Semester 6 Chapter XII: Meat & Long Nights

Hello everybody, it’s the time of the week again. Everything is going well apart from the weather. It’s stuck somewhere between spring and summer but it gets almost winterish here and there... Every time it feels like we are out of cold days, they usually kick back in the next day. It’s pretty fucked and I really wish it would stop. Anyways...

Last Monday, I hit the Chair’s for another jam night. The usual crew, the usual vibes, everything on point. A friend of mine had her friend visiting and since she turned out to be a former band singer, she jumped to the mic for a song and pretty much killed that shit. If I could sing like that, I would totally do it publicly all the fucking time...

On Wednesday, some of my friends were hanging out at the Bites and Brews bar in my area and they texted me to join. I was totally in bed watching a movie, ready to call it a day, but I managed to get my ass out. What I expected to be a one beer situation ended up being almost an all-nighter, which eventually took us to Parrot at Donghu Lu. Pretty awesome night.

On Thursday, our Dragon Burn camp organized this movie screening (Portugese film named Captains) at one of the camp affiliate's apartment on Beijing Lu, on Friday, I met yet another friend at Papa’s for some beers and hangout, and on Saturday, I did a final meet up with my Macedonian guy who just left Shanghai for couple of months. Nice chilled evenings.

There was one more thing happening on Saturday though. The fucking Meat Fest. Vegans of Shanghai (which is an actual name of an organization) organized this event at Haifang Lu (actually right in front of the Chair Club) and the point was simple – to introduce local brands producing meat alternatives. I really respect the fact they kept it local. My issue with veganism, and “healthy lifestyle” in general is the fucking capitalist aspect of it which is quite present and always goes against sustainability. When you turn that shit into a commodity under the market logic, it arguably does almost the same amount of damage as if you’d do nothing (I still got some love for corporate vegans too - no worries). For example, celebrating meat alternatives produced in the U.S. that have to be flown from the other side of the world is kinda insane. Same shit goes for fuckin McVegan burgers, vegan Ben & Jerry’s, Magnums etc. If you buy shit like that, you are basically supporting brands that are not only a part of the problem, but often also the biggest perpetrators of it. They are deep in the animal killing industry (ergo carbon emissions), the products come with heavy packaging, and are far from being produced locally. It's okay to buy shit like that (and god knows I'm gonna do vegan Magnum when I'm back in Europe), it's just a bit nuts acting like you are making any difference doing so. The idea that all you have to do change anything is to switch an aisle in your supermarket while still supporting the same assholes, still doing fast fashion and still being neck deep in this system is just crazy.

Anyway, this festival was focused on local production which I respect (even though Chinese should really tone down on plastic packaging). I tried some pizza, hot dogs, burgers, yoghurts, cheese, cakes, bacon... Spent tons of money over there but it was all worth it. And even though I don’t really see myself getting really into meat alternatives (most vegans actually don’t – even the mock meat companies usually claim that their target audience are non-vegans), it’s pretty nice to try some shit like that once in a while. Shout out to everyone involved in organization of that thing!

So yeah, another week concluded, we got holidays ahead of us, and you already know what it means. My ass is gonna go Dragon Burn in two days. So expect some updates on that next week. In the meantime, stay safe, stay healthy, keep it positive. One!

Highlights:

• I managed to do a game of badminton with one of my favorite Chinese grandpas at the stadium again. Hadn’t done that in a while.
• Papa's beer closed down (probably) for good on Saturday. R.I.P.
• Fake bacon, fake cheese and all those cakes. God damn it!

Semester 6 Chapter XI: Zero Waste & My Heart Will Go On

Ok, we’re live again. Another week has passed, I’m back on my laptop with smell of fresh coffee filling up the room, and the it’s that time again... The time to give you some updates on what the fuck I’ve been doing these past couple of days. So without further ado...

On Monday, the gang met up for another KTV night at Dapu Road. This one might have been the best we we’ve done yet. There was a lot of terrible singing but we were all feeling it and we fucking destroyed that Titanic song. Oh my fucking god, that was intense. After that, we took it to the Chairs Club to enjoy some live music. I really digged the evening, managed to hang out with some people form the band, and even ran into a bass player who is actually Czech. Overall, an awesome night.

On Wednesday, I met with some of my ladies at the beer shop on Changle Lu, and the day after, a friend of mind had a b-day party at this Barbarian bar around the corner from my place. She booked couple of tables at an open terrace on the rooftop, and quite a lot of people showed up. I talked to some I had not seen in months. After we were done with Barbarian, we moved to Le Baron, which would be fine, expect the b-day girl got somehow lost on the way and turned out passing out in her home, and Le Baron was complete trash. I mean, in my opinion it usually is but whatever.

On Friday, I hung out with my Lithuanian friend for a bit. She works close to my spot these days so first, she got me to join her for a lunch (there’s this tiny place nearby doing vegan dumplings), and in the evening, we hit Papa’s beer with her colleague. Since she works in commercials and she needed to stop by at her office for something after that, I had a chance to check out another of many WeWork spots around. And witness some Chinese people working around midnight. Capitalism does beautiful things to people...

On Saturday, I decided to do something with brakes on my bike. My rear brake hadn’t worked in like two years and since my front brake got all fucked up too (meaning, I needed at least like 20 meters to stop the bike if was going real fast – which I usually do), and since my Chinese bike guy didn’t know what the fuck to do with it, I googled some proper bike shops around, and went to this Chains spot at Wanhangdu Lu. For cool 100 RMB, the guy changed all wiring and I’m all set now. Feels awesome cause I can ride with even less respect than before... Straight from the shop, I went to Hunan Road for this Zero Waste festival (the venue was yet another WeWork – they’re fucking everywhere). Apart from selling sustainable cosmetics and doing several workshops on how to minimize your carbon footprint (cause capitalism also does beautiful things to the planet), there was some veggie stands. I tried some cakes, alcoholic kambucha, jams, and pretty awesome red wine. I also ran to another Czech Guy selling homemade bread, cashew cheese and some deserts. I bought every fucking item on his list (cause fuck money, food is God), and we had a nice little conversation. There was some more Czechs around while I was there too. Last week, I probably spoke the most Czech in weeks...

 

I had couple of places I had to be in that day so I did like 40km of riding around. I randomly stumbled upon this Luxun Park – another big ass spot with lots of nature, lakes and Chinese people chilling under the trees, on grass or on those little boats. In the evening, I went to the West Bund to support my Dragon Burn People. There was this pop-up party next to the skate park. People brought a small sound system, some drums, longboards (which I totally took andvatage of)  and drinks. We were selling vegan snacks over there to raise some more money for the festival. Even though we struggled with security guys here and there, we managed to keep that thing going for the whole night. Oh, and there were some girls with flashing hula-hoops doing some crazy shit too. It looked trippy as hell. Again, a great event. I met couple of dope people over there, tasted bunch of awesome stuff, and generally had a great time.

So there we go. Sending my regards to all of my readers, I hope y’all good, keep on shining, we gonna chop it up again next week!

Highlights:

• Some of the bikes and frames in the Chains shop. There were frames worth 70.000 RMB. One day, I would love to ride a bike like that. Some serious porn...
• Security guys at the West Bund. After letting us breathe, they actually joined the crowd and watched the hula-hoop girls for like an hour. Watching their faces was priceless.
• Veggie egg sandwiches at the event. Shout out to my friend who made them – absolutely dope. I even got all the leftovers so I’m still on it. God damn...  

Semester 6 Chapter X: Beers & Wasting Time

Yo, your boy 31 checking back in. I’m still doing pretty well over here, enjoying the great city of Shanghai, getting the most out of gradually increasing temperatures, watching time fly... It’s kinda crazy realizing that in a bit over two months, we gonna wrap up my 3^rd year in China. Oh well...

So yeah, last week... On Wednesday, I had to go to my beloved Minhang campus to sign up for my scholarship. I used the opportunity to attend this weird ass conference which turned out to be a self-promo of some Chinese vlogger who does the most generic content imaginable. No edge, no personality, just technically well executed footage with elevator music in the background. Kids these days... Since I was there, I also hit the local gym... Hadn’t used that one in ages. In the evening, I met up with a friend of mine by the Xinzhuang subway station. She took me to this mall to a vegan restaurant named 579. Little pricey, but real good. They got some dope ass mock meat on the menu. After that, we got some durian pancakes at an Indian spot around the corner (awesome), and hit this tiny local brewery on Dushi Road. Now, Minhang is a fucking shithole but this place was kinda great. Ran by an elderly Chinese couple, they brew 3 kinds of beer (lager, dark, wheat), they pour it straight from the barrels so it’s fresh, and they charge like 12-14 RMB for a pint, and about 25 for one liter glass. Which makes it the cheapest beer I’ve ever had in a bar in Shanghai. These prices are fragments of anything comparable downtown....

The next day, I met up with some of the gang at Abbey Road for another trivia night. We were killing it for some time, but totally crashed by the end. The host was still kind enough to drop some bar vouchers on us tho... And since we got all warmed up, we took it to My Place afterwards. And since we didn’t feel like coming home just yet, we proceeded to Revolucion. Overall absolutely unnecessary and pretty awesome evening.

On Friday, I agreed to walk a dog for a friend who got stuck outside of Shanghai (yeah, the same dog, I was looking after for a month in December). It was kinda cool roaming the French Concession again. And walking dogs never really gets old.

Saturday was my day off so after my morning run and lunch, I decided to waste some time walking around the city. I just took a book and spent like 6 hours just jumping parks, reading, taking pictures of shit and checking what has changed in the streets. And trust me, with the constantly ongoing construction everywhere, lots of things have... Oh yeah, and in the evening, the gang met up again at my friends’ spot. They hosted this beautiful vegan dinner. Some wraps topped by these choco balls. Can’t be mad at that. Being the only vegan in the group and having people doing that is dope...

So yeah, everything is under control here. It’s still running, working out and cycling like crazy, it’s still lotta music listening, it’s writing lyrics here there, getting ready for some recording in the summer... All is gucci. Keep it positive for the next week, one!

Highlights:

• New Chemical brothers & Billie Eilish.
• My local imported store stocked some Tabasco. So shout out to them.
• Figured out how to buy powdered sesame sauce at my wet market. I have a feeling this gonna change my life.