On a night like this (part 2)

Anyhow...story time...and it's quite a nice story. On friday night, I went to the gym, feeling pretty good afterward. SOmething about seeing hot men working out, seeing naked men ( some hot, most not..but beggar can't be chooser), and me actually working out to Hilary Duff puts me in a good mood. Anyhow, sweaty after the gym, but glowing practically. Decided to just throw on my t-shirt and wore the gym shorts to go home on the subway. Too hot to put on more clothes and the shorts are quite flattering cuts...way to go Champions ( Target $9.99) Anyhow, have my Baltimore tote bag on, rocking the ipod, showing my asian gams, taking the subway to People's square to get back on line 2 so I can go home. Of course the switch between line 1 where I were to get on line 2 is a marathon of a walk. SOmeone thinks it's funny to make people walk a mile and call it a "line change". ANyhow, walking among the mass of Chinese through this long walkway, saw a head of me 2 foreigners, a guy and a girl, bumbling along. And I have been here long enough to spot those who are just tourists on the subway line. They look quite beat, especially the girl, and they have that expression on their face that people get when they first encounter their subway line change in people's square. It's the " what the hell is going on...why is everyone rushing and why is there so many people?" look on their faces. I smile to myself thinking of that point in time...a month ago. lol. Well, I walked past them because they were walking kinda slow and arrived at the platform to wait for my train. Those 2 finally arive and stand about...30 something chinese to my right. I look over and saw that the girl has given up and sat down on the corner and the guy...he's looking at me. I thought he's looking at my B-more bag because he has a FIB t-shirt in mocking of the FBI thing. So i look at him and he turns away, I turns away, then glance back and he's looking at me again. So this goes one for 2 minutes, us keep looking at each other and turning away. I smiles sometimes when he caught me looking and he smiles. Then the subway arrives, people are packed inside the subway, and I'm trying to get in. I move to the next car that's closer to him and saw him saying something to his friend and move toward my line to get on the car.

Now we're inside this crowded subway, people are touching me, and I happen to be standing next to him now and he's also touching me too because of the crowded space. I figure I should say something because it gets this far so I opened my mouth and ask him about his T-shirt...and within 1 stop he asked for my number and at the next stop he has to leave. So withing 2 subway stops, I got myself a date with Lionel, a frenchman, who is visiting Shanghai from Bangladesh where he works. On Sunday, I had met up with him and his friend Aurilia, whom is working in Shanghai and whom he's staying with. The other girl from Friday night is Valerie whom he was with after they went to Huangzou together. Aurilia had to go to work so she took the subway with us, i chatted with her, lovely. Then I took Lionel to Boona Cafe 2, cute cafe in the Fuxing Lu area, adorable tree lined streets that I quite loved. After brunch, we walked around, chatted, discovered new shops together, spent most of our Sunday together until it rained and I have to meet up with my friends. He took the subway to People's Square to get some postcards. We met up again later that night, after he and his friends had seen sunset on Pudong's Jin Mao Tower. I met them all at LaNa Thai, a thai restaurant on top of the Face bar. Side note: Face is probably one of the most gorgeous bar in Shanghai. Nestled in this old style mansion, well manicured lawn that you can lounge on. LaNa Thai is a decent thai restaurant. Service was...eh...weird and food is a bit over-priced but I guess you're paying for the atmosphere. Anyhow, I'm having dinner with Lionel, Aurilia, and Valerie, surrounded by french people everywhere in this restaurant. We have fun. After dinner, Lionel and I went and grab a few drinks and chatted some more. Well I'm going to stop the story there for you guys... but lets just say that it was dot dot dot ...

He left Shanghai today to go back to Bangladash...it was a very random encounter on the subway for me, turning out to be a wonderful Sunday. The serendipity of its all... Lionel is actually a good person after talking to him. Yes, i have learn to actually talk to people now instead of jumping their bones. LOL. Well, it's Shanghai so you'll never know. It's a small world and I do have a place to stay if I ever have the desire to be in Bangladash sometime in the future. Well, not like 5 years from now as he probably won't be there, but you know what I mean. It is still weird for me to digest it all... it's very out of this world romantic...something about the french...damn them and their " c'est la vie" attitude. I did brush up on my french skills though, kissing and not spoken. sighs.... I wonder if my life in Shanghai can be made into a tv show.

Well I should be doing something productive now. Have fun everyone and remember to always smile at the next person that you see smiling at you. Life is short.

On a night like this...

So the theme song of the moment is " On a night like this" by Kylie Minogue. It happens to be playing on my ipod as I'm writing this...how appropriate.

It has been a LONG, eventful weekend. Oh before that, Thursday night I was out at a GLBT mixer with Rob as well. Henry was there, this Indonesian guy that I thought is quite attractive was there, he introduced me to a few new people, met up with an old one that I've met before. Nice to meet other gay men as Rob and I go men hunting together. I think Rob is having his eyes on Simon, this British DJ for Pinkhome, another gay bar.... nice chap.

I tried to find the Bird & Flower Market on Saturday to watch some cricket fighting...but after 4 hours of walking around trying to find Laopu (Old Town)in 100F heat...when I get there, I just look at the place in disdain and try to get back to the subway as soon as possible before I die. Really, it was disgustingly hot...apparently the hottest day in Shanghai or something like that. WEnt home, sleep, feel miserable waking up, went to the club with Rob later that night for the first time. First time in Deep, the gay club in Shanghai...yawner...stupid techno music, silly chinese boys that can't dance if their life depends on it, and silly foreigners who are either euro-trash or...too conceited for their own good. Seriously, I was just asking a guy where did he get his Tsingtao beer because the bartender told me they're out of it ( bold face lying biotch) and he thinks I was the typical Chinese money-boy trying to ask him to buy me a drink? Get real...did you hear a stutter in my English? I speak better English than you. Grrr...

And now we shall get into a story...if any of you have watch Before Sunrise or Before Sunset...well this is almost like that.... take out a tissue because Trinh's life in Shanghai is pretty surreal.

in all of my glory...

This is the long awaited photo series inside the forbidden City....Yes....you all love it.

so democratic

So today has been one of those days where Shanghai is good to me. I know, Shanghai and I have a love-hate relationship. Some day...i hate it....but not today. Josh, however, hates Shanghai today. Anyhow, aside from the 99F temperature, which is really 120 F factoring in the humidity, I was actually productive at work for once. I relabel images to be upload on the server...yay... I also watched some kicking music videos on youtube and catch up on world news thanks to BBC.

Anyhow, tonight i decided to do a little guilty pleasure shopping and bought my rollerblades, protection gears and a helmet. I'm going to learn how to rollerblade in shanghai so I can join this bi-monthly tour around Shanghai on skates. Josh was dying about this as I was trying things on in Decathelon, the sport store. Here's some pictures of me in the house after dinner trying to figure out what to do....yeah...that's hot. I can't wait to be in my short shorts doing this..... Guess what my halloween costume will be this year???

But during my bike ride home today, I was thinking....China is actually democratic. I know, you think i'm crazy, but really...i'm riding my bike with about a million Chinese, and when it comes to crossing the roads, if a million chinese bikers decided that it's time to go across the road, we'll go and all the cars, even though it's their right of way, will have to stop. I mean....if that's not a democractic process then I don't know what is. I'm slowly finding comfort in being stuck in the midst of thousands of people...like walking on the street crossing a busy intersection. Chances are you won't die if you're in a large group of people....we'll stop cars, buses and everything else in between. Ah.....

Anyway, time for bed. I'll upload those ridiculous pictures of me in Forbidden city tomorrow at work. Bye all.

Beijing part 2: Forbidden City