shanghai: my once and future home

shanghai is my favorite city in the world. i mean, i love living in china in general, but this weekend reminded me that shenzhen's got nothing on shanghai. i honestly cannot wait to move back. the thought of breaking my contract was tempting me all weekend long. the only things holding me back being my new friends and fuck tons of paperwork. i went an entire weekend without random chinese people yelling hello at me. i went shopping in stores where not only were the clothes actually fashionable, they fit me. i took taxis to and fro. i ate western meals that would be considered delicious even in the states, not just by the simple merit of not being chinese food. it was almost as hard to leave it this time around as it was to leave it after the entire semester back in 07. i honestly can't stop thinking about how much i want to live there. but enough abstract gushing. 

we got into shanghai after a plane ride that was the same amount of time as our bus ride to the airport. for some reason the taxi line at the airport was fucking absurd (like 2 hours) so we just fucking jumped on a bus and took it to where we thought we could get a taxi. after saying that simple phrase (fudan daxue de hou men) that i miss so much here in shenzhen, where explicit directions are required, not just a location, we arrived back on our old stomping grounds. so much had changed, but it was still so familiar. i didn't realize how much i've missed good old wudong lu. 

after dropping off our stuff at tyler and kyle's the four of us headed to mural. can i just say, walking into mural was a stab in the heart. it was just a bar full of mostly men, many of them attractive. i've hardly seen 5 western guys in shenzhen that aren't in my program and this one bar had enough to last a year. but whatever. i was too out of practice to even try to make eyes at any of them anyways. i was also too busy getting wasted and yelling about how much i love shanghai. after mural we went to windows too. i fucking miss that place. we don't really have an after hours club in shenzhen. i will say though, that sadly, sketchy pseudo-latin guy was not standing in the corner creeping on girls. there was also no sign of nami, my beautiful iranian. i'm still going to hold out hope that they're still around, and i just didn't happen to run into them on this trip to windows too. they also changed the chairs at the patio tables, which brought back some memories... on the upside there was hip hop and cheap coors light. after windows we went to city diner. city diner is like an orgasm on a plate. the pinnacle of drunk food. i had mac and cheese and grilled cheese and french fries with chipotle mayo and a bottomless diet coke. that's right, refills AND diet coke instead of that bullshit coke zero they have everywhere here. most of you don't really understand the beauty of that, but trust me. 

we slept most of the next day and ended up leaving for lunch at like 2:30. but whatever, sleeping on the weekend was worth it. i still can't figure out why we wake up so damn early on weekends here, and then don't take naps. anyways, we head to element fresh, which is basically fancy western food, but fucking legit. i get cravings for element fresh in the states. so we pull up to the restaurant, which is in the same area as the ritz carlton. our cab drops us off there instead, and as we get out of the car, we see a group of chinese people surrounding this tall white guy and waving pens and paper at him while taking pictures. turns out it was roger federer who was in town for a tennis masters thing. and since this is china and they don't really know that many western tennis stars, there was a relatively small group of people around him so we were able to get some pretty close photos of him. then we headed to lunch, which was fucking amazing. that meal was worth the whole trip to shanghai. you should look at pictures on facebook, not that they do it justice. after lunch jess and i went shopping. i bought a vest at zara, and could have bought a ton more. i guess in some ways it's nice not having that shit in shenzhen, cause i would be fucking broke. we also went to h&m, where i was tempted to buy more, but decided to hold off til my next paycheck since we have one somewhere in shenzhen. jess then went to dinner with some friends from home, and i met back at tyler's and had queso and watched weeds with his program. we decided to go to i heart shanghai, which was like one of my very favorite bars when i was in shanghai. this is where we took absinthe shots to earn points for the republic of texas and they had a pole dancer and free drinks for ladies night. anyways, they've moved it from where it was, and it's just not the same. it broke my little shanghai loving heart. but we didn't let this get us down, and we headed to de la coast, where i ate a decorative pineapple last time i was there. it was a beautiful night. we looked out on pudong, it was cold (meaning i wasn't sweating or sticky at all), i had a pack of parliaments, we met people from multiple different countries, and took pictures with strangers all night long. also the bathroom had a heated toilet seat, but i digress. i think out of everything we did this weekend, that night is what made me miss shanghai the most. we're always in such a big group here, and there are so many less foreigners our age, that i feel like i never meet anyone new, which was a huge part of what i loved about living in shanghai. also, a few of the guys i was talking to were pretty hot. anyways, after de la coast tyler and i walked up the bund and drank beer from the convenient store where i took a picture with meat flavored cheetos and the owner (if anyone remembers my facebook photos from that far back). 

today we had to wake up early (like 10ish) so that we could actually do something before our plane left. this was of course shopping for fake shit at science and tech. i got a really cute le sportsac back and fabulous large black lv bag. it's just plain black leather, but it's got the lv pattern sort of poked in it. i'm sure you'll see them in pictures soon, as i really like both of them and will probably carry one or the other everywhere for a long time. i also really liked one of the ladies selling us bags. she was super friendly and nice and actually really helpful in picking out bags. both me and jess ended up buying a bag she suggested for us. i forgot how much i missed bargaining over fake bags in hidden roof rooms. 

anyways, jess and i have pretty much been plotting non stop about how to get back to shanghai as quickly as possible. i hate teaching, but if that's what it takes to live there, that's what i'll do. 

i'm super sad i missed homecoming this weekend and i hope all you bitches had fun. i expect e-mails or facebook messages or *phone calls* detailing your debauchery soon.