[postlink]https://beenaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2010/03/shanghai-its-small-world-after-all.html[/postlink]endofvid
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• Itinerary: Shanghai Beijing Hong Kong
I had an amazing time in Shanghai, mostly because both days were filled with two things that make me happy—good food and good company. The first day was spent touring Shanghai by car and on foot with Neha’s uncle’s contact Kiki. Kiki works in operations for the sports car company Fiat and is one of less than a handful of women in her company. When I told her that our Global Studies project focused on female empowerment, her face lit up, and we had a great discussion about her experiences over lunch at a place called Chinese Medicine. After lunch, we stumbled upon a Chinese dragon parade show in the streets. We spent most of the afternoon shopping at a huge underground copy market near the science district and ended the evening with the most amazing dinner at a place whose name escapes me. I experienced 2 “small world realization” moments in Shanghai. The first one occurred later that night, a bunch of us went to M2 club near People’s Square. Upon conversation, I later found out that the MC at the club, John “Lambo” Bowdre, and I had a mutual friend in the states, Sheldon Fields. Lambo and Sheldon are both Alphas and former summer Wall Street kids. Sheldon and I are both from West Orange and I got to know him through BWUA and random conversations freshman year. Lambo currently lives in China but started out studying abroad at Shanghai University just last Spring. He turned down a full time offer doing IB at UBS to pursue his entrepreneurial passions and set up an entertainment group in China. He is doing very well for himself and was able to bring his little brother over to help build his company. I found his story to be very inspiring, especially given his age and high risk decision. We had a great conversation that night and he offered to show me and my friends around Shanghai. So the next day, he, Karim, and I spent the next day exploring Shanghai. Lambo is conversant in Mandarin, so he was able to order for us and help us haggle at the copy market. We had such a fun, chill day, cracking jokes and doing touristy stuff like eating, shopping in non-touristy places. It was definitely a highlight of Shanghai.
My second “small world” moment happened later that night at club M1nt. Up 21 floors from ground level, M1nt is Shanghai’s premiere upscale nightclub, with amazing views of the city. The venue was absolutely beautiful and the music was great, but the crowd was somewhat bland, filled with models and older businessman. At the coat check, I struck up conversation with a PR guy from Australia, who was apparently responsible for booking the models for the club. He then introduced us to a few models, Olivia (18 from Canada) and Jos (20 from Czech Rep.). Olivia looked really surprised to see me and upon conversation, I found out why. Even before I told her about our Semester at Sea voyage, she revealed that she remembers seeing me in Japan the week prior. She arrived in Shanghai two days earlier from a Tokyo photo shoot and recalled seeing me with a group of girls in Shibuya, Tokyo. She remembered me from my twists and my cap. What are the odds of us not only being in the same city in Tokyo but meeting up again a week later on the same night and in the same city in an entirely different country? SO eerie. We had a lot of fun that night. The girls had full reign over VIP and so we were VIP for the night. My experiences in Shanghai were definitely very memorable.
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[starttext]
• Itinerary: Shanghai Beijing Hong Kong
I had an amazing time in Shanghai, mostly because both days were filled with two things that make me happy—good food and good company. The first day was spent touring Shanghai by car and on foot with Neha’s uncle’s contact Kiki. Kiki works in operations for the sports car company Fiat and is one of less than a handful of women in her company. When I told her that our Global Studies project focused on female empowerment, her face lit up, and we had a great discussion about her experiences over lunch at a place called Chinese Medicine. After lunch, we stumbled upon a Chinese dragon parade show in the streets. We spent most of the afternoon shopping at a huge underground copy market near the science district and ended the evening with the most amazing dinner at a place whose name escapes me. I experienced 2 “small world realization” moments in Shanghai. The first one occurred later that night, a bunch of us went to M2 club near People’s Square. Upon conversation, I later found out that the MC at the club, John “Lambo” Bowdre, and I had a mutual friend in the states, Sheldon Fields. Lambo and Sheldon are both Alphas and former summer Wall Street kids. Sheldon and I are both from West Orange and I got to know him through BWUA and random conversations freshman year. Lambo currently lives in China but started out studying abroad at Shanghai University just last Spring. He turned down a full time offer doing IB at UBS to pursue his entrepreneurial passions and set up an entertainment group in China. He is doing very well for himself and was able to bring his little brother over to help build his company. I found his story to be very inspiring, especially given his age and high risk decision. We had a great conversation that night and he offered to show me and my friends around Shanghai. So the next day, he, Karim, and I spent the next day exploring Shanghai. Lambo is conversant in Mandarin, so he was able to order for us and help us haggle at the copy market. We had such a fun, chill day, cracking jokes and doing touristy stuff like eating, shopping in non-touristy places. It was definitely a highlight of Shanghai.
My second “small world” moment happened later that night at club M1nt. Up 21 floors from ground level, M1nt is Shanghai’s premiere upscale nightclub, with amazing views of the city. The venue was absolutely beautiful and the music was great, but the crowd was somewhat bland, filled with models and older businessman. At the coat check, I struck up conversation with a PR guy from Australia, who was apparently responsible for booking the models for the club. He then introduced us to a few models, Olivia (18 from Canada) and Jos (20 from Czech Rep.). Olivia looked really surprised to see me and upon conversation, I found out why. Even before I told her about our Semester at Sea voyage, she revealed that she remembers seeing me in Japan the week prior. She arrived in Shanghai two days earlier from a Tokyo photo shoot and recalled seeing me with a group of girls in Shibuya, Tokyo. She remembered me from my twists and my cap. What are the odds of us not only being in the same city in Tokyo but meeting up again a week later on the same night and in the same city in an entirely different country? SO eerie. We had a lot of fun that night. The girls had full reign over VIP and so we were VIP for the night. My experiences in Shanghai were definitely very memorable.
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