The day started early, after a few hours of sleep because I started to get a small case of insomnia during my last week in Shanghai (I suddenly couldn't handle the rock hard beds and the non-stop blaring of car horns throughout the night anymore for some reason). Anyway, it was test day...pretty simple since it was only a beginners' class...I didn't bother studying for it since the results didn't matter much anyway. During the one hour break between the 2 exams we had to write, I went with some friends to a coffee shop to grab a double shot espresso to try to wake up...didn't work...and btw, the coffee is disgusting in Shanghai (well of course I didn't expect much - except at Starbucks, where the coffee is pretty much company standardized and so it's pretty good - but this was at a cafe). So from the beginning, it was looking to be a long day. I still managed to be the second one out of the exam room with plenty of time to spare...I tried to catch a quick nap before lunch but that didn't really work out. To be quite honest, I was so tired that day, I can't even recall what I did in the afternoon!
Fast forward to the night. The people in my class decided to get together for a celebratory/goodbye dinner - we went to try an all-you-can-eat-&-drink teppanyaki restaurant (for those that don't know, Japanese food cooked on a hot flat iron in front of you) called Tairyo. About on par with teppanyaki places in Toronto (minus the all-you-can-drink feature), about $25 CAD. Would you be surprised if I said even without the all-you-can-drink feature (which includes alcohol), the Toronto places are still miles better? Obviously, most places, unless you're in Japan, modify the menu a bit so it's not really true Japanese...but this "Japanese" restaurant had nothing close to Japanese food...it was more of a mix of Chinese, Korean, and Westernized-Asian styled food (the best I could describe it hahaha). And because the meats they served weren't exactly the best quality (obviously...don't even ask me about the sake), they put "seasoning" (ie. MSG) and a sauce made of loads of butter (plus oil from the cooking), soy sauce and diced green onions on pretty much everything. I think the friend bananas (for dessert...btw, it's originally a Thai dessert I believe) was the only thing that was cooked using only oil. So, obviously the food wasn't the greatest...a few brave souls tried the sashimi and sushi...let's just say I don't want a guaranteed case of tapeworms (the place got a "passable" rating by China's food inspection rating). But the highlight was the sake bombs hahaha. It started with someone suggesting some others place a cup of (really bad) cold sake on a pair of chopsticks over a glass of Tsingtao beer, and after banging on the table to drop the sake in (I later tried to explain in North America we just drop the shot glass in, but everyone else insisted on banging on the table haha), you obviously chug the whole thing. So, along with a few of us did sake bombs...even a hard-partying Mexican was surprised how effective it was (despite now liking the taste...to me, the sake tasted better mixed with the beer!...weird hahaha). Now keep in mind I was already quite tired, so doing bombs of any kind at that stage are never good.
Then, on the insistence of my 2 friends from Mexico, I joined them after dinner (along with a few others) to a club called M2. It lacked space to dance (it was basically set up almost as a lounge - couches and tables everywhere), but the music was finally my (North American) style. Finally, current and classic hip-hop hits mixed with a bit of electronica, like in Toronto's clubs! But I think it was completely lost on the Chinese crowd...none but a few were dancing. The club even had a performance by some random white MC...completely lost on the Chinese crowd hahaha. But it was great for the group of us, and my Mexican friends bought me my drinks (since I had almost no RMB left)...several mixed rum drinks later, you can say I was pretty toasty haha. But I had to cut the night short at around 1:30-2 AM...I was just too tired to go on. I was expecting to just pass out when I got back to my room, but that bout with insomnia kept me awake for another hour! So Friday morning was no piece of cake...a phone call from one of my Italian friends woke me up to remind me to get to class haha (it was the last class, we didn't do anything anyway). The guys from Mexico partied all night though - they told me they stayed at M2 until about 4:30 AM, then went to another club with some girls they met til 7:30, then grabbed McD's breakfast, showered, and came to class to grab their certificates...obviously they left class early to finally catch some shut-eye hahaha - they are true clubbers.
One last night out in Shanghai at the club M2. Both are borrowed photos.
So that's it! Shanghai is in the books...when I first landed, it seemed like it would be a long month, and now it seems like it flew by (as it always does)...I have a feeling Japan will pass by just like that! I took lots of pics though - over a 1000!
Some of my classmates during our goodbye dinner. The 4 guys in the front are all from Japan in case you couldn't figure that out haha. This is a borrowed photo, I forgot to bring my camera to the dinner.
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