Goodbye Shanghai

---

---

Shanghai is oft described as New York City on crack. It is a whirling feverish parade of parties and clubs, events and engagements. An absolute playground of adult delights. Intense, exciting, head-spinning wonderment. Buzzing around the center of this gigantic hive is a small ex-pat community and an ever-crossing web of acquaintance and intrigue. It is easy to get lost in the ceaseless activity and I am no exception. In Shanghai, I am an elementary school teacher, occasional burlesque dancer, performance artist, jiujitsu/MMA student, expert drinker, and connoisseur of all things spicy and fast-paced.

All that does wear a lady down, though. The boon of working in academia is that beautiful 2-semester, 9-month schedule that leaves 3 months open for international play. Today I leave the glittery grind for life out of a backpack. I will start with Chris, my roommate and fellow Texan, and a visit to the countryside village of Qiyang, Hunan where we spent our first year in China. Next we will meet up with Jay & Lindsey, also Austinites now living in Shanghai, in Kunming. We'll fly over to Nepal, spend some time there, then down into India where I'll meet up with my brother and his wife out on their year-long international honeymoon tour.

---

Photos

The High Priestess Le Petit Mort
my alter ego for the Devival show. The Devival has all the southern charm of a Christian Revival except it's under the farcical Church of the SubGenius and we worship a man called Bob Dobbs. Among other things, my contribution was an ode to female empowerment in the form of a 10-minute monologue bragging on my sexual prowess- I'll post video when back in the Hai.

Burlesque at Chinatown
Chinatown is the only Cabaret club in Asia. For a while I was working there as well as teaching full-time, working 85 hours a week though my night job consisted of me drinking wine in a bejeweled and befeathered bikini, dancing Broadway numbers and having people clap for me- pretty much the MOST AWESOME JOB ON EARTH! Then came April and the Expo, the Chinese authorities tightened their visa restrictions and I wasn't allowed on stage anymore because of ridiculousness about my work visa being issued by one job preventing my stage performance license being issued by another. I was able to work for them as a ring girl for a charity boxing match this month because evidently a boxing ring is not a stage so apparently that rule does not apply.

Prom Night with Jonathan
Prom is great when you're the adult! We didn't have to hide that we were spiking our drinks!

Valerie does good work!
My most recent fun activity occurred when Valerie Galo, an up-and-coming Shanghai make-up artist showed up at my birthday brunch and enlisted my face for a series she's doing on 1940's bombshells.

June 29
Mihn Tang did the photography. The day we did the shoot was my actual birthday, June 29 and I got to hit the town as Marilyn afterward (though I was a bit overdressed for plastic pitchers of beer and wooden benches of the Portugal vs. Spain World Cup game)