What’s up y’all! Monday morning, clock shows
5:49am, new Ms. Banks bumping out my headphones, smell of fresh coffee is
filling up my room, and you already know what it is. Shanghai Czech-in back on
deck. Let me start by saying I’m sorry
to all my UK people. For a minute, it seemed you guys might actually have a
shot for a decent leadership... Unfortunately, we live in a world, where people
are manipulated into believing that their problems can be solved by the very
individuals who cause them and therefore have no real interest in sovling anything. Unless
we start talking about basic income, making education free for everyone, making
housing a basic human right (not just on paper), equality in the broadest sense, and last but not least
implementing some real ass green new deals to at least try to pretend we care
about stuff - nothing will ever change. We need more compassion, less hatred,
more locally resourced shit, less animal products (way fucking less of those),
more environmental awareness, less consumption... And no, Boris Johnson does
not represent any of that.... So yeah... Fuck Boris Johnson... I’m real sorry this has happened, for a
brief moment it seemed Corbyn might have a chance but well... Guess we don’t live in a world I would like to see
for us and the generations coming. Shout out to everybody taking their little everyday
steps to make things a bit better... We’re on
some Sisyphus shit right here, but let’s not
give up just yet... We simply can’t....
Aight, back to this Chinese thing of mine. Last week was
quite eventful. Monday evening, I took the doggie and met up with my friend at this local joint
just across the street from Taphouse on Yongkang Road. They do these amazing dumplings, and the
best part is, they cover them in peanut sauce. Small Chinese spot with
ridiculously low prices. After that, we stopped by at Taphouse for couple of
beers. And when I was walking the doggie back to my friends’ spot, those beers kicked in and it
seemed like a brilliant fucking idea to do another round of the dumplings. It was
obviously absolutely unnecessary but also absolutely delicious.
Tuesday marked the last day of my housesitting responsibilities.
In the evening, I walked the doggo one last time, packed my shit and took it
back to my place. By the way, the fucking guy who totally shook my hand
confirming he’s gonna take my place for the
time I’m gonna be away backed down
so I’m back to square one. Got one
more week to deal with that, I’m
spamming all the wechat groups.... We’ll see.
Gonna be fine either way...
Wednesday, my Montenegrin girls invited me for a hangout at
their spot. As always, we had a beautiful time. Just chilling, talking for
hours. Talk about some family vibe. The day after, we met up at Abeey Road
after some time for another Trivia night. My Lithuanians and couple of other
friends showed up, and we actually placed second. Which means a 200 RMB voucher
and a round of shots. My contribution to our spectacular success was zero. Proud of myself.
On Friday, I met up with the Lithuanians again at the Beer
Lady close to my spot. Lately, I’ve been
kinda successful at making that place a meeting spot, which is cool for two
reasons. One, it’s pretty nice. Two, it’s really fucking close. One of my
sisters joined us and it turned out to be a pretty great evening.
I also got contacted by a Korean friend of mine after a some time. I know her from the uni, and we have done Christmas services every year in Shanghai - we hadn’t seen each other in ages tho. We planned
a lunch at Jen Dow, and eventually got joined by another friend from the UK. I really
like both those people, just don’t have
many opportunities to talk to them. We had a lovely morning, some
inspirational conversations, and amazing food. I really hope we’ll get to do this soon again.
Since weather in Shanghai is still pretty nice and
relatively warm, me and some of my peers met at West Bund Sunday afternoon
for some hangout and skating. On the way there, I stopped by at this camera
mall at Luban Road, and ended up buying a Fujifilm insta camera. Gonna come handy during my
winter vacay. Tested it out right away and got some dope pictures I gave away to everybody. Got
little disappointed that the photo paper they sold me has a fucking Disney Cars
themed framing but gotta say, it grew on me. Gives the pics amusement
park vibes. Next time, I’m gonna
pay more attention and get some clean white ones. The afternoon was amazing
tho. In the evening, I met with another friend from UK I hadn’t really spoken to forever too. Guess last week was a lot
about catching up with people. We went to the Beer Lady again and had some
great talks.
Since I’m
realizing I’m leaving this city for a bit
in couple of days, seeing (and even texting) all the beautiful people I’m privileged to call my friends felt
really nice. Shout out to all of you! Apart from all of that, I basically
finalized my dissertation (at least the version I’m
submitting for pre-defense) and got sort of a greenlight from my supervisor to
proceed with that. In two days, this shit is going down. I’ve been also reading Permanent Record
– an autobiography of Edward Snowden.
I already consider that guy a hero, however, on top of that, he is a really
good writer and his story has it all. Personal development, idealism, spying stuff, love,
philosophical dimensions, drama... Love the book. I’ve been also working out a lot (nothing new really), being
all healthy and shit... So yeah, this is
my last week in Shanghai before hopping on plane to Indonesia to pursue some
more love and happiness. Sending all the good vibes your way. I see all of you!
One!
Highlights:
- Had a long conversation with my dad on this Game Changers documentary. My sister played that for him and it’s mind-blowing to me how open minded he is to all of this vegan shit. I mean, he has stopped wearing leather forever ago and limited his meat consumption significantly but man... For a guy in his late sixties living in a post-Soviet country... This is real impressive.
- New Kontrafakt album. Nuff said.
- All. My. Fucking. People.
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