It rains when summer comes

The week with Sophia starts with a relaxed dinner at Beef & Liberty with my usual companions Yannik and Matthias, Bilal, and my roommates Pauline, William, and JC.

On Tuesday, Sophia went on an exploration tour of the French Concession while I went to the office. After a short power nap, the evening program started. It was Chloé's birthday.

(To give a brief summary of the people I hang out with here:

Yannik, Matthias, and Jan are the three handsome guys you already know from my trip during Golden Week.

Studying together with them is Bilal (a friend from Munich, Vaterstetten), who lives with Chloé and Camille from Brussels.... They, in turn, are friends with Carmen from Denmark.

Then there's Friederike, Matthias' roommate, whom I know from my first weeks in the shared flat.

Yannik + Jan + Matthias + Bilal + Lena = the Cobra 7 Roller Police Gang, the people I spend the most time with here and who take care of me #Crewloveistruelove and so on....)

After a shared street food dinner with Sophia, we went to Chloé's apartment, where we had a drink with the whole birthday group, before being driven to the club by a chartered bus at 11 pm. Yes, you heard right, I still haven't quite understood what makes us Europeans so exciting, but here in Shanghai, they try to bring as many of us as possible to a club, pay their entrance fees, and equip them with a table full of (of course very high-quality) spirits.... As you can imagine, the atmosphere is accordingly low, there is hardly any dancing, and the next day you definitely won't have a headache :)

While I had to go to work the next day, Sophia went on a day trip to Hangzhou with a friend of mine (Friederike from Germany, Matthias' roommate)....

After a very productive and good lesson in my 5th grade, which I will now teach every Wednesday, Sophia and I met again at home in the evening. We had noodle soup and beer on the balcony before heading to Lady's Night at the Mint Club together. Yes, I know, when I read through these lines, the words club, drinks, and food come up a bit too often, but what can I say, we are young and Shanghai lives in many ways from its long nights. Besides, I spent the whole previous week in bed and had to get rid of the accumulated sleep somehow.... :)

The well-rehearsed team for the summer heat enjoyed the extraordinary view from the 30th floor, free drinks, and a lot of dancing together until the early hours of the morning. Thankfully, I had planned ahead and didn't have to go to work until noon the next day. This time I helped out as a teaching assistant in a school outside of Shanghai. After initially wandering around in a very dubious industrial area, a small school suddenly appeared between warehouses and trucks. I'm used to a lot by now, but the equipment and education the children are allowed to "enjoy" here still shocks me.... Nevertheless, teaching is fun, and after 3 hours, I feel like at least a few children can now say their birthday in English.

Unfortunately, it started raining in Shanghai on Wednesday, and since it wasn't just a light shower but the aftermath of a typhoon, it wouldn't stop for the next few days either. And rain is not just rain, here it meant a high-class rain shower including a handheld showerhead, rain shower, and overhead shower from all sides.....

Nevertheless, we went out again in the evening to have dinner at a small Chinese restaurant near my place. We chose 面素 from the menu. Since my Chinese has advanced in both speaking and writing, I naturally know that it means vegetarian noodles :)

Since Sophia is not yet as experienced with the Shanghai nightlife as I am, she went to bed afterwards, while I went out again with Cobra 7 to paint the town red. I don't know exactly how, but I wasn't in bed early, or rather I was....

A little sleep-deprived but highly motivated, Sophia and I went to Zhujiajiao on Friday. Zhujiajiao, also known as the "Venice of Shanghai," is a larger community in the Qingpu district of Shanghai. The small water town with about 66,000 residents has a 1000-year-old history and offers many stone bridges, beautiful canals, and old traditional buildings. While it continued to rain in Shanghai, we were lucky this time and enjoyed a gray but rain-free day in the small town.

Although we (especially me) should have been dead tired, we were overcome by the Shanghai night air again in the evening, and we went on tour once more. The evening started with cheap beer and sing-along music at Perry's and ended at sunrise in Mansion with electronic beats.

Since Sophia's stomach started to rebel after this last evening, we spent the next day in bed together....

Since my credit card situation here has become a bit complicated and I am currently dependent on my sugar daddy, I had another round of pool and dinner with Matthias at the Windows Bar in the evening, as well as another financial injection so that I could survive a little longer :)

On Sunday morning, Sophia left for Beijing, a little more refreshed. For me, on the other hand, it was a quiet day. I spent a long time in bed and took a walk through Shanghai in the afternoon. With good music in my ears, I could process the last impressions and events step by step, making room for the next week..... Afterwards, I met up with Bilal, Yannik, Victor, and Camille because it was time to plan the next trip. We will visit the capital city next weekend before winter sets in. So on Thursday evening, we will take the night train north.... I'm looking forward to it!

The evening ended with a Chinese canteen dinner with Yannik and a highly intellectual movie night at home with Pauline. 'Bad Moms' is definitely recommended :)