Me and all my friends

I realised that in my last post I wrote a lot of stuff that you feel like you probably didn't need to be let in on. But the thing is, these weird crazy (scummy) things that exist amongst hyperspeed development, boutique shops, restaurants, cafes, clubs, modern art galleries and spaces, and an incredible public transport system make Shanghai what it is. Take Moganshan Lu below; a small bit of Shanghai tranformed into an art district. Along Moganshan Lu itself the walls are covered in graffiti, and then there are huge complexes like m50 and m97 completely devoted to housing galleries. It's a pretty incredible thing to see just tucked inside Shanghai's inner ring amongst the standard hustle and bustle of the city.

Here are some overdue photos on from when two wonderful boys came to visit me over Christmas and New Years. I lost most of my photos when my iPhone was stolen so these are just from New Years Eve. Thank you for making my first month of pain all the worthwhile!

1. On Yunnan Nan Lu/Ninghai Dong Lu. 2. A busy metro. 3. SNOW! 4. What a standard complex looks like. None of that 'house' rubbish. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Moganshan Lu Art District 10. 11. Inside M50 12. The Wuson River just inside the Inner Ring.

The two photos below were stolen off Facebook. I miss these guys!
Second one is the crew on New Years waiting for the midnight fireworks on the Bund.

I really miss my iPhone hah. Never thought I would say that.

The weird and wonderful.

Alright so I've been a little absent.
After New Years I finally started learning Chinese and went from working full-time to only the mornings so hence the limited time I had to really think and write about life. Though I don't think I ever really think about it, it always ends up coming out as word vomit regurgitated during my last 15 minutes at work.

Here are some stories that I thought I should share, mainly because I can't seem to erase the images from my mind.

• About a week ago I was walking home after class and came upon some used sanitary products strewn across my path. It was gross. I think a garbage collector's package thing must have exploded while riding past. It was gross and I felt a little sick. Actually this also reminds me of driving behind a garbage truck on the way to Zhujiajiao "The Venice of Shanghai", and when I say 'garbage truck' I mean a large truck, not a pick up, with huge netted sack of garbage just casually strapped to the back of the vehicle. It took about five minutes of open windows and heavy breathing to ventilate the car.

• A couple of days ago I passed some bird feathers scattered across the pavement and realised that the dark liquid around them was blood. I'm not sure where the bird went. But there was it's blood, and and some bits of it. Funnily enough, the first thing that came to mind was that maybe someone had killed the thing here in front of this garbage bin to cook and eat. 

• The other day I was waiting for my sandwich in a bakery on Wulumuqi Rd and got to witness a grown asian man throw a tantrum across the street. He was yelling and flailing his hands in the air, grabbed a street cleaner's hat and threw it across the road onto the windscreen of a car followed by a couple of empty cardboard boxes that bounced off other cars waiting for the traffic light to change.

• About a month ago, I got on the subway to go home. I noticed a dishevelled man staring weirdly at me but shrugged it off. Before I knew it he had moved over and put his arm around my shoulder, murmuring incoherently and reeking of alcohol and filth. I screamed and ran to the other end of the train.

• A while ago I was walking to the subway and spotted a huge white thing the size of an elephant drifting down the other side of the road. Turned out it was a man on a bike with bits of polystyrene tied down around him. There were five huge bundles and from a distance could have (I swear) been a huge white cloud floating down Xincun Rd.

Can I just say, the nightlife in Shanghai is incredible and shits on everything at home in Sydney. I mean I already knew that clubs back home weren't worth the cover charge, let alone free entry. And being a woman just puts the icing on the cake.

Ladies nights can involve free flowing champagne, free cosmos, free frozen margaritas, free sangria, free tequila, or just free EVERYTHING until the wee hours of the morn! How do these places make money? And this happens in incredibly nice places and not in dirty holes that people would not be caught dead in.

Seriously what is this place??

Shanghai photo diary pt. 2

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.

In recent news..

So yesterday my phone was stolen, my Australian one. It's not that big a deal in terms of my ability to communicate but I did lose 13 days of photos and all my notes from Europe. Just focusing on the fact that my wifi won't turn on (it's permanently greyed out) and the location services don't work so the value they saw in pickpocketing an iPhone has probably been halved. And now that they've turned it off, they can't turn it on or use my sim becuase there's a lock on the phone and my card, and it's all been cancelled anyway.

#suchislife

Shanghai photo diary pt. 1

1. She's so cute I can't stand it.
2. Crossing roads has never been so difficult. I think your best bet would be to blindfold yourself and hope that no one runs you over..
3. Metro.
4. 5. 6. Wandering through the French Concession. My favourite area so far, it's like a hybrid of Shanghai and the West with old housing complexes down numbered avenues and streets lined with platane trees and boutiques.
7. I wonder if people actually notice this.
8. Street mugs?
9. Street tofu! Yeah I ate it. No I didn't spew (thankfully).
10. Bus.
11. 12. 13. 14. Tianzifeng. A pedestrian-bazaar-maze-thing filled with cheap asian stores and boutiques and restaurants and cafes.
15. 16. No idea where this is or how I ended up here. There were a lot of old Chinese men playing cards.
17. A lot of stuff was influenced/built by the french...