Summer in Shanghai

I took Friday off to hang with my cousin and her boyfriend. 

First, we went to the fake market and oggled all the cheap shit. Bryan looked tempted by the fake iPhones. 

"Do they work?" he asked the hawker.

"Of course they work!" hawker replied. ho ho.

Then we went to my friend Ada's tea studio. I wrote about her place for my magazine. Ada made me practice my tea ceremony for my cousin. There was lots of rattling and splashing. Ada told me I'm not a 'gentle lady,' that I make too many faces and that I'm, well, wild. Then she told me I make people choke when I perform tea ceremony (true, Bryan choked a little bit). But she said it with a smile, so I didn't feel too bad.

After that, we blew through the flower market, where there are loads of screaming crickets in little wooden holders. Then it was off to the Hyatt for free drinks at the top-floor bar with views of the Pudong skyline. We had cocktails and watched the sun set (media perks: thanks, Hyatt mar-com manager...). Dinner was all-you-can-eat sushi with friends. My friend Dani wanted to go to this club on The Bund. We got there before her, but she wound up not coming in because they wouldn't let her boyfriend in wearing flip flops. Bryan, Meghan and I were left just the three of us to ponder the Russian prostitutes sitting between old Chinese guys having bottles of Moet brought to their tables.

Saturday morning I said bye to cousin and her guy, the last of my summer visitors. This summer, ten people visited me from outside Shanghai. Only five stayed at my house, but still. I feel popular. I didn't even know I had ten friends!

After cousin left, I found this sneaky way to watch Hulu without a VPN. This was monumental. I figured then and there I wouldn't put pants on all weekend, just watch TV until my eyes bled. But then my friend invited me to the rooftop pool at one of the really nice service apartment complexes. Blue skies, big pool, not many other users. It was awesome. Saturday night we went out for Korean barbecue, and Sunday we went back to the pool again. 

Homesickness comes and goes. What pulls me the most is seeing other people's summer pictures on Facebook - hiking, camping, doing all that American stuff. 

But I had a great weekend. And that's definitely enough for now.