The Second Week of Parties and Explorations

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This past weekend, Lu and I made a discovery: we like event planning. This isn't to say we're going to major in it, but we've taken quite the interest in planning out sightseeing activities and birthday parties. We have quite a few birthdays to celebrate, with one celebrated this past weekend and another today (Lynn's last week and Evan's now).
The work week last week was the longest week of my life. By the time Friday came around, the other interns realized that their projects were useless. Since my task of contacting airlines seemed to be the only one with any prospects of success, my supe (white-collar slang for supervisor) gave me the task of managing my own team of interns. Hehe I quite like management. I got to delegate my "sales force" tasks like calling airlines and researching methods of contact. But by 1 pm Friday, the prospects of the weekend induced coma-like symptoms, and we all stared blindly at the endless amount of Facebook that mysteriously appeared on our screens.
Finally, FINALLY, work was over and we were free to begin our mega-party weekend! That night Alex and I headed over to the Bund to rescue Luia from her all-day excursion. Silly girl decided it would be fun to explore Shanghai all day, but then didn't realize that night falls shortly after the sun sets.
If you don't know what the Bund looks like, look it up on google. It is the most famous area for picture-taking in all of Shanghai. Basically, it is the river that cuts Shanghai in half and separates two districts. During the day, a peek across the river usually provides a fairly smoggy view of the Pudong district. It's at night that this city really becomes spectacular. All the lights turn on, and the spectrum of colors is too breathtaking to be tacky. Almost. There's something about the night here that takes this city from smoggy to gorgeous. There aren't even stars, but it's the night lights on the all the buildings that catch your eye. I guess this is why real estate developers decided to capitalize on the height of their skyscrapers and attach fantastical lights and designs to the exterior.
After being a tourist and taking pictures, we went in search of a fairly inexpensive restaurant where everyone could go. While going through the underpass, we saw some beggars. Being in Shanghai, you see a fair share of peddlers and it becomes easy to become desensitized. But this man had no arms and he was chanting in the hopes of getting a couple of rmb. Keep in mind that 7 rmb translates to $1, but people are even unwilling to spare a few because of the sheer number of poor people and the seeming inadequacy of giving $0.50. Poverty takes on a different air here. If you walk out on the sidewalk by my hotel, you are in a strange mix of rural and city. There are sidewalk vendors right next to the KFC. People live in their stores and get water from a faucet, but the highway leading into the heart of Shanghai is right across the street. Men with wheelbarrows share the road with taxis. For these people, you don't necessarily feel sorry for them. They work just as hard as any American, but in a different setting that they are quite used to.
Anyways, we ended up finding a yummy Udon place on a sidestreet. We were supposed to meet with the other group, but they ended up not coming. Lately we've been having problems with coordinating with the other group, which creates dramarama. Living in two different locations is tough going. Lu and I are pretty proactive about going to their apartment (New Harbor) to visit them, but oftentimes they just don't seem to care or even want us there. When we called them last week, we had a miscommunication and it sounded like they didn't have enough food so we didn't go. Then they were miffed that we weren't there. Oy vey.
Later, we went to this bar called I Love Shanghai which ended up being a lot more dead than we thought. After that we went to our favorite club (Windows!) and danced the night away.
The next day was Lynn's birthday, so Lu and I planned a full day excursion. We explored to the Western part of Shanghai called Xintiandi. I didn't realize how western Shanghai actually is; and this area was the Beverly Hills of it all. Quite European. It was raining intensely...it was one of those moments where you realize that this kind of weather means you aren't in Kansas anymore. We went to a restaurant called Simply Thai, which is incredible (making me hunger for my Thai Town food). By the time we got there, we were fairly wet, and were offered napkins to help alleviate the dampness.
In an effort to be more cultured, we went to an art gallery in a mansion. Well, the mansion wasn't quite a mansion and the gallery wasn't quite a full gallery, but it occupied us for 20 minutes. The exhibit was called Naked, so we felt like a bunch of upscale New Yorkers sipping cosmos and commenting on new-age art. Except that there weren't any drinks and we were in a run-down house in China.
We then surprised Lynn with a dinner outing to Hot Pot King. I had never had this mysterious meal before, and the DIY nature of it brought me back to my carniverous days with Korean BBQ. Then we had a cake and everything...it was mucho adorable.
Afterwards, we trekked about in the monsooning rain looking for a taxi. When they say that taxis seem to vanish in the rain, they mean it. After looking for 30 minutes for a taxi, we gave up and took public transportation.
Our final card of the night was the clubbing experience. Muse was the place. 11:30 was the time. This was a brand new venue, so we weren't sure how great it would be. Luckily, it was fantastic. For some reason, there was no cover charge that night. The crowd was tight, but the venue was huge. The decoration was very modern, with square couch areas and these cubic lights that flashed the "Muse" every so often. So we went in, partied on the dancefloor, drew stares as usual (Trojans just bring the crowds in), and chilled in the lounge area. What a life.
The next day we did some shopping and ate some zong zi for the Dragon Boat Festival. It was SO yummy 😊

Alas, I shall do another update soon about my birthday weekend and all the adventures there.

lovelove

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Comments

[lindsey]

wowowowowow sounds amazing babe. how are you ever going to come back to la and no clubs? hope that things settle down with everyone and I CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR BIRTHDAY :D. hope to hear from you soon <3

[cin]

Wow, managing your own team of interns now? That's quite impressive, Tracy! And geez, you guys really do live by the work hard, play hard motto haha. Here I am working, taking a class, and barely going out while you're out clubbing at night or sightseeing. What I would do to trade places with you right now! Hope the communication between the two groups works out. Funny how no matter where you are, it's hard to escape drama. I can't wait to hear all about your birthday!

[Reena]

ha I know you miss our korean bbq endeavors. I've been converting people along the way. I'm happy you love the food no that I was that concerned that you wouldn't. Official party girl. loves it.