Disclaimer: I’ll be weaving through the Forest of Randomness in this one.

Soooo the Olympics! Yes, big story. Yes, everyone from the States is asking me about it. And my answer: “Yeah, it’s happening, but it’s not like it is happening IN Shanghai (with the exception of a few games), so it is ‘life as usual’ here with the exception of every public television screen is pretty much guaranteed to have it on.

(Something like this from my yesterday at Barbarossa… I caught China v. Spain in basketball. Quite intense, Spain hustled for comeback, bringing the game to OT and eventually pulled for the W. But yeah, restaurants are very much equipped with these projection screens.)

Next, why am I not at the Olympics? Answer: “Though I was invited to see the Boxing matches there, my logical side kicked in - this country is already overpopulated as is; Olympics is in invitation to overpopulation to the infinity exponent. I don’t do crowds nor drama.” :-)

Anyhoots, we (as in the Benetton crew: me, Ralph, Cubes and Eugen) were invited to an apt party to fill our tummies with dumplings while watching the opening ceremony. Here’s our classroom-like photo..

My favorite part of the ceremony were the human block/cube thingies. I/We were all fixated and trying to figure out if they were mechanical or human … and then we saw feet… and then men unmasking themselves from the blocks, waving at the end of the performance. Super Bravo!

Here’s a synop clip of the ceremony for those that missed it:

After sticking it out till the torch was lit, we took our butts over to nearby night spot, Muse. Place was aight. Two floors. First floor was filled with southern crunk crap with pushing and shoving and oh but wait, they did actually play one Arrested Development track, “Everyday People” - which I appreciated amidst Lil’ Wayne and other Lil’ people from the south. Shrug. The upstairs was a bit better. Less crowded and seemed to be more older, mature folks. Live cover band, though vocalists were terrrrrible, I still appreciated music in live form. (Sorry no pics this time around.)

Saturday, we rose and shoned- and decided to culturally do up The Shanghai Museum…

But because we arrived so late (4pmish) on a weekend day, apparently the museum was filled to capacity. Here are the fellas, disgusted by rejection:

So we were forced to march onward through People’s Square Park. Look at the perrtiness:

We then split ways as since Cubes and R had not visited the totally awesome Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibit and we highly recommended it, E and I decided to hit the afternoon sips at the JW Marriott at Tomorrow Square.

Nice aerial view of People’s Square from the 38th floor:

Including a shot of Barbarossa, where we would later meet back up and dine with the fellas…

It was also E’s last night in Shanghai… so… yeah…. he decided to light fireworks on the Ascott lawn?!?!

Eventually we got ourselves down to the French Concession area; But since we had to wait for our 2nd cab (E and Max) to arrive, R, Cubes and I decided to explore the strip and check in on the handful of ..well, frankly, whore houses. Cubes said it best in his unique German accent, “I don’t think these places are proper.” These places were absolutely YUCK as the female waitresses attacked us upon entering. We “checked for the drink menu” while observing its patrons: old, gray haired, yuck men surrounded by asian women workers. Here’s Cubes and R outside one of them. (The girls began to scatter as they saw me break out my camera… Gee, I wonder why??!!)

Then finally, we hit our destination of Velvet Lounge. I dug this spot the first time I came, and I dug it again this time around. This says a lot folks!

Some randoms…

Getting sleepy tired…

So we dipped to a venue new to us, but have heard so much about, called Babyface.

Upon arrival, I immediately had flashbacks of the infamous Richy experience and catfight. And why wouldn’t it be, especially since Richy and Babyface are under the same managing umbrella. Anyhoots, it was late in the night..and folks were already acting up outside of the club. We headed in anyway: two massive rooms, one hip hop, the other techno. SUPER PACKED, lights, smoke machines.. you know the deal….

By the looks of the crowd and (lack of) space above, you guessed it. I made for a quick exit, and will probably never step foot back in there again.

OK and moving on … Sunday came. After a much-needed and filling lunch meal with E, we met up with Max for an afternoon Thai Massage at a local massage parlor. The experience was quite interesting as we 3 were placed in the same room, with me in the middle. This place (sorry no pics) was truly… “you get what you pay for.” (One hour Thai massage for 88rmb = $13usd) Lights were kept on, and the workers (or at least mine and Max’s) kept chatting throughout the entire time in Shanghainese, while E was getting chopped and slapped - Not the most relaxing environment. The only time they grew quiet with the chatter was towards the end stretch of the massage session, when I was asked if E and I were an item; I responded, “Yes, actually they are both my boyfriends.” HA!… As a society that is seemingly accustomed to having men (especially foreign) pimping the women ratio… (remember the KTV experience), they became confused and silent to think that women can pimp too. LOL.

Anyway, it was also E’s last day (you’ll be missed!) in the ‘Hai and he had wished to have his farewell dinner at a restaurant most famous for its Peking Duck, called The Duck King. Max had dined here before with his pops, so it came highly recommended. We ordered 3 ducks, fried rice, dumplings and fried spring rolls. The servers wheeled a cart adjacent to our table and carved away…. boneless ala Thanksgiving turkey style. “Peking duck” is served with soft-tortilla-esque wraps, sliced cucumbers and duck sauce… Delish!

This also served as a “Welcome to Shanghai” meal for our latest addition, another ABC from NYC… Wan Hing! WH is slated to be in Shanghai for two years, to teach English at a different International school from mine, however also situated on the Pudong side. We started talking a few months back of our plans to live abroad in the ‘Hai, and wow, here we both are in flesh! Welcome!!

At the end of each meal, the restaurant issues a certificate with the duck number served since its 1989 establishment… In my case, I got Duck # 1,080,800.

. . don’t burn the day. .