Hey guys! Another week has passed and we’re back at it. After the last
weekend, temperatures over here dropped significantly. The first couple of days
of this past week were cold as hell. Luckily, by the end of the week, shit got
a bit better and eventually, we got yet another one summery weekend. Not bad
for late November if you ask me. Anyways, it’s
Monday – time for some updates from
the city of Shanghai!
Monday evening, I met up with my Lithuanians at Tap House.
Been a while since it was just the three of us hanging out and it turned out to
be a pretty awesome evening. Since they’re
leaving for Vietnam for couple of days later on this week, I’ll do some pet sitting for them.
Which means I’ll
temporarily move to their spot in French Concession once again.
On Wednesday, we tried out this new trivia night at Cages. I’ve been to Cages couple of times before to
try some batting. At one point, I participated in a game of dodgeball over there too. Never
been there for a trivia night tho. Now, compared to Abbey Road (our usual
trivia night spot), Cages is massive (and also more expensive). Which would not necessarily
be a problem but it kinda makes it way more boring. In Abbey Road, the moderator
is this fat cynical piece of shit (he is very likable too) who spices up the
evening with topics, such as Urban Dictionary, and the rules allow you to bet your points at different stages of the night. It’s just way more messy and fun
– especially for people like me, who
don’t give two shits about getting all
their answers right. It was nice, cause some of my peers were there
but I don’t really think I’ll be back for that one.
Thursday evening, I met up with my guy from Macedonia after
couple of weeks. I suggested trying out this Beer Lady spot with is just around
the corner from where I live. It’s one
of the bigger ones I’ve seen
in Shanghai, and they have hundreds of different brands stocked up.
It apparently also attracts quite a lot of expats in the area. Compared to the
previous year, I don’t
really see that many foreign faces in my neighborhood, but at that Beer Lady,
there were lots of them.
On Friday, we organized another KTV. It was like 8 of us and
we went to the one at Jinling Road. Again, it was fun as hell and we wrapped it
up with My Heart Will Go On once again. So much emotions.
Saturday, some of my vegan peers organized this one day trip
to Hangzhou. Hadn’t seen those people in a
while so I was more than happy to join. It was four of us – me, one of my favorite couples in the
city and this guy from Germany. We met up at Hongqiao Railway Station before
8am and around 8:30 we were on the train. We started the whole trip by visiting a
vegetarian festival that took place in front of one of temples in the city.
Tried some food, had a lunch in the temple (pretty nice all you can eat thing), and went for the hike. It was not the best cause for quite some time,
we were walking by the road. Which means cars. Which means noise and not that
much nature. Eventually, we made it to a bit more secluded areas, making our
way through tea fields with pretty beautiful views. The weather was on our side
– shorts and short sleeves were
perfectly fine. In the evening, we grabbed a dinner at a bit fancier vegan
restaurant, and then we followed up to a vegan café. This German guy’s
girlfriend works over there and it made sense for us to try some of their lattés and cakes. When we got there, she
complimented my tattoos and ask me if also skate (kinda) and rap (kinda). I
guess in a sense, I’m a walking bunch of clichés. The café falls into what I generally label as corporate veganism (sorta
minimalist design and generic vibe that can be found in cafés like that all over the world – some sociologists came up with a term
no-place for that, and it applies to cafés,
restaurant franchises, airports, co-working spaces, etc. - as you can guess, I'm not the biggest fan). The cakes were
pretty good tho. Around 9:30pm we were on the way back to Shanghai.
Apparently, I also managed to turn a person vegan last week. One
of the guys, whom I met at my Czech friend’s b-day
party last Saturday, texted me over the week. Whatever short conversation we
had on the topic kinda made him wanna try it, so he let me know that he’s couple of days in and asked me if I’d be up to show him some vegan spots in town. We invited some more people and on Sunday evening, we all met up at that veggie
restaurant at East Huaihai Road. It was really nice and I met
some new folks too. Thinking about hosting a potluck for those guys sometime soon.
And if the guy sticks to veganism, he would become probably the first
individual I’ve turned. My thing is, I don’t really go ballistic on people with
this shit. I don’t choose my friends and loved
ones based on this, I don’t try
to change or judge anybody. I might have made some people get more interested
in what they eat and inspire them to do more veggies but that has never been
something I would try to accomplish. Might have had a bit of an influence on my
sis’ decision of going that direction but
yeah, this guy might be the first transition I’m kinda
directly responsible for. So far, he enjoys it and says he feels pretty great.
Just making the world a better place and shit. Saving the planet and all. You’re welcome.
And that’s that. I still do tons of workout, still cycle hundreds of kilometers weekly, still feeling pretty damn good over here. Another Monday morning, another week ahead of us. More stuff to do, more pages to read and write, more people to meet, more life to live. Whatever you’re on these days, I hope it goes well. If it does not, do something else. Shout out to all my people! One!
Highlights:
- Got a plane ticket to Indonesia. About to start my vacay with my lovely girlfriend later in December. Turning our long-distance into short-distance for a bit. Finally!
- The Weekend – Hills. Kinda enjoyed that during KTV too.
- The Hangzhou trip. People, hike, food. Loved it all.
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