Happy Hallows from the East Side of Life

Hello Everybody!

Long time no blog, but I'm finally back from the adventure on the Silk Road in western China and super excited to tell you all about it in the next few posts (trust me, it'll take a few with all of the craziness that went on in Xinjiang (aka Uyghur [pronounced Wee-Ghur]Wonderland) and Gansu (home of pulled beef noodles) Provinces.  Before I begin my thoughtful ranting post on my weeklong trip, I'd like to take this brief post to wish you all a wonderful Halloween weekend and start to the holiday season.

Shanghai, as I've mentioned much too frequently, is an epic place for nightlife. Luckily Halloween is no different. Although we arrived home from our respective cultural trips yesterday afternoon, we still managed to pull together costumes for partying that night. From searching around the trusty backgate shops to perusing sketchy street vendors' wears, we managed to scrounge up some light up devil horns. Those, with the addition of red sequin body dots, black dresses, and some liquid courage, resulted in our cute group of "little devils" that took Shanghai's streets by storm...well maybe not the streets, but at least a couple of clubs.

We made our way to Barbarossa, in People's Square, first. Great ambiance and free "bloody shots" all around. The bar had a nice rooftop terrace and enough people in costumes to almost feel like I was in a bar in Georgetown rather than halfway around the world. After Barbarossa, we made our way to the real fun and dance floor at M1NT. M1NT is one of those places that ever expat/Shanghai dweller must visit at least once. With glass tanks filled with sharks lining the walls, two amazing dance floors, and a guest list/table list system that would made any person trying to ascend to M1NT's top floor club location cringe, this club was the place to be for Hallow's Eve Debauchery.


Long story short, the group of us had an awesome night parading around the city in our lightup horns and dancing the night away. Although, my feet are paying dearly for 5+ hours of 4inch+ heels....eeek! what a fright.

Sending lots of "Boos" from Shanghai!

Enjoy your Halloween Weekends,

e

Shenzhen in Review-Fake Market Madness, Strolls Along Rivers, and MUN

Hellllllo again my reader friends,

For those of you who have been keeping up, you know that I'm currently on National Holiday Break, meaning I'm getting the chance to travel a bit. As I mentioned, Alex and I have been in Shenzhen (southern China) for the past 5 days teaching Chinese students about Model UN, International Affairs, and various workshops. We've had a bit of cabin fever cause of being in a hotel most of the time, but last night and today we broke out a bit.

We finally went into downtown/bar area of Shenzhen, which turned out to be gorgeous! With a square/"garden" of outdoor bars and clubs, a group of us "teachers"sauntered our way over to one of quieter locations for a round of drinks. Each of the bars was really nice and sort of bled into each other. With fairylights strung from each overhang, sleek chairs, and a sea of people holding pina coladas, daiquiris, and margaritas, it was hard to tell whether we were in the Caribbean or China. I guess that's what happens when you hit southern China; everything becomes more tropical!





Today was a really nice break from teaching lessons too. We finished up classes with our kids at about 11am and headed back to Luohu, which is a massive MASSIVE shopping center. With less than 3 hours to browse, bargain, walk away multiple times, and finally pay, we knew we'd have to be strategic about our shopping trip. Thank goodness we only brought a portion of our salary, otherwise we probably would have spent it all in one go. If you've never been to a fake market, let's just put it this way, it's like a maze of twisting stalls filled with shoes! purses! jeans! coats! dresses! watches! makeup! jewelry! so on forever and ever until the end of time....plus, you have dozens of Chinese shopkeepers swarming you and dragging your arm toward their store. All in all....it's EPIC!

Anyway, we head to Beijing tonight to meet up with some other friends from our program