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.