My better half is leaving Shanghai...
Just in time for the holidays, Larry, the intrepid Microsoft recruiter, is headed back to Seattle, WA, allegedly to "spend time with the wife" and "start his new job now that his contract is up and they won't pay for housing in Shanghai anymore" or some nonsense like that.
We've sort of celebrated it up the last week, including a completely indulgent "Lao wai" day on Sunday. Our tourist day started at the Westin's all-you-can-eat plus free-flow alcohol brunch around 12:30... the awe-inspiring brunch ended up lasted a truly gluttonous three and a half hours! Waddling out of the Westin, we took a stroll on the Bund and stopped in the old British Customs House, the Gold Exchange and in the PuDong Development Bank; all excellent examples of grand colonial British architecture.
We grabbed a cab and headed back to my side of the city after calling ahead to make reservations for massages. We made record time across the city and ended up browsing fake watches, bags and DVDs in the Hong Mei Road Pearl City Market before our appointment. Post-glorious massage, we headed across the street to Micasa, a Spanish Tapas Restaurant and grabbed a couple glasses of wine before calling it a night. You might notice I didn't mention another meal... there's a reason. After the brunch not only did I not eat, I wasn't even hungry again until lunch on Monday.
While I'm a little down about Larry heading home, as I lose both my first friend in the city and my reliable Shanghai drinking buddy, I did get a consolation prize. Larry has passed along the XBox that was given to him by a former Shanghai expat, which contains a mod-chip allowing it to play the copies of XBox games that are sold on the street for 50-75 cents. I'm hoping to use it more as practice for avoiding the kind of time-sucking temptations I'll face on a daily basis next year in medical school...
Who am I kidding, I've had the thing for three days and I've already logged almost 6 hours on the Godfather game... looks like I need a lot of practice...
We've sort of celebrated it up the last week, including a completely indulgent "Lao wai" day on Sunday. Our tourist day started at the Westin's all-you-can-eat plus free-flow alcohol brunch around 12:30... the awe-inspiring brunch ended up lasted a truly gluttonous three and a half hours! Waddling out of the Westin, we took a stroll on the Bund and stopped in the old British Customs House, the Gold Exchange and in the PuDong Development Bank; all excellent examples of grand colonial British architecture.
We grabbed a cab and headed back to my side of the city after calling ahead to make reservations for massages. We made record time across the city and ended up browsing fake watches, bags and DVDs in the Hong Mei Road Pearl City Market before our appointment. Post-glorious massage, we headed across the street to Micasa, a Spanish Tapas Restaurant and grabbed a couple glasses of wine before calling it a night. You might notice I didn't mention another meal... there's a reason. After the brunch not only did I not eat, I wasn't even hungry again until lunch on Monday.
While I'm a little down about Larry heading home, as I lose both my first friend in the city and my reliable Shanghai drinking buddy, I did get a consolation prize. Larry has passed along the XBox that was given to him by a former Shanghai expat, which contains a mod-chip allowing it to play the copies of XBox games that are sold on the street for 50-75 cents. I'm hoping to use it more as practice for avoiding the kind of time-sucking temptations I'll face on a daily basis next year in medical school...
Who am I kidding, I've had the thing for three days and I've already logged almost 6 hours on the Godfather game... looks like I need a lot of practice...
posted by Mr. Frisky | 2:54 AM
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