he's alive!!!

Hello all, i'm alive in Shanghai.... just been partying and not enough time to do anything really interesting. lol. Well... went to a museum exhibition the other week... From Titian to Goya... pretty heavily advertise in Shanghai... boy was that a disappointment and a half. Yeah... Chinese art museum.... crowded... people are pushing... and taking pictures everywhere. Yeah... another thing that I don't need to do again.....

Well the typhoon Wipha passed with... much fanfare but little action. Jean was freaking out prior to the typhoon hitting Shanghai. She swore up and down that the subway in People's Square was flooding, bikes were floating down the streets and people were wading in knee deep water... ( which Bonnie's response by saying " they're Chinese. It's probably only ankle deep") But yeah, the typhoon didn't hit, no one was affected... well except for that one dead guy because of an "electrified puddle"!!!! Freaky!!!!!! It rained...that's about it... annoying... but that's all.

I'm posting some pictures... just me and the peeps partying around town. Joyous. Enjoy!

pictures...

I spent the morning booking my flight to Shenzhen and picking out my CHinese name to be printed on the business card.... Yes... they want me to have a chinese name on my card... it was tough. So i had my friends online trying to come up with chinese name for me... a few pretty good one. I'm not going to be like Josh and call himself " wise buffalo".... So in the end, i just settle with the CHinese phonic of my name which is : 文华峥 . Don't know if you guys can see the characters or not. But it's "Wen Hua Zhen".

Wen: literature, culture, writing
Hua: flowery, illustrious, chinese ( flowery & illustrious is so me)
Zhen: high, lofty, noble...


Ok.. and now here are some of the pictures from last saturday night 80's party.
BOnnie is the girl in the teal tights and side pony tail.
Summer is the asian girl in the dress
Sam is the boy in the pink sweater
Liam is the other boy in the white sweater
Morne is the boy in the button up shirt
Jemma is the girl with bright make up
Jean is the black girl. LOL.

I knew my short shorts would come in handy...hence why I always bring it along. 80's party is a staple!!!!

on the dancefloor

Hello all...

Well this blog is a little bit more serious than normal as my saturday night ( or rather Sunday night since it's almost 5 in the morning now...) has turned into shit. Yes....another one of Trinh's crazy partying night. It all started out with me, trying to find costume for the 80's party at Pink....led me to Qipu lu ( cheapo lu as it's known) where it's actually a clothing market with..AMAZING clothes. Think high end fashion being copied off for the masses... Nothing say love like a Dries Van Noten bag for less than 20 dollars.... I found some sick pieces of clothing in this market today with Bonnie and Summer.

Anyhow, i went to Bonnie's house, got dress. Put on my short shorts and pull on my tube socks, put on my headband a ready for a rocking night as Bonnie don a turquoise legging and scrunching up her hair 80's style while Summer putting on an 80's dress...looking quiet fierce I might add... more baby phat thought....

Got to pink, great music, rocking it out with our friends. Sam and the gang are pulling on their 80's sweaters... love them. LOVE SAM!!! He has quickly becoming my fav person in Shanghai. Nothing say fabulous like a fabulous gay british boy who gets me at every level/sense of humor. Dance our ass off at Pink to Simon awsome DJ-ing skills... I look to the side and saw Simon DJ-ing while the background LED light flashes hearts...and I think I was in love with him...hehehe

I was on cloud nine... the music, the people, my friends, I'm having way too much fun in Shanghai. Then we all decided to go to DEEP..... got into DEEP with my friends.... thinking that Sam, Bonnie and I look absolutely ridiculous with out outfits but if we all go in together, we'll be fine. Our friends all hold our hands as we walk into deep...me showing my asian gams like these Chinese boys have never seen before. I was having fun chit chatting with people on the garden outside of Deep before coming in.... then as I hit the inside of deep, who should I see standing there talking with his friend but Chuck... the only boy that I have met in Shanghai that...can screw me up emotionally for good. He saw me, chat with him and let me give you a brief downlow on it...

Chuck compliments me, I ask him how he have been... keep in mind that i'm slightly buzzed from the beer at Pink... then the next thing I knew, we were talking about how he haven't been going through with what he told me he would do... he wasn't upfront about telling me if he likes me or not, or what's going on between us. Long story short....I end up telling him that I might be in Shanghai living it up, I'm not letting this city changing me into one of those guys who go from guy to guy one night to the next. I'm still a boy from the midwest who wants someone to be with me for who I'm. There were other exchanges between us but I told him how I feel and I walked away...outside to my friends where Bonnie saw me wasn't ok and we have to had a conversation on the side of the building where I was trying to hold back tears.... He was the last person I expected to see and he is the only person in Shanghai that can F* me up that good.... needless to say I wasn't ok after that exchange. Sam drag me to Windows....dear god again, i went , had a drink but Bonnie and I decided to went home and now I'm here....

Oh Shanghai... one moment you can be as high as the Jinmao tower, the next, it could be as low as the crawling beggar on the street..... there is never any inbetween with it.....

So to my readers out there... if you're still single, I feel you. If you're not single, count your blessings because if you remember back to your single days.... remember how tough it's??? yes...

windows.....

It's almost 7 in the morning on Saturday here....and I just got home from the bar about.... 20 minutes ago..... Yes it's official... Trinh is now a freaking Shanghai expat. Lets have a quick recap for the night shall we? (PS: not even drunk, just sweaty and tire)

Went to dinner at Masala Art with my bud Simon. Delicious indian food...not so good atmosphere. And I think I might have a crush on Simon.
Then off to wait for Josh to meet me at the subway station, went into starbucks, have a coffee while people watch on the second floor...pondering about my life in Shanghai and thinking that I'd like to live here for a few years after graduation....
Josh arrived, went with him to my new friend Bonnie's house. I met her last week while going out, we had dinner during the week. Pretty cool girl from VA.
At Bonnie's place, meet up again with Alexis aka Mornea who's South African and a funny fellow. Met new people: Kiki & Rene from LA, Summer (shanghainese), Sam (british), and sam's 2 friends who just arrive a few hours ago from Australia.
Got drunk off of Summer's delicious vodka/fruit cocktail thing.... everything is good.
Look at the watch, drunk and it's 2:30 in the morning.
All decided to go to either DEEP (gay club) or Windows (cheap drinks hip hop club across from DEEP). Josh went home, told him i'll be home later....
All went to DEEP first, free entry after 3... dance around, Rene said that all the men in the club was checking me out and have their eyes on me... making me feel good.
Saw the guy that I hooked up with last weekend ( whom I did email to see if he want to get dinner together because I don't like the idea of one night stand and we travel in the same social circle)... he haven't replied to my email and is macking on some other guy... got a little annoyed.
Still know that I'm hot shit, dance around some more
Left with everyone to Windows.... hip hop music.... got into a little verbal exchange with some African guy from Africa or some third world country shit. He pushes me while he was walking and I push him back. He thought I was some Chinese who will take it laying down...bitch please.... get your third world ass out of my space.
Dance... with people... chat with my friends... dance some more... busting out all of my moves like it's nobody's business.
Even Sam have to admit that I'm too good at this hip hop dancing stuffs on the floor....
Chat with people... next thing I know... it's light outside and it's 5:15.....
Breakfast at McDonald....
I'm here...tire...and must go to bed for I have a lunch at 3 tomorrow with my peeps.... and an 80's party to plan for tonight....

Wo ai Shanghai ( i love shanghai.)

non-stop partying....

Alright, I think I'm turning into Lindsay Lohan or something....with this Shanghai partying weekend deal.... It's Sunday afternoon around 3 PM and I just got home.....

Josh left for his rock climbing trip this weekend so he won't be back until Tuesday night. All of the other british friends are scatter through out China, one is actually in Tokyo. Anywho... friday night i went out.... and had some fun. Then Saturday morning I had a breakfast with Simon, the lovely DJ/PR person for one of the gay club/bar here. He and i are become quite nice friends. We had lunch at Element Fresh on Huaihai Lu which has a pretty gorgeous view to enjoy your breakfast. It was...gay central really. After lunch we walked around a bit before he head back home to sleep off his hard work the night before at his club. I went on to discover another amazing section of Changle Lu which has AMAZING little fashion boutiques that is wicked! Some of these stuffs rival the stuffs you would see on the runway everywhere else in the world... and so affordable prices... DAMN that I wasn't a girl. Then after that, I met up with my friend Rob to go to the fake market together for me to find a pair of shoes. While bitching about the shoe sizes in one of the stall I saw a lovely wonderbread smiling at me because he understands what I was saying...I started to chat with him and found out that his name is Shaun, from LA, and is a GRAPHIC DESIGNER!!!! Not only that, he works for Harper Colins designing books.... amazing.... and he's in SH for work but he already done with it so he's just chilling around for the next 10 days before heading to HK and then back home to LA. But anyhow, we became friends. Rob, him and I walk around the fake market bargaining things together. I think Rob wanted to jump his bone but yeah.... I did get a nice pair of Adidas trainer for about $12. Damn those fake bitches wouldn't sell me my Dior slip on for less than $35....

Then I'm off to go home and get ready to go to Shanghai Studio with Simon around 10. Apparently half of SH gay community was at Shanghai Studio which got packed pretty quick...but good thing is that this bar is an underground maze so it keeps expanding as needed. Met up with some old friends and a few new one. Shaun did showed up as I texted him the direction...and it was a good start for the night. Cheap drinks...I was knocking back my Vodka and sprite... then people decided to go to DEEP.... and i joined... so let me give you a quick version of what happened: Dancing, drinking, me being cornered into the wall by this Romanian guy whose name sounds like " leave-you" and he works for Kenzo and all the high end clothing stores doing shit for them... finally my friends save me... tons of half shirtless guy...nothing like half naked men to make me get all rile up. More shirtless men, me dancing with my friends on the podium with shirtless men... me sitting outside chatting with my friends...then meet new friends...then friends left, me end up with a nice French-American guy....me drinking too much... me waking up the next morning at the French American's apartment.... gorgeous apartment in the French Concession... we both hung over... really good morning... didn't leave until 2..... now home....

Yes...someone come and visit me and make me show you around the city instead of partying like it's my job please...

on the dance floor

Hello all to another...thrilling edition of Trinh's life in Shanghai. I have pictures of some scenaries that I took last weekend and this weekend that I need to upload soon. Been too busy...partying to do that. yes, it's bad, I have turned into quite a party boy in Shanghai. I guess there isn't really much to do at weekend night in Shanghai except to party. Cultural events required you to actually understand Chinese, parties, bars and clubs, however, do not.

Well I did do something cultural this weekend in the morning. I went out with a Chinese boy, to the Old Town, Laopu. I really like this area, albeit a bit touristy but much better than the Bund. It's what you expect China to be like, minus the starbucks, KFC and Haggendaz. All these little chinese trinkets and knick-knacks for you to bargained. Got a cute t-shirt with a cool graphic of panda bears doing the 64 positions of taichi. Oh and I was there to hunt for a mask for the Eyes Wide Shut party in Pinkhome. Found my mask, had lunch and coffee with the CHinese boy. That basically took me the entire day. Then that night, met up with Rob, who is slowly becoming my party buddy in Shanghai, to go to Eddy's. Which is suppose to be a chill gay bar where you can sit and drink...and apparently it was not that night. Pretty crowded, but a good mix of locals and expats. Although the wonderbread here are a bit older....and we all know how i like older men but the one I saw weren't very attractive. But anyhow, drank a few beers with rob, chit chat and checking out the people. I think I kinda enjoy the gay scene in SH because unlike the gay scene in the states where I generally don't feel very attractive upon walking in a bar or something, here, my self-esteem is boosted. We left Eddy's after an hour or so to go to Pinkhome where we know one of the PR people/DJ for the club... and hence my mask for the party. Pinkhome is pretty sweet. I do enjoy a mirrored walkway into the club, checking yourself out while working your walk...perfect. I was one of the 7 people who actually wears a mask at the club, but oh well. Met up with a few people I have partied with before. Throwing back a few beers and get crazy on the dance floor. Don't worry, I didn't go all out on the dance floor so I get sweaty and gross. I actually control myself. Although there was a point where I was on a raised platform dancing with a shirtless guy, whom I know.... Oi.. Oh and there was a stripper, which I didn't care much for because I think it's lame. The stripper himself is pretty cute wonderbread...and I got invited to go to the Bible study group that he is part of.... Is it sinful to go do that? HA! actually I'm not that bad. I didn't go.

Oh and I got hit on by a Chinese boy who goes by the name of "johnny"....yeah, he's ok but I didn't turn my head. He actually asked Rob to introduce me to him and asked Rob's numbers so he can get mine. Silly boy, you got to have more games than that. Oh and there was another one, Bo is his name I think. He's a real estate agent here... I don't know...at that point I was buzzed. There was also a German...but I can't say anything about it other than I got his card and we'll see.

But yeah, somehow I was drunk by the end of the night (shocking I know) but not so drunk that I couldn't get home. But the next morning was a bit rough. I lounge around the house until 3. Josh did IM me to tell me he got me a bagel and some brownies before he left for his rock climbing. Aw... Went to the gym and that's about it. I think this weekend is another boy hunting weekend. But I do want to try some street food before hand though. Those meat on a stick looks so tempting to me as I walk by them all the time... you only live once right? i'll just carry some medication with me just in case. HA!

Until next time everybody.

Ichibana ramen

Hello all, just got back from a delicious lunch at 78 Ichibana Ramen restaurant. Oh so delicious food for a great price. I'm surprise I haven't balloon into a fat lard from all the food that I have been consuming. Oh wait, there is the fact that it's hot like a sauna here all the time, and I have to bike to work on top of the gym...yay for China.

Nothing worthwhile to report. Except that this morning, as I struggle to get up, I realize that it's August already...I'm close to my halfway point in Shanghai...and pretty soon, I will have to go back home...and surprisingly, I don't want to go!!! Shanghai is definitely growing on me. A city of subleties and contrast, all existing at the same time. The more I think about it, I realize that Shanghai/China is where the new market for design will be/should be/is. Everything can be pirated here, but walking along Changle lu or Fuxing Lu, you couldn't help but notice that the seed of design is there, struggling to grow but it's doing pretty good. You can't copy originality and creativity. I don't know, I think if I'm in Shanghai working as a designer, I will have more opportunity for my own creativity than the design saturated western world. Who knows...all I know is that I don't want to go back just yet....

Well off I go to "work" now. Cheers.