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

。。。I'm getting bad at this blogging thing

Hello everyone...

Long time no blog? I think yes...does that mean I've been eaten alive by Chinese words and captivated by the intensity of Shanghai's culture and nightlife: most definitely. Anyway, these past two weeks have been pretty epic (and random as usual). With classes picking up and Chinese words fogging our brains, we're managing to assimilate to the crazy culture of learning Chinese. They've sort of indoctrinated us into speaking Chinese nonstop. Like, we had to sign language pledges, so in certain places we MUST speak in Chinese (there are signs up everywhere that say "language cop on duty"), I know...super scary. But,  with all of this forced language usage, the group of us are starting to really embrace the nuances of "Chinglish." An example, if you will: "You're so mafan!" Or, on one particular night when we got locked out of the back gate because it was passed 12am, a scream of "I've got the HouMen floor on me!"

In addition to the quirkiness of Chinglish, we've taken to using our nights for walking around the area near the Houmen (back gate). There are storefronts ranging from dumpling houses, to stuffed animal bazaars, to random racks of sweaters, dresses, and pantyhose. Chinese fashion is one of those things you just can't quite put a finger on. On one hand, some of the cutesy frills and bright colors can actually enhance a person's appearance. On another, giant bows and lacy puff sleeves a
Therefore, as we were walking into the 6th shop to look at clothes, we determined that "Chinese stores are strange, you see the clothing and you think 'oh! that looks like a good shop, let's go in' and then next thing you know they've ruined the clothes by putting sequins in the armpit or something!" As of now, Alex and I have dubbed stores that boast traditional Chinese styles as "Sequins under the armpit" stores.

Tomorrow is the start of our October break (National Holiday), which means we get a week off of classes to travel. Alex and I are first heading to Shenzhen (south China) to work/relax at GMUNC (similar to WEMUN for all of you MUN people out there). After that we're meeting up with Meagan, Amay, and Nate in Beijing and then heading up to Harbin. Per usual, spontinaity is the theme of our vacation considering the original plan was for GMUNC to be held in Beijing, but then to "political tension" it was moved 1000+miles south to a more "western environment." Go China! Either way, we'll get to see some pretty awesome areas. Although, I think our Chinese teachers think we're "silly Americans" who don't know geography since Alex and I are literally hitting up about as far south as we can go to then fly up to almost Russian territory.

I'll try to be more renzhen (serious) about posting!



-e