there are these self-winding systems installed so you don’t need anybody to secure you on the ground. You strap yourself up and once you reach the top, you just let go and the machine will slowly bring you down. Let me tell you tho... The first time you get up there and you’re about to put your trust in that thing... It kinda goes against all your instincts... But yeah.. We didn’t do the super difficult shit but we had a lotta fun on those easier ones and I have a feeling that this is something we might start doing regularly next semester. Some more healthy stuff to do....

On Sunday, I met up with my friend from Ukraine who decided to pick up skating. We went to the fake market to get her a board, practiced a little bit in the area, and then went on to grab a dinner and some beers. Shanghai is still beautiful, weather is warm but not really super hot (which makes it significantly different from the last year), there’s lotta things to do, I’m having a blast. Got one more week to go!

Highlights:

• Teyana Taylor – KTSE, Freeway – Think Free, Jay Rock – Redemption. All amazing projects.
• The Chi. Real decent TV series. It’s like a diet version of The Wire but it’s still dope as hell.
• Dark Chocolate/coffee stout by some local brewery. They sell bottles of this shit in one of the beer shops I go to and man... That thing might be one of the best beers I’ve ever tried. Straight up!

Semester 4 Chapter XV: Whisky & Hip-hop

Yo, so let me start with some music talk, cause this shit is incredible. There’s new Nas out there, Kanye and Cudi are super dope, and yesterday Hov and Bey released a joint album which is absolutely nuts. I feel I’m spending couple of hours per days listening to new amazing shit, and apparently this month has way much more to come... So bring it in!

Okay, now back to my Chinese adventures. Last week, I did pretty much the usual. Kept in touch with my peers, did some skating, hung out outside enjoying summer... My bro is leaving for Europe today so we figured we should do one last whisky night. So on Thursday (after a dinner with my biking partner), I bought a bottle of Johnnie, we met up at Jingan park, drank the whole thing and carried on to My Place for some more beers and shots. I have very scattered memories of playing pool with some Russian girl, playing Smells Like Teen Spirit on a guitar that magically appeared out of nowhere and eating noodles from my noodle lady around dusk. But the fun continued in the morning. I woke up at like 8, still drunk as shit but the shitty sleeper I am, I could not fall asleep anymore. So I was like fuck it and went for my regular run. I promise you, I barely walked straight and I expected to give up after like 1 lap. But nah.. I did the whole thing and even spent some time on the bars after... My first exercise done heavily under influence. It’s actually fun as hell!

On Wednesday, I  had to go to the Science and Technology Museum fake market, cause my sis decided they need some more Chucks in Brno. I wasn’t exactly happy about it but I made the most out of it. Went there by bike, took a ferry, handled it quite swiftly and even got myself some sweatpants as I managed to destroy some recently...

On Saturday, me and my friend went to Shanghai Indoor Stadium to try out some rock climbing. Unfortunately, the venue was closed (since everybody around spoke Chinese only, I have no idea why), but hopefully, I'll get to try that out soon... 

And on Sunday, I met up with my bro and her gf for the last time. We went to this Cactus joint which is a Mexican restaurant located right by the stadium I go to my runs and workouts to. I’ve been aware of the place for ages but I hadn’t been inside up until then, because.... Well, because I don’t give a shit about Mexican restaurants. Apparently, there’s some kinda football championship going on these days so bars are packed with people dressed up in jerseys and screaming at TV screens. Cactus was no exception. Gotta do that football... We went to My Place later on for some pool...

So yeah, I hope all of you are doing amazing, I hope all is well and I hope it’s gonna stay like that. We got Trump talking to Kim so our world is bizarre enough for any dream to come true... Talk to you in a week!

Highlights:

• Jay & Bey – Apeshit, Nas – Everything, Moss Kena – Problems (feat. Rapsody)
• Dukla 61 – another good Czech movie. I’m not really used to Czechs shooting good films but I do enjoy when they do.
• Had my last class at the campus last Friday – in terms of classes, I believe I’m done for good. Only the dissertation left to do... Hehe...

Semester 4 Chapter XIV: Lost & Found

Believe it or not, I actually could not wait to get to this blog. Last week was quite eventful but there was one highlight I’m gonna get to in a minute. Outside of that, I went out with my favorite peers, discovered a new beer spot at Dingxi Lu, played some pool at My Place and went for a vegan potluck at my friend’s place on Friday. Haven’t been to one for a while and I kinda missed that. Again, lots of great food, salads, raw cakes, fruits. One thing I know for sure, I’m gonna die vegan...

And then there was Saturday. Fucking Saturday. In the evening, I met with my biking partner who’s on Ramadan these days, so we went straight to the peanut sauce noodle place to fuel her up after a day of fasting. Then we carried on to the arcades when we met with my favorite girls from Montenegro and went kinda crazy on those gaming machines for about two hours. It was their first time and they loved it. As expected. Awesome evening.

Now, here comes the fun part. So we leave arcades just to find out my bike is fucking gone. My Forever light blue bike I got almost two years ago and used it pretty much every day ever since. My friend’s bike was still there, mine was nowhere to be found. I canvased the area a bit to make sure somebody had not moved it, but no luck there. Since I don’t usually communicate with police unless I necessarily have to, I didn’t even think of calling them and reporting it. Don’t get me wrong, I love that bike... On the other hand, it was not that expensive and I can afford getting a new one... But the girls seemed not to accept the situation so we ended up talking to this traffic cop standing nearby who advised us to call 110 – local equivalent of 112. So we called them and reported the shit. There was even an English operator available. They told us to wait there for a bit as a car is on its way. So we grabbed some beers at a Family Mart around the corner and waited. And a pretty big, shiny police car indeed arrived in like 5 minutes. After providing some basic info, they asked me to go to the station to do the full report. My biking partner offered to accompany me which I gladly accepted as, unlike me, she speaks some Chinese. At that point I did not really expect to see my bike ever again so I just took it easy, went with the flow and enjoyed the bizarreness of the situation.

I hopped in the cop car (my first ride in a cop car ever) with a beer in my hand and got taken to the station at Yan’an Road. I kinda expected them to ask me to leave my fucking beer outside but nah... I got all the way to the counter, still drinking my Tsingtao. The cops were all friendly, took all the info they needed and told me that they gonna keep in touch in case there’s any development. Which translates as “no way José”. Again, I wasn’t happy about the situation but I wasn’t outraged neither. And the whole thing was way too random for me not to dig it. After that, we walked back to arcades to pick my friend’s bike and then continued to my neighborhood where the girls were having a drink at some bar. And then in happened... After like 1 minute of walk, I noticed my bike... Somebody just moved it like 50 meters. No idea why, no idea who, no idea what the goal was. I mean it was way too far for someone to move it because it was in the way of anything... Whatever.... So I just took it, we grabbed some street food and celebrated the success in the bar. Fucking unbelievable... But yeah, my bike is fine, everything turned out good, it’s all gucci... Today, I even gave a call to the station to let them know not to search for it anymore. To make sure they won’t jump me at some point. 

Other than that, everything is okay around here. Feels quite busy these days but I’m at the finish line. In Europe, it’s gonna be nothing but the good stuff, tats, travels... We’re getting there...

Highlights:

• Future – Superfly soundtrack. Great body of work.
• Did some night skating around Shanghai. God damn, it’s awesome.
• I’m back on my lyrics shit. Gearing up for some recording in the summer. That I really look forward to too...