HEY GUYS HAPPY NEW YEAR!! As you already know my phone was stolen a couple of days ago which means my whole photo diary thing has gone down the drain (damn the development of shameless photo documenting with the ease of the iPhone) and also that I've lost all my photos from before and over Christmas as well. Sad face :(
Hoping to get some photos off some friends though (aw shiet Shel has friends, dw it was only temporary) because I ended up having the best two weeks and it's given me hope that the next month and a half won't be so bad after all...
From a weekend trip to Chongming, an island in the north of Shanghai. Yeah I didn't know Shanghai had an island either. Nommy BBQ squid
Veggie market with the old man; and a teddy bear/dog with a rank beard.
The Shanghai Metro a.k.a. no less than a nightmare during rush hour. Also (left) I really don't get the whole horn beanies I've been seeing everywhere; some weird homage to devil horns?
^^^^^^ GOD I LOVE HOT POT ^^^^^^
View of Xujiahui from a window at work.
Yeah you heard them, no Crocs on the escalators!
The most adorable restaurant drowning in old people memorabilia. Mismatched chairs, lamps, fresh flowers, candles, whosits and whatsits galore and thingamabobs aplenty. And an awesome cave a vin. I will update this when I find out the name/address of this place. Somewhere in the French concession (of course).
HUSKY PUPPPIIIIEEESSSSS. Seriously look their faces, tell me you're not dying inside. My badminton coach's (yes I'm taking classes to get in touch with my Asian athleticism, let you know how it goes) husky had puppies and brought them in one day, they're three months old and are named Honey, Lucky, and Doodoo (yeah I know poor thing got name after poop).
Left: amazingly cheap noodle/rice/dumpling place. Fattest bowl of handmade noodles for 12 kuai that I barely managed to make a dent in. Right: A Taiwanese dessert called baobing... made with beans and ice and milk and unidentifiable plant jelly stuff...
So, Christmas in Shanghai. I've seen some of the most extravagant Christmas displays, though always outside big shopping malls and it's because Christmas here is more of a consumerist ploy... it's not officially a public holiday and kids don't leave cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and people don't wake up ridiculously early to open presents and then have champagne breakfasts and gorge themselves on food and alcohol all day with the family/friends.
At midnight I was drinking Chianti in a wine bar on Julu Rd, amaretti cookie in hand and caressing a small celebratory shot glass of mulled wine and then made it to a pub and two clubs where I saw the largest number of foreigners in one place at one time since I got here.
