20th May 2012
This past week I have had a little party indulgence. Monday and Tuesday I worked diligently to finish five outlines for press releases I will write next week. Our contact for our client Henkel went on vacation so I was given Thursday and Friday off work as a little added time to rest up my ankle which is still giving me minor problems.
Monday I went to check out a new social groups networking mixer night at Shanghai Brewery. BEAN is an organization of young people working and organize volunteer activities as well as just fun socail nights. Proved to be a pretty good group of people to get out and talk to for the night as well as a great kickoff to Shanghai's beer week! A guy named David I had talked to that night told me about a club called Zeal was having a grand opening party on Thursday and I should go. This club is on the rooftop of the ever popular Bund in Shanghai.
Come Thursday I decided to check out the Zeal club with my chinese tutor Dora after our nightly lesson. It was a gorgeous, clear, warm evening with free Moet & Chandon champagne and lots of finely dressed people. I met up with David who had invited me to come out the rest of the evening. As Dora went home after Zeal club, I joined up with a few of David's friends and we headed to The Apartment. The Apartment is the same place I was two weeks ago when I got my unfortunate bummed foot. So anyway, popular place and it was Thursday ladies night. I like getting away with cheap nights out. Met some fun "lets dance and party" girls from New York University and enjoyed the evening; till 3:30am. That seems to be a regular night out for me in Shanghai but is early for nearly everyone else.
Friday I was going to meet Jamie, Louise and Hayley at a Spanish wine bar called Enoterra for unlimted wine and Tapas all night. However, after my Chinese lesson I was dragging tired and decided to go home instead of going out. Kind of glad I did as Jamie and her friends stayed out until 6AM and had a pretty big night instead of a low key relax and wine night.
Saturday was a line up of festivities. It was unfortunately raining and a bit cool compared to sunny hot 80s that Thursday and Friday were. Around noon I headed to Bubba's in Expo pavillion for a BBQ cookoff! 100RMB entrance for all-you-can eat BBQ and a beer. I met Jamie and Hayley and it was good fun. About 4pm we left the BBQ and headed to south central French Concession area of the city for the Sinan Mansions beer fest, which was a culmination for the beer week that had daily festivities throughout the week. Still pooring rain it was a fleeing shuffle from tent to tent to grab beers and socialize. We opted to get a passport stamped from all the vendors at the fest for a chance to win a fixie bike, dinner, and other prizes. After gathering maybe 20 stamps, Jamie ended up winning the dinner at The Public! We might all get to attend that next week Thursday. Louise met up with us and we went inside to get dinner at The Boxing Cat Brewery.
At 9pm, we headed away from the beer fest to go to a birthday party for a friend of Jamie's. He was having his 30th birthday and reserved a VIP room at Mago KTV for a big night of karaoke. KTV is a must experience if and while in China so Jamie and I were excited nonetheless even though we don't sign karaoke. There are a few pictures in my gallery to get the idea, but it turned out to be a great evening, great people, and everyone sang!
The championship league of football "soccer" started at 3AM local time. Hayley was set to go to the bars to watch with Jamie but I called it a night. At this point a bit of dancing and a day back on my feet had made my ankle swell back up. So back to the ice. *sigh.
We are young! We are free! Stay up late...all in the name of fun.
Sunday I'm taking it easy, and I also have Monday off work. As much as I'd like to go and travel somewhere I think i'll be taking it easy again because of limited activity with my darn sprained ankle.
Hope you are having yourself some fun.
-Niko
