Semester 6 Chapter III: Dragons & Jams

Okay, so let me kick it with y’all for the third time. Things are moving kinda slowly but they’re moving. Last week, I went to my beloved campus in the middle of nowhere to deal with registration, I did couple of marvelous bike rides through heavy rain, I kept all of my workout routines in check and I did lotta music listening. Let me just tell you right away – Offset’s new album is fucking amazing. Metro Booming did an incredible job on the beats, melodies are outta here and Offset stepped his game up lyrically big time. Top3 this year and one of the best recent releases overall...

Back to the life, back to reality. On Monday, the gang met up at Fat Cow just next to my compound for a dinner, and I joined them for a drink. Obviously, Fat Cow does not sound like a place my vegan ass would go to for a meal... It’s one of many joints around here targeting mostly expats, nothing special. After that though, we went to Chair Club for a jam night. Gotta say, I was impressed. The whole thing started around 10pm with a 4-member band (drums, base, guitar, keys) and this lady (I’m guessing late 40s or early 50s) setting the tone. Besides drummer, none of them was Caucasian, and they took it to rnb and soul. I was rolling. The magic kept on happening for the rest of the night. It appeared to be a pretty established event and since it’s open for anyone to step in if they feel like it, you got people from the crowd (of about 40-50 people) jumping in, singing with the band, or even bringing their own instruments, just kicking it. The band line-up got switched up countless of times and most of people were killing it. I gotta give it up for the motherfucker who decided to sing some R. Kelly (very poorly btw). Doing this shit in 2019 requires some heavy balls or mad level of ignorance. More power to you, young king! I initially came in for a drink but ended up staying the closing hour (3am) and I’m pretty sure I’m gonna be back. Some dope shit right there.

Wednesday, I met up with that vegan restaurant owner of mine for some top-notch coffee and a dinner at Knowing Café. What’s normally a pretty nice 30+ km bike ride turned into a fucking "riding in the rain" nigthmare – not surprisingly. We had a good chat and she recommended me this cartoon movie named Breadwinner. Another thing worth checking out. Real good.

Saturday, I met up at Uncafé with my vegan peers for this Dragon Burn swap event. The aim was for people to come in, bring shit they don’t need anymore (clothes, camping gear, cutlery, whatever) and swap it with others. And our little vegan camp did like a small stand over there selling cakes, cookies, pasta, powerballs and some hummus. I didn’t prepared any of that – showed up just to help selling the stuff. It was a nice chilled afternoon, we raised a bit of money and ate like tons of leftovers. Shout out my vegans!

Sunday, I went to the campus and in the evening met up with my Montenegro girls since they finally. got back from their winter travels. I joined them at Lotus Restaurant on Dingxi Lu and then we took it to the Beer Lady by West Yan’an. Good to have the gang gang back. I’m talking gang gang gang.

And that’s about it. Just got back from gym, got some Gorilla Zoe and Zaytoven in my headphones, coffee on table. For the past three days, we’ve got some sun in Shanghai, hopefully we’re moving towards warmer days.

Highlights:

• Offset, Gunna, Papoose, Kehlani, Yung Tory. Lotta great fucking music.
• Chinese singing. That shit never ceases to amaze me. They usually approach the mic barely talking but when it gets down to the shits, they kill it hard. So many great Chinese singers (pretty much only females) at the jam night.
• Just read that in Hong Kong, the temperatures oscillate around 20. Gonna go there by the end of this week and this make me a bit more excited about it.

Semester 6 Chapter II: Elvers & Vegan Shit

Shanghai is cold. Every time I get back from my winter travels, it’s the same. You wear your tank top, some shorts and flip flops for 3 weeks and then you’re thrown back to zero degrees, rain and fog. So that’s a bit challenging... So far I haven’t got sick tho, and it seems my organism is handling outdoor workout and running pretty well too... Anyways, I sure do hope spring is coming early this year...

I jumped back to my Shanghainese life right on Thursday, meeting up with the fam for a trivia night at this Abbey Road bar on Taojiang Lu. In my absence, they started doing these, and since it’s a good excuse to go out and kick couple of beers, I have no issues with that. It was pretty fun, we totally didn’t win but it was cool seeing my peers again. Later, we took it to Tap House for some more cold ones...

On Saturday, we decided to do Dada for this China Social Club party – I realized I haven’t been clubbing in ages in Shanghai. The blueprint was clear tho... Some beers, some shots, more beers, more shots, My Place, cab to Dada, more shots... You know the drill. I enjoyed the music, the vibe, the people... And since not doing hangovers is kinda my thing, by 7am next morning, I was doing my laps at the stadium. Which is something I actually enjoy quite a lot - having my regular workout routine in place again.

Sunday, I caught up with my vegan squad. My veggie plug was hosting another of her infamous potlucks. Lotta people, lotta top notch food (spring rolls were the bomb), lotta politics discussed, and yeah – since the Dragon Burn tickets have recently gone on sale, we talked about that too. I actually booked my ticket couple of hours ago too and I suggest everybody who wants to have this experience, which is honestly not comparable to anything I have ever witnessed in China so far, to do the same.

So yeah, I think I’m pretty much back on my bullshit here. Haven’t suffered any major jetlag and besides all the cold out there, life is good over here. You can tell that many people haven’t got back to the city after the Chinese New Year yet so streets are a bit more empty than usual. I’m sure that’s gonna change quite soon...

Highlights:

• Most! After a while a really good Czech TV series.
• I forgot to shout out Boogie’s album Everything's For Sale the last time. Probably the best music of 2019 so far.
• Oh and Elvers are babies of eels. That’s what trivia does to you...

Semester 6 Chapter I: Bula Motherfuckers

Yo, so I’m back. It’s been more than 3 weeks of absolutely unbelievable places and people, and it would take forever to actually give you guys all the details. I’ll try to sum it up a bit tho. It was my third time in Fiji (first time doing a vacation – it was all work prior) and my first time in Vanuatu. I did pretty much the whole thing with my dad and boy, did we see a lot. Started off in Suva, took an overnight boat to Savusavu, spent couple of days in the hills on the farm surrounded by tropical fruits and some amazing people, continued to the island of Taveuni, took a tiny local plane back to the main island just to go to Levuka (former capital), spent some time in the town of Lautoka, caught a flight to Port Vila, spent couple of days over there, took it to Emua (a small village on the other side of the island), went back to Nadi for bit, and wrapped our trip in Sigatoka. We did some couchsurfing, we did some homestays, we stayed off resorts completely and we did hotels only like 3 times. Shout out to all the people who opened their households for us and treated us like family, thanks for all the tips, food, talks, walks... And shout out to my dad. Most people don’t get to do an adventure like this with a parent...

Now, let me cover some shit that surprised me a little bit. Fiji has a reputation of a pretty touristy country. And true enough, there’s a lot of international flights and tourists coming in and out all the time. The thing is though, it really seems that pretty much all of them stay in resorts and hotels, not really getting out by themselves, not using public infrastructure, transport, restaurants, shops etc... So over our travels, as we kept is as local as possible, we barely met any internationals. Since this was one of my major worries, I really appreciated that a lot. People in Fiji are mostly extremely easy going (outside of hustlers at the most touristy spots), positive and generally more connected to each other, their families, their nature and country... And they are usually also very easy to talk to... That’s why I don’t understand how the fuck we didn’t meet more travelers mingling with them. If you spend all you fucking time in a facility where you just pay money for services, if you don’t put yourself on the same level, if you don’t share food and stories... You are missing a bunch... Plus the shit that grows over there... I mean, while I was at the farm, I used to do this fresh fruits salads... I’m talking pineapples, bananas, papayas, passion fruit, shredded coconut with some fresh one on the side. I could literally consume this shit all day everyday.

Vanuatu was also pretty awesome as we couchsurfed with this amazing guy for the most part. However, Port Vila is probably one of the saddest cities I’ve ever seen. Not because it’s dangerous or dirty or anything – quite the opposite actually.... Since there’s a relatively big expat community over there (UN, some NGOs, international companies), the city somehow transformed into something like an airport. I mean, there’s barely any local energy left over there. Wannabe French restaurants and cafés, wannabe pizzerias, everything is extremely overpriced and looks the same as in Europe. If you don’t count the main city market, the whole town is artificial as shit. Whites everywhere, locals nowhere to be found (outside of servicing jobs)... But if you take it to the countryside, you get the real stuff. Nice warm people interested in your story, willing to share theirs, food for fragments of city prices, nice little communities... Oh, and neither in Fiji or Vanuatu they don’t really use scooters. Which makes it quite different from South-East Asia and I missed that a bit.

So yeah, we’ve seen some amazing beaches, forests, we hitchhiked, we did some trails, we traveled by cars, buses, boats, planes... I managed to check some black sand dunes as well... I hope I’ll have a chance to get back there at some point down the road... You see, couple of weeks back, I read that according to some recent research, pure gratitude is a feeling most beneficial for mental health. Because it’s like this positive emotion than relies on external things. Meaning that it's selfless – the positivity does not come from within but from the outside which just makes your happiness intertwined with the world. And I guess I feel lots of that at the moment. Being able to do this shit, being able to experience what I experienced, talk to people I talked to, being able to do that with my dad... I’m just grateful for all of that I guess...

But yeah, your boy is back in Shanghai. Arrived this morning, did traditional Chinese queuing at Pudong, arrived to my spot, did some shopping, cooked myself a lunch and I’m thinking about maybe doing a run in the afternoon. Even though I was doing push-ups quite regularly, I feel my regular routine is something I gotta get back to like now... Other piece of my mental health...

 

Highlights:

• Sitting on top of the TV tower in the middle on Efatu island in Vanuatu – no people, no tourists, no business being there.
• Kava – we drank it a bit by the end of the trip. Awesome fucking drink.
• Fiji Bitter. They know how to brew beer.