Another fantastic weekend in Shanghai! Highlights...
Friday: While stepping on the train on my way to meet my roommates at TaiKang Lu to watch Zack eat the meatpies, I thumbed through the contacts in my phone to call Clement. I had not talked to him all day, and was still unsure if he wanted to come to the contest. To my dismay, I realized that I did not have his cell phone number! I quickly popped into a Starbucks to use their free-wifi and shoot him an email from iPod telling him that I didn’t have his number.
The eating contest began promptly at 8:30. The venue was this charming outdoor pub with chairs and tables underneath big leafy trees and pretty twinkling lights. The atmosphere of the bar stood in stark contrast with the aura of the competition: HUGE, burly men donning their rugby and soccer jerseys. Most of the contestants had already competed with one-another on the sports fields. These guys were massive, and not mention very sweaty from a day of heavy drinking. Beefy guys eating beefy cakes. Zack finished third (quite impressive), retaining his dignity. The guy I stood behind retained little: he puked everywhere after the winning team jumped out of their seats in potbellied triumph.
After the contest ended, we hung around and drank some great Australian beer with the rest of various Rugby and Soccer league teams of SH. But, I still had not heard from Clement! I was puzzled about being blown-off. We returned to our apartment when I got a phone call from an unknown number. It was Clement; I had given him the wrong number by accident (typing on the iPod is tricky!). We met up later in the evening at a very noisy and crowded bar with mutual friends. By that time it was three AM and were both hazy with fatigue...back to square one and still no info about SIPO.
Saturday:
I spent the day at Wagas, a wonderful chain of cafes in Shanghai with fast wireless and good food. I worked on tailoring my resume and contacting (my extremely limited) my fashion network in Shanghai. After my internship ends at KITO in November, I want to have as many options as possible. I terribly miss working in fashion....but, I am learning a lot working for KITO and I am grateful for this opportunity. But, November will be here before I know it, and I don’t want to be left scrambling. It can’t hurt to get my resume circulating here.
Sunday:
A gorgeous day! I rode my bike to Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair. FANTASTIC. I spent two hours looking at all of the works. Although I don’t have a trained artistic eye or the authority/background to legitimize artwork as “good,” I was quite impressed by the quality of the art and the ingenuity. A popular theme I noticed that carried through most of the exhibition was a concentration on brands, particularly established western brands like Cambell’s (Dad, these Cambell soup paintings don’t hold a candle to your own Cambell soup rendition), Disney, and Coca Cola. Although the artists didn’t outright defile the logos in their artwork, there was an essence of some harsh criticism or disdain for these foreign brands which have strong commercial appeal over here.
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